Apple on Monday announced that the iTunes Store eclipsed 1 billion podcast subscriptions. That’s a whole lot of talking. A special promotion appeared in the iTunes Podcasts directory to commemorate the big number.In celebration of the achievement, the company is highlighting some of the most popular podcasts since the service was added in 2005.
Apple says that those billion subscriptions are spread across 250,000 unique podcasts in more than 100 languages, and that more than 8 million episodes have been published in the iTunes Store to date.
No doubt about it: A billion podcast subscriptions is a massive number. No doubt some of those subscriptions don’t translate into nearly as many “listens”; if you’ve ever had newspapers or Instapaper articles accumulate over time, you know how a podcast subscription can get.
Either way, though, the milestone is significant. And it’s even significant that Apple’s touting the number.
When Apple crows about the number of iPhones sold, apps downloaded, or OS X updates installed, that’s direct pride in profitable Cupertino creations. Though the word itself evolved etymologically from “iPod," podcasts aren't an Apple invention, and the company doesn’t directly make money off them, either.
At the same time, the company’s heavily invested in the medium: There’s the iTunes Podcasts section, complete with an editorial staff that curates it; the ever-evolving Podcasts app for iOS; and even the Apple TV's built-in podcast support. GarageBand offers explicit support for creating podcasts, too. Making it easy to create, discover, and subscribe to podcasts makes Apple’s customers happy
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