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Apple celebrates one billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes with greatest hits list

Apple celebrates one billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes with greatest hits list

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Apple Podcasts app
Apple Podcasts app

Apple is far from the only game in town for podcast distribution, but it’s undoubtedly a heavyweight. Today, the company is celebrating one billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes, reports Macworld, publicizing a special section within the app that lists some of the most popular titles available, such as This American Life, NPR’s All Songs Considered, and WTF.

Podcasting is a worldwide phenomenon, and Apple says that those billion subscriptions span 250,000 unique podcasts with eight million episodes in over 100 languages.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the medium’s success, patent licensing entities have been going after the humble podcast, seeking fees for what has so far been a way for anyone to freely share an audio program on the internet. In May, the EFF and Harvard’s Cyberlaw Clinic announced plans to challenge the validity of one such patent owned by Personal Audio.