[ad_1]
Charlie Harding, podcast host Pop enabled, noticed something strange when he searched for his podcast name on Amazon yesterday: a price. A price of $ 8.95, to be exact, marked as a “limited offer” with the suggestion to buy an Audible subscription to get a discount.
Harding’s show, which details the creation and meaning of popular music, is already available for free in all podcast apps via an RSS feed. It also recently became available for free in Audible, which is owned by Amazon, when podcasts were added to its app in October. But for some reason, Amazon had started advertising the show as paid content. Stranger still, the Audible promotion was really for a price hike, marking the show as originally costing $ 0 and marked up to $ 8.95.
The same has happened with other podcasts available in Audible. All the ones we checked, including The edgeis clean Vergecast, which is distributed for free via RSS, was listed as costing $ 8.95 and promoted an Audible Membership Agreement. These results only appeared on the Amazon website, not in the mobile app, and only if you were signed in to an Amazon account while searching. If you clicked on the podcast, then you will be able to select where you want to listen, Amazon Music or Audible, and you can listen for free without a subscription.
The price disappeared Wednesday morning after The edge asked for a comment. Amazon has yet to respond.
It’s unclear why Amazon marked the shows as costing $ 8.95 given that none of Audible’s subscription tiers offer that price. Its lowest tier, which it launched in August, costs $ 7.95 to access those free shows, along with exclusive Audible programming and audiobooks. The price goes up to $ 14.95 for a subscription that includes audiobook credits. This more than likely seems a bug given that the prices of the shows have been raised instead of lowered as part of this “limited supply”, but it is still not a good look for Amazon, which has recently started. to focus on podcasts.
The addition of podcasts is part of Audible’s latest campaign to sell subscriptions. Shows available for free add value to an expensive subscription and expand its catalog, which could cause people to pay monthly for access. It’s worth remembering, however, that most podcasts are available for free via RSS, not when you pay Audible.
[ad_2]
Source link