Charlie Harding, host of the podcast Pop on, noticed something strange when he searched his podcast name on Amazon yesterday: a prize. A price of $ 8.95, to be exact, marked as a ‘limited deal’ with the offer to buy an Audible subscription to get a discount.
Harding’s program, which outlines the making and meaning of popular music, is already freely available in all podcast programs via an RSS feed. It was also recently available for free in Audible, which is owned by Amazon, when podcasts were added to the app in October. But for some reason, Amazon started advertising the program as paid content. Even stranger, the Audible promotion was really for a price step, which originally cost $ 0 and is up to $ 8.95.
The same thing happened with other podcasts available in Audible. Everyone we checked, including The edgeown Vergecast, which is freely distributed via RSS, is listed as $ 8.95 and promoted an Audible membership transaction. These results only appeared on Amazon’s website, not in the mobile app, and only if you were signed in to an Amazon account when you searched. If you click on the podcast, you can choose where you want to listen, Amazon Music or Audible, and you can listen for free without a subscription.
The prices disappeared on Wednesday morning after that The edge reach out for comment. Amazon has not responded yet.
It’s unclear why Amazon cost the apps as $ 8.95, as none of Audible’s subscriber levels are priced. The lowest level, launched in August, costs $ 7.95 to access these free programs, as well as exclusive Audible programming and audiobooks. The price rises to $ 14.95 for a subscription that includes credit booklets. This seems likely to be a mistake, as the prices of the apps have been raised rather than lowered as part of this ‘limited deal’, yet it’s not a great look for Amazon, which has recently started focusing on podcasts .
Adding podcasts is part of Audible’s latest push to sell subscriptions. The freely available shows value to an expensive subscription and expands the catalog, which can entice people to pay for admission every month. However, it is worth remembering that most podcasts are available for free via RSS, not when you pay Audible.