Apple To Offer Paid Podcasts Subscriptions? [Updated]

Political radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh spilled the beans about tweaks coming to iTunes podcast delivery, allowing podcast subscriptions to require a paid-for username and password to access content.

What will happen on Monday if you are a subscriber at Rush 24/7 you will go to the new page that we will set up, and there's a link there, and when you click on that link, automatically your iTunes will open, be it Mac or Windows: iTunes will ask you for your [RushLimbaugh.com] user name and your password. You enter that, you click the box that says "remember my password," and you never have to do another thing again. The following day, or that day, later that day, the next day, every podcast will automatically download to your iTunes as long as your iTunes is open and running.

It is unclear if the paid-content structure is server-side to the rushlimbaugh.com site, or a private page in the iTunes Music Store accessible only to paid subscribers from a specific site. Apple's previous model for podcast subscriptions allowed only for free content to be available; this change offers a possible new revenue stream for podcasters who previously would give away content for free.

Update: Readers report that other sites have already offered similar services through iTunes and this does not appear to represent a new technology.