Apple Rolls Out Subscription Service on App Store for Content Publishers

Apple rolled out a subscription service today that will allow publishers to put their content on apps and charge for them through the App Store. The subscription billing service is based upon what they and News Corp have done with The Daily.

By applying the App Purchases billing system to a content subscription model, publishers will be able to set prices and lengths of subscriptions and offer them to consumers at various levels of commitment. By putting it all in a centralized location specific to content publishers, users will be able to manage and monitor all of their subscriptions at once.

The rev-share model is the same as with other apps – 30% goes to Apple.

“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”