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Apple’s actual role in podcasting: be careful what you wish for
- glasz 10y agoslightly off topic: just went from ios 8.4 to 9.3. apples podcast app has become so bad ui-wise. it's now the same crap that is the music app. almost unusable - especially while driving. somebody at apple needs to bleed for that shit. forstall and jobs did a better job at this.
- Spooky23 10y agoIt's also a storage monster. Click "play" without downloading on a big Podcast like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (as long as 5 hours!) and you'll quickly notice that the podcasts app will permanently gobble up that storage as un-deleteable "Documents and Settings". Once that gets too big backup/restore is your only option.
- glasz 10y agowtf. really? my goodness.
- sehr 10y agoYep. Same thing happens with the music app too, just reformatted yesterday and got back 6GB or so
- glasz 10y agoholy. and then you have cook, that sucker, selling 16gb phones wanting buyers to sign up for apple music. this is some serious shitshow. i'm sorry but i don't have excuses anymore.
- Spooky23 10y agoYeah, it's ridiculous. I filed a bug for it like 4 years ago and it was a dupe then.
- msrpotus 10y agoCheck out Overcast; much better podcast app than the default Apple one.
- vitd 10y agoI completely agree about Apple's app being messed up and would love to use Overcast, but the last time I looked into it: a) It required giving them my email or creating an account or some crap. That's an absolute deal breaker. I know they had some weird thing where it could generate an anonymous id or something, but it's not sufficient for me. I must be able to use the app with no further communication to the producer of the app. b) I like using iTunes for Podcast discovery, and having a separate app makes that harder. Also, looking at the website for Overcast now, it has social features like sharing podcasts on Twitter. WTF? I just want to listen to some shows I like. I don't want to give or share anything with anyone!
- emdowling 10y agoEvery single Apple app has a share icon which also lets you post to Twitter, Facebook, etc. Why is it such a problem for you if Overcast offers this feature? You don't need to use it. Not attacking, just confused about why the presence of the feature is so offensive to you.
- simonbarker87 10y agoYou can use Overcast without an email address, if you want an account you can but they don't make you - there's a really obvious button when you first open the app up
- firasd 10y agoGood article. Podcasts still have a 'Web 2.0', pre-Facebook ethos: there's a feed, and there are software clients that check the feed and get a direct link to the mp3 file. Personally, I want to make a site that archives podcast episode listings, and guess what? If I have the time and energy, I can make it. Getting the data--new episodes, episode descriptions, cover images--is not an issue. The more that top publishers want Apple to introduce tracking, revenue sharing, etc. the more all related data would get centralized, and as Marco points out, in the long run podcast publishers might start resenting Apple for becoming a major intermediary, the same way online publishers resent decisions made by Facebook.
- frou_dh 10y agoThis† got written 'cos I was alarmed by some podcasts being published solely as YouTube videos with unchanging visuals! It munges such perversion into audio files and proper podcast feeds. † https://github.com/frou/yt2pod https://github.com/frou/yt2pod
- edraferi 10y agoThat is truely awful.
- fadzlan 10y agoNot sure why you think its awful. If you have a Youtube Channel which is not very visual centric, use this and you get a podcast, viola! If you use this on other people's content, that doesn't really make any sense. Audio is not tech, its highly personal and you can't plagiarize the whole thing and claim it your own when the dude in question doesn't sound you at all. And unlike video which might present various things, podcast mostly centers on the presenter itself. In other words, it kinda defeats the purpose to use this tool as a plagiarism tool since most podcast is created to create a following, around the presenter's voice.
- Synaesthesia 10y agoWhat I've also realized is its not as bandwidth inefficient as you might think, the video with a still image is gonna compress down to almost nothing.
- lindig 10y ago> Big podcasters also apparently want Apple to insert itself as a financial intermediary to allow payment for podcasts within Apple’s app. We’ve seen how that goes. Trust me, podcasters, you don’t want that. Is Marco referring to In-App purchases in apps and how it changed them? Or the book store, which I would find more compelling?
- sharkjacobs 10y ago> We’ve seen how that goes. Trust me, podcasters, you don’t want that. is a tossed off line referring to the travails of Marco and other developers who publicly complain about the app store. In particular: Apple's 30% cut is probably the least significant but definitely not an insignificant concern. More important would be the way Apple handles its role as a curator of content. The App Store doesn't sell every app which is submitted. Apps can be rejected for quality or for content. Should a podcast be rejected because it is a low fi unedited recording of two guys hanging out and talking into shitty microphones? Or because it contains adult content? Perhaps most importantly is the App Store's notoriously bad relationship with developers. What qualifies as appropriate "content" and "quality" is not always clear, and Apple doesn't strictly follow its own guidelines. If your app is rejected it is basically impossible to appeal and often unclear how it needs to be changed to be accepted.
- draw_down 10y agoThey ban things capriciously, they can't be reasoned with, hell they can't even be contacted unless you know somebody, they can't seem to devise a decent search mechanism to save their lives, the list goes on.
- rtpg 10y agoI get not wanting Apple to manage payments or data analytics. Wouldn't it be possible for podcasters to add some sort of protocol for paid podcasts that could be integrated into apps? Like "purchase URL" (or some sort of stripe-y token or anything). I also don't really think that giving podcast producers playback data would be a bad thing. The thing that creeps me out the most about ad cookies on the web is the cross-domain tracking, but if we're talking about behavioural data for a podcast just to that producer, sounds like it could be a net benefit. I feel like this post is mixing concepts (making paid content in podcast form more viable) with implementation details (Apple doing it). Though it's in response to the NYT article that does the same thing. Feel like there's a lack of imagination, and there likely are ways to do things in a decentralised way
- jsnell 10y agoHTTP basic auth is a widely supported and widely used way of doing paid podcast feeds. Most typically the podcasts apps just require you to enter the login details in the feed URL, some fancier apps have proper UIs for entering the username / password. There is very little need to have a fancier protocol than that.
- rtpg 10y agoGood point, but I feel like that's not the entire picture. One thing to think about with this is to look at what Steam did with indie games. Valve basically made full-time indie game makers survive by essentially creating an easily discoverable platform. Nowadays there are a couple extra platforms (Humble Store, G2G), so it's not a monopoly, but people have been pretty clear that Steam is the major source of revenue by far. Do we not want that for podcasting? Being able to pay directly for high-quality content, but also having the discoverable ecosystem. If Apple decides to tackle this (they're really close to having this with iTunes, you can buy old TAL eps or the like), then it's going to be super closed and basically the app store. If the golden age of indie games has proven anything, it's that supporting better discovery would be a net win to the quality of content going out there. Saying "oh, well we already have this through passworded feeds" is leaving the door open for a less open solution. Instead of saying "no because this implementation is stupid", I would much rather hear Marco offer an alternative that could be open. Though I don't know his position on paid content, really. Rallying around a more open alternative is the best way to counter a closed solution. Right now Apple is the best placed to build good discovery (iTunes already is that for free content), so somebody needs to step up to the plate if they want to avoid Apple's content rules becoming the norm.
- equalsnil 10y agoMarco seems upset because Apple, to whom he owes his livelihood, is about to ruin his business. I think he has a much bigger problem than the podcast producers, who might finally get a larger platform and more attention, especially if Apple thinks they can turn podcasts into a competitive weapon in the streaming wars. Sorry Marco, you chose the wrong centralized OS platform for your vision of a decentralized podcast future.
- ciconia 10y agoHear hear. Marco is one of the more outspoken developers, at least when it comes to Apple's broken developer relations, but for all his well-founded critique he still remains an iOS-exclusive one-man shop. Is this a choice based on the quality of the Android developer platform, the Android market realities, or simply a religious devotion to the Apple ecosystem?
- fpgeek 10y agoWell considering that one of his major competitors has claimed 5x higher unit sales on Android vs iOS (and the Andriod price was $1 more at the time) [1], I think you can draw your own conclusions. [1] See: https://blog.shiftyjelly.com/2013/02/20/why-android-first/ https://blog.shiftyjelly.com/2013/02/20/why-android-first/
- _frog 10y agoI think you're perhaps overthinking it. Is it so hard to imagine that maybe a) developing his app for multiple platforms requires more development effort than he alone is capable of and b) he chooses to allocate the effort he can produce towards the platform that he himself uses and has a preference for?
- Arnt 10y agoWhat is Apple about to do? If I understand you correctly it's something that will ruin Marcos's business and benefit some other people, but what is it?
- CameronBanga 10y ago
- Philipp__ 10y agoWhile Marco seem right at some points, reading this article leaves the impression that he seems afraid of Apple affecting his business. Which is perfectly normal, don't know why people seem to bash him because of that.
- chmaynard 10y agoI'm a big fan of podcasting, and I totally rely on iTunes for podcast discovery, indexing, curation, and syndication. Many Apple critics don't seem to appreciate this amazing service. Whatever Apple's motive was at the beginning (probably to promote the sale of iPod and iPhone hardware), podcasting has taken on a life of its own. Most of my favorite radio shows are now available as podcasts, including ESPN. These podcasts are generally available with 24 hours after the first radio broadcast. Broadcasters generally edit out the commercials that radio listeners hear. Some broadcasters also insert a few new ads, often at the beginning or end of a podcast. Commercial radio broadcasters everywhere have enjoyed a long run of high profitability, but their business model is under threat now. The tradition of free podcasting doesn't fly with them. Podcasting as we know it may be over soon unless we take steps to preserve it.
- chongli 10y agoPodcasting may end for traditional broadcasters but it won't end in the general case. The costs for recording and uploading a podcast are next to nil and anybody can do it. If traditional broadcasters end up laying off their talent then you'll likely see many of those people recording independently.
- hammock 10y agoI've started a podcast in the last three months that has grown to 25K listens/month. Our listeners come thru owned social media channels, so I don't need anything more from Apple other than a publishing platform and listening app. Amd there are alternatives if Apple fucks that up - such as SoundCloud. We publish on iTunes through Libsyn as well as SoundCloud. Libsyn and SoundCloud provide analytics. It's not a paid podcast, but Patreon seems like one way to achieve that. As a content creator I can't control what the platforms do. My best strategy is to diversify.
- tinbucket 10y agoWhat's the podcast? Friends and I have considered starting a podcast and are always interested to listen to successful new podcasts, as well as get any tips you might be willing to share on growing an audience.
- pbreit 10y agoWas there any controversy over Stitcher's downloading, re-processing and streaming all of the podcasts? Has anyone else tried such a thing?
- drakenot 10y agoI believe you need to add your podcast to Stitcher and agree to their terms.
- fiatmoney 10y agoI would never trust a single podcast provider. Many of the more interesting podcasts I listen to have been kicked off of one platform or another.
- plorg 10y agoFor the most part I like how the podcasting environment currently functions, but I do think that Apple's outsized power leads to some frustrating practices. I have found many podcasters who only list an iTunes URL. I rarely if ever use iTunes (as it requires booting my barely-touched Windows VM), and even with it open it is annoying to find the actual RSS address if it is even possible. The interface is so bad that I usually resort to using WireShark or a URL sniffing program to locate the actual feed.
- throwaway1231k 10y agoHow do you make playlist auto play in Overcast? It plays one podcast and stops. I'm asking it here because the author doesn't reply either in email or twitter and don't know where else can I post?
- diroussel 10y agoWhen you are playing, hit PLAYBACK in the bottom left, then WHEN EPISONDE ENDS: PLAY NEXT
- jrnichols 10y agoit's almost as if he's trying to tell us that not everything on the web needs to have advertisements stuffed into it, and not everything needs data that can be collected. Good article.