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Really? I don't agree here. I've never seen any that weren't being pushed to one of the major podcast apps - and thusly centralized. I mean, the whole term co

by Endy 8y ago

Really? I don't agree here. I've never seen any that weren't being pushed to one of the major podcast apps - and thusly centralized. I mean, the whole term comes from the fact that it was originally downloadable to your iPod through iTunes. None of the podcasts I've ever found could really be considered decentralized - they might have a webpage somewhere, sure, but if they're not in Apple's iTunes/Podcast app, I'm not going to find them. Honestly, I haven't found a decent alternative on Android - I know there are several but none have as robust a catalog. I even use iTunes on Windows for podcast searching. It's a very centralized market around specific aggregators. Could it weather a transition to a decentralized market structure if Apple were to disown it tomorrow? Maybe, but it would take a lot of energy to get there.

mintplant 8y ago
You may choose to go through a big integrated directory-and-player system, but the content is read into Apple Podcasts via feeds of a standardized format hosted across the internet, and your device is also downloading the audio content from arbitrary third-party servers. Because of this, I can---and do---quite happily pull down those same feeds and content directly to my own Android device via my app of choice.
- Endy 8y ago
  By the same token, people can choose to watch videos on YouTube/Dailymotion/Vimeo; or they can seek out self-hosted videos on the same topic all over the internet, which they can either stream or download to their device of choice. The presence of an extremely small minority does not change the real centralization of the marketplace as a whole.
  - mintplant 8y ago
    I think the situation with podcasts is different, because I'm not required to go through Apple Podcasts to get to the same content from the same underlying sources. To access videos on a YouTube channel, I'm required to go through YouTube.
hansjorg 8y ago
Believe it or not, but people without iTunes are also listening to podcasts. I've yet to come across a podcast I wanted to listen to without an RSS feed available through a website. For discovery there are several good alternatives to iTunes, for example https://player.fm https://player.fm
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  > I've yet to come across a podcast I wanted to listen to without an RSS feed available through a website. That's because podcasts on iTunes just point to an RSS feed hosted elsewhere. iTunes doesn't host the audio files; it's just a directory.
  - hansjorg 8y ago
    Yes, but the feed is always (in my experience) available as a link from a web page (hence decentralized and not dependent on iTunes).
    - toasterlovin 8y ago
      Most people don’t know how to go to a podcast’s website, copy the link to the RSS feed, and then paste it into their podcast app. They just search for the podcast in their podcast app. So, if you produce a podcast, you need to be in the major podcast directories to get traction. Thus, in effect, podcasts are highly centralized.
      - danShumway 8y ago
        This feels like moving the goalpost to me. If PeerTube succeeded, but most of its videos were being linked and shared on Facebook and Reddit, would you call it centralized? It's fairly common for me to see people share direct links to a podcast's website if they want to share a specific episode. And even from the point of view where iTunes is a centralized indexer, they're still very clearly pointing at a decentralized service. The biggest podcast aggregation service in the industry decided to rely on a decentralized model rather than hosting files themselves. That doesn't count for anything? The fact that every single podcast app is using a distributed protocol (RSS), including Apple, doesn't count for anything?
cubano 8y ago
Podbean is pretty good for searching, and they even have a creator platform as well.
sanderjd 8y ago
This doesn't mesh with my experience at all. Are there podcasts that you can only get on iTunes or one of the other platforms? I haven't ever come across one. Can you give me an example of a podcast I can find on Apple's Podcasts app but not on Overcast (on iOS) or PodcastAddict (on Android)?
worble 8y ago
>but if they're not in Apple's iTunes/Podcast app, I'm not going to find them And I've never owned a single apple device in my life, or used any of their itunes software, and yet still manage to find plenty of postcasts to listen to.
ddingus 8y ago
I never use iTunes. Agree with other commenter. Finding shows is not hard, many apps will take feed links various ways and have catalogs.
willio58 8y ago
iTunes essentially acts as a public database for podcast feed links. You can use their–admittedly inflexible–API to populate a list of podcasts in an app or website you create. Or you can use a number of other public feed lists. If iTunes suddenly stopped supporting podcasts (which they won't), then another popular public database will materialize. The real debate here is what does centralization mean in the realm of content distribution? I mean people will always gravitate toward popular platforms that offer nice features like commenting, profiles, rating, etc. but that information is all secondary to the podcast protocol. If a single server hosting a single podcast's files goes down, the whole system does not stop working. Is that not decentralization?
hueving 8y ago
Just because you use a centralized service to find podcasts doesn't mean all of us do.

by Endy 8y ago

mintplant 8y ago

You may choose to go through a big integrated directory-and-player system, but the content is read into Apple Podcasts via feeds of a standardized format hosted across the internet, and your device is also downloading the audio content from arbitrary third-party servers. Because of this, I can---and do---quite happily pull down those same feeds and content directly to my own Android device via my app of choice.

Endy 8y ago
By the same token, people can choose to watch videos on YouTube/Dailymotion/Vimeo; or they can seek out self-hosted videos on the same topic all over the internet, which they can either stream or download to their device of choice. The presence of an extremely small minority does not change the real centralization of the marketplace as a whole.
- mintplant 8y ago
  I think the situation with podcasts is different, because I'm not required to go through Apple Podcasts to get to the same content from the same underlying sources. To access videos on a YouTube channel, I'm required to go through YouTube.

hansjorg 8y ago

Believe it or not, but people without iTunes are also listening to podcasts. I've yet to come across a podcast I wanted to listen to without an RSS feed available through a website. For discovery there are several good alternatives to iTunes, for example https://player.fm https://player.fm

toasterlovin 8y ago
> I've yet to come across a podcast I wanted to listen to without an RSS feed available through a website. That's because podcasts on iTunes just point to an RSS feed hosted elsewhere. iTunes doesn't host the audio files; it's just a directory.
- hansjorg 8y ago
  Yes, but the feed is always (in my experience) available as a link from a web page (hence decentralized and not dependent on iTunes).
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    Most people don’t know how to go to a podcast’s website, copy the link to the RSS feed, and then paste it into their podcast app. They just search for the podcast in their podcast app. So, if you produce a podcast, you need to be in the major podcast directories to get traction. Thus, in effect, podcasts are highly centralized.
    - danShumway 8y ago
      This feels like moving the goalpost to me. If PeerTube succeeded, but most of its videos were being linked and shared on Facebook and Reddit, would you call it centralized? It's fairly common for me to see people share direct links to a podcast's website if they want to share a specific episode. And even from the point of view where iTunes is a centralized indexer, they're still very clearly pointing at a decentralized service. The biggest podcast aggregation service in the industry decided to rely on a decentralized model rather than hosting files themselves. That doesn't count for anything? The fact that every single podcast app is using a distributed protocol (RSS), including Apple, doesn't count for anything?

cubano 8y ago

Podbean is pretty good for searching, and they even have a creator platform as well.

sanderjd 8y ago

This doesn't mesh with my experience at all. Are there podcasts that you can only get on iTunes or one of the other platforms? I haven't ever come across one. Can you give me an example of a podcast I can find on Apple's Podcasts app but not on Overcast (on iOS) or PodcastAddict (on Android)?

worble 8y ago

>but if they're not in Apple's iTunes/Podcast app, I'm not going to find them And I've never owned a single apple device in my life, or used any of their itunes software, and yet still manage to find plenty of postcasts to listen to.

ddingus 8y ago

I never use iTunes. Agree with other commenter. Finding shows is not hard, many apps will take feed links various ways and have catalogs.

willio58 8y ago

iTunes essentially acts as a public database for podcast feed links. You can use their–admittedly inflexible–API to populate a list of podcasts in an app or website you create. Or you can use a number of other public feed lists. If iTunes suddenly stopped supporting podcasts (which they won't), then another popular public database will materialize. The real debate here is what does centralization mean in the realm of content distribution? I mean people will always gravitate toward popular platforms that offer nice features like commenting, profiles, rating, etc. but that information is all secondary to the podcast protocol. If a single server hosting a single podcast's files goes down, the whole system does not stop working. Is that not decentralization?

hueving 8y ago

Just because you use a centralized service to find podcasts doesn't mean all of us do.