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Not the OP, but from my point of view, the podcasting arena has been blooming with diversity for the past years, while simultaneously becoming much more popular
by gen220 8y ago
Not the OP, but from my point of view, the podcasting arena has been blooming with diversity for the past years, while simultaneously becoming much more popular. It's kind of analogous to the early-yahoo era of "the internet", early YouTube, or early hip-hop. The technological/capital barrier to entry is quite low (for most podcasts, a microphone and an internet connection will do).
This article is basically saying that Spotify wants to do to the podcast scene what AdSense did to "the internet", what Google did to YouTube, and what major record labels did to hip-hop. To me, that might mean, among other things: higher production-value (read: higher cost-of-entry), SEO-y tactics by content producers and publishers, all of which leads to a general homogenization of content.
In general, thus far, the primary focus of most producers has been on content and community (think early Yahoo, NPR, Mos Def) -- not on monetization. If this industry grows an order of magnitude beyond the current $300m, it's easy to imagine that the prospect of money will be a powerful incentive to narrow the scope of content.
It's a trade-off, for sure, but from some points of view such a move could definitely be seen as a decline. Ending a golden age, if you will.
- jammygit 8y agoOn the other hand, if podcasts find a model where they are able to charge subscriptions more easily, it might really benefit the creators. They say that, due to the subscription model of netflix and co, we are living in 'peak tv' these days and I agree. There are so many great shows getting made now. I do hate exclusives though... I still have not played bloodbourne or demon souls because of that crap
- mhermher 8y agoSomeone on Twitter, I forgot who, made the argument that Spotify might be running a sort of A/B test of either a Netflix like model or a YouTube type model because the future of podcasts is unclear. I think I can agree with both you and the GP if the Netflix model wins.
- hombre_fatal 8y agoIt reminds me of when Steam tried introducing ways for game-modders to get paid. There was a lot of backlash and, especially, no shortage of gamers willing to tell you that game modding should be a labor of love and a voluntary charity. It's a pretty easy claim when one is benefitting without any skin in the game. I'm getting hints of that all over again in these comments, but you have a pretty reasonable explanation of the trade-offs. Though since since so few people do it, I like to take the side that more content producers able to make more money at any size creates an explosion of content that everyone benefits from. For example, I'd mark the Golden Age of the internet on the period where Adsense reigned rather than what came before.