4 ms·

> RSS is distribution It’s not content distribution. > get RSS feeds direct from the source. But what is the source? Who is typically hosting these? Audio is

by epcoa 3y ago

> RSS is distribution It’s not content distribution. > get RSS feeds direct from the source. But what is the source? Who is typically hosting these? Audio is easier to distribute than video, but aren’t most podcasts hosted on a handful of large services?

madeofpalk 3y ago
There is one centralised bottleneck - Apple's iTunes podcast index / search API - which seemingly everyone else in the company has forgotten about and runs pretty openly for anyone to submit to and use. There are also a handful of essentially CDNs that host the .mp3 files themselves, but these are more or less completely interchangable. They're just infrastructure for hosting files.
- black_puppydog 3y ago
  I'm a very (very, as in: too) avid podcast listener and the fact that apple run one of the biggest "phone books" has literally never stopped me from doing anything podcast related. I find new podcasts just fine, by word of mouth as well as in other directories. The only player in town that seems to really make a dent in the openness is Spotify which have been aggressively buying out podcast teams and taking them off the open web, and that's one of the prime reasons I cancelled my subscriptions. Then there's smaller losses like the BBC4 which made most of their podcasts have a 1 month delay vis-a-vis their own app. I have no interest in that. In effect, this just served to curb some of my compulsive newsy consumption. If something isn't important enough to still be heard a month later, maybe I didn't need to hear it in the first place. Anyhow, I very much agree with the article and I'm happy someone made the point so much more eloquently than I've managed in my many debates about the matter.
- dabber 3y ago
  https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/ is a great.
  - RajT88 3y ago
    I use https://podcastaddict.com/ https://podcastaddict.com/ But thanks for posting this! Occasionally, I can't find a particular podcast on my preferred site.
    - dabber 3y ago
      So do I! Podcast Index is one of the built-in indexes in the Podcast Addict app's search feature; that's how I discovered it!
IggleSniggle 3y ago
Almost every podcast I listen to comes from a different site. It's as easy as setting up an RSS feed on your own website, which is very comparable to hosting your own blog. Sure, plenty of people use Medium, but lots and lots still self-host.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
> It’s not content distribution. Yeah, this is what I thought. RSS will give a URL to a sound file, which is hosted by someone, somewhere. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything inherent to podcasts -- not even RSS even though it’s so ubiquitous -- which prevents the content distribution to be more centralized. If a podcast recording is exclusively hosted by Spotify, that is where everyone gets that podcast; even if they got the URL for it elsewhere. It’s a bit like saying I get my articles from HN (disregarding that I don’t use RSS for it).
johnspurlock 3y ago
> But what is the source? Who is typically hosting these? Audio is easier to distribute than video, but aren’t most podcasts hosted on a handful of large services? Top Podcast Hosting Companies by Episode Share: https://livewire.io/podcast-hosts-by-episode-share/ https://livewire.io/podcast-hosts-by-episode-share/ Top Podcast CDNs by Episode Share: https://livewire.io/podcast-cdns-by-episode-share/ https://livewire.io/podcast-cdns-by-episode-share/

by epcoa 3y ago

madeofpalk 3y ago

There is one centralised bottleneck - Apple's iTunes podcast index / search API - which seemingly everyone else in the company has forgotten about and runs pretty openly for anyone to submit to and use. There are also a handful of essentially CDNs that host the .mp3 files themselves, but these are more or less completely interchangable. They're just infrastructure for hosting files.

black_puppydog 3y ago
I'm a very (very, as in: too) avid podcast listener and the fact that apple run one of the biggest "phone books" has literally never stopped me from doing anything podcast related. I find new podcasts just fine, by word of mouth as well as in other directories. The only player in town that seems to really make a dent in the openness is Spotify which have been aggressively buying out podcast teams and taking them off the open web, and that's one of the prime reasons I cancelled my subscriptions. Then there's smaller losses like the BBC4 which made most of their podcasts have a 1 month delay vis-a-vis their own app. I have no interest in that. In effect, this just served to curb some of my compulsive newsy consumption. If something isn't important enough to still be heard a month later, maybe I didn't need to hear it in the first place. Anyhow, I very much agree with the article and I'm happy someone made the point so much more eloquently than I've managed in my many debates about the matter.
dabber 3y ago
https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/ is a great.
- RajT88 3y ago
  I use https://podcastaddict.com/ https://podcastaddict.com/ But thanks for posting this! Occasionally, I can't find a particular podcast on my preferred site.
  - dabber 3y ago
    So do I! Podcast Index is one of the built-in indexes in the Podcast Addict app's search feature; that's how I discovered it!

IggleSniggle 3y ago

Almost every podcast I listen to comes from a different site. It's as easy as setting up an RSS feed on your own website, which is very comparable to hosting your own blog. Sure, plenty of people use Medium, but lots and lots still self-host.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago

> It’s not content distribution. Yeah, this is what I thought. RSS will give a URL to a sound file, which is hosted by someone, somewhere. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything inherent to podcasts -- not even RSS even though it’s so ubiquitous -- which prevents the content distribution to be more centralized. If a podcast recording is exclusively hosted by Spotify, that is where everyone gets that podcast; even if they got the URL for it elsewhere. It’s a bit like saying I get my articles from HN (disregarding that I don’t use RSS for it).

johnspurlock 3y ago

> But what is the source? Who is typically hosting these? Audio is easier to distribute than video, but aren’t most podcasts hosted on a handful of large services? Top Podcast Hosting Companies by Episode Share: https://livewire.io/podcast-hosts-by-episode-share/ https://livewire.io/podcast-hosts-by-episode-share/ Top Podcast CDNs by Episode Share: https://livewire.io/podcast-cdns-by-episode-share/ https://livewire.io/podcast-cdns-by-episode-share/