15 ms·

The interesting thing about the distributed RSS nature of podcasts is that Apple let it happen. The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's

by kemayo 3y ago

The interesting thing about the distributed RSS nature of podcasts is that Apple let it happen. The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's podcast directory, which Apple has been freely hosting and allowing everyone to use rather than choosing to lock it down. For the longest time Apple's podcast client was by far the biggest player in the industry, so they had a lot of power to change this if they wanted to. Given Apple's general money-grubbing ways (see: the App Store), this is somewhat surprising. Presumably the podcast directory product happens to be owned by someone in the org who has some idealistic commitment to it being open, and/or the overall podcast industry is too tiny for them to think it's worth the hassle to push monetizing it. (Now Spotify's the biggest podcast platform, I gather, and I think we should all be glad that they don't have the power to just do unhindered monetization of podcasts because of Apple's counterbalancing them.)

rchaud 3y ago
Podcasts have been supported on the iPod from the mid-2000s, years before Serial took off and VCs descended upon the medium with dollar signs in their eyes. Maybe Apple hosts it because it's a legacy thing that doesn't interfere with Apple-only podcasts.
internet_hugs 3y ago
Spotify is certainly monetizing their podcast platform. At least for the Spotify-produced shows, they’re injecting ads regardless of whether you pay for premium service or not.
- kemayo 3y ago
  There's a reason I said "unhindered monetization" -- imagine what Spotify would be doing if there wasn't a major podcast directory service outside of their control.
- jmopp 3y ago
  I did wonder why the podcasts I listened to on Spotify had ads in them which were clearly targeted to my region.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    That's a thing for regular old RSS podcasts too: There are services that slice geo-targeted ads into your MP3 files. Caught me somewhat by surprise one day when I walked past a hospital and got an ad in a podcast for that very hospital (GeoIP for my mobile IPv6 is correct at the zip code level). In fact, Spotify even allows podcasts to deliver their own MP3s (if you meet the requirements for their "Passthrough" program), which gives distributors that don't want to use Spotify's ad platform more control and is probably a condition for them even listing on Spotify. By default, and presumably also for old Spotify Connect devices that only support Vorbis, they reencode all files and cache them on their own CDN.
anonymous_sorry 3y ago
If podcasting is truly distributed, then by definition it should be able to survive Apple podcasts going away. It's an interesting thought experiment. In what way does the ecosystem rely on Apple's infrastructure? Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? The fact that Apple haven't attempted to squeeze podcasting is perhaps an indicator that the ecosystem doesn't really depend on Apple (and they know it).
- kemayo 3y ago
  > In what way does the ecosystem rely on Apple's infrastructure? Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? Depends on which client you use. Google Podcasts has its own directory. However, it's approximately-true that any third party app on iOS / Android that aren't run by a big company (Spotify, Google, Amazon) use Apple's directory for their podcast-search. (Pocket Casts, Castbox, etc on Android all definitely use it.)
- tcmart14 3y ago
  It is distributed, but the problem comes in, what if everyone is using the same mechanism to distribute it. I guess a good, more clear example might be, using bitcoin as an example, Bitcoin is a distributed digital currency where anyone can run their own node. Cool. But what if everyone runs their bitcoin node on AWS's infrastructure. Sure, bitcoin itself is distributed, but it has a single point of failure of if Amazon's AWS goes to shit. Or think about Cloudflare. When Cloudflare has an outage, it feels like half the internet goes down. There is no requirement for all these people use to Cloudflare specifically, but a sufficiently large portion of the market has converged on utilizing Cloudflare.
- boring_twenties 3y ago
  I use AntennaPod from F-Droid, and it has the following search options, in this order: Apple, fyyd, gpodder, Podcast Index.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  > Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? Yes, many third party apps use Apple's podcast directory. Probably many on Android. The other option is https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
tootie 3y ago
Apple is still the biggest. Spotify is still second. There's a big gap between them and and even bigger gap to third place. More interestingly, Spotify rose to second by investing a gazillion dollars acquiring both a bevy of software tools (Megaphone, chartable, anchor), entire production studios like Gimlet and shelling out huge sums to take the biggest shows like Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy private so they were Spotify exclusive and no longer available via RSS. In the past few weeks, Spotify has formally admitted defeat and announced Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy will go back to the public market.
hedora 3y ago
I assumed overcast used something other than the Apple podcast directory, but nope: https://overcast.fm/podcasterinfo https://overcast.fm/podcasterinfo I’d definitely be interested in using an independent source for podcast search. (To help reduce the current single point of failure in Apple’s org chart).
- swozey 3y ago
  I always thought podcasters signed up to some media service that threw their podcast on the platforms they wanted I never even considered Apple having the singular podcast directory in the world. edit: Oh someone in thread po-inted to a secondary directory
- TillE 3y ago
  Marco could theoretically bootstrap a directory based on user subscriptions (the RSS feeds are polled server-side, not on every client), but then you still have the problem of how new podcasts get added. The iTunes API is poorly documented but completely public. No reason not to use it. https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api
  - yreg 3y ago
    IIRC Marco also said that he is happy with the status quo. He really doesn't want to have responsibility for any moderation/curation and is happy to defer to Apple in that matter. This was shortly after Apple removed Alex Jones' podcast from the directory.
- bombcar 3y ago
  > Since Overcast is a one-person company that can’t possibly review and monitor all known podcasts for spam, adult content, hate speech, and other problematic, controversial, or illegal material, Overcast uses the human-reviewed Apple Podcasts directory as its filter for what should be included in search results and recommendations. There's basically why. You can manually add RSS feeds to various podcast apps, but Apple just slurps up those same feeds unless not submitted for some reason.
baryphonic 3y ago
> Given Apple's general money-grubbing ways (see: the App Store), this is somewhat surprising. Far be it from me to give Apple credit for altruism or openness, but this narrative isn't quite true. When the iPhone launched, Jobs and the execs at Apple envisioned that web apps would be the way the iPhone functionality could be extended. There was even a relatively straightforward way for web apps to be cached and saved on the Home Screen. The desire for compatability with open standards was even reflected in Jobs' open letter explaining why Flash would not be put in the iPhone.[0] Public outcry for the native APIs along with prodding from other Apple execs led to the App Store becoming a thing. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20100501010616/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ https://web.archive.org/web/20100501010616/https://www.apple...
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  > When the iPhone launched, Jobs and the execs at Apple envisioned that web apps would be the way the iPhone functionality could be extended. Doesn't pass the sniff test, because > Public outcry for the native APIs along with prodding from other Apple execs led to the App Store becoming a thing. Apple's vision of web apps was as second class citizens to Apple apps. The outcry was because those web apps, despite caching and saving and other things could not and would not ever be able to do what an Apple app could. Sherlocking/f.luxing/Dark Skying (maybe less so, the last) is bad enough as it is, but far worse when those as web apps could never do what an Apple app could (f.lux is a perfect example, there was, and I could never imagine a world where Apple would allow a web app to control color temperature on their phone).
MostlyStable 3y ago
Thanks for answering the question I had reading this article: how do podcasters manage to get listed on all these third party apps; with the answer being that apparently they don't, they are listed on a central directory which all the apps use. I'm curious if there is a way to achieve a similar result (open ecosystem that allows a huge amount of competition) without the central directory.
- nfriedly 3y ago
  The Podcast Addict app on Android has it's own directory[0], but it also gives you the option to search Apples, and a third one called The Podcast Index[1]. [0]: https://podcastaddict.com/ https://podcastaddict.com/ [1]: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
  - bluish29 3y ago
    Also, there is a list for apps and services that supports The Podcast index [1]. [1] https://podcastindex.org/apps https://podcastindex.org/apps
agloe_dreams 3y ago
> Given Apple's general money-grubbing ways (see: the App Store), this is somewhat surprising. The age of it is the why. Steve was far less focused on service revenue. Plus, podcasts sold iPods and iPhones.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  Apps also sold iPhones. They built an entire marketing campaign around the idea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrsfeyLzyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrsfeyLzyg). And yet they're trying to squeeze app developers for all they're worth.
  - moolcool 3y ago
    The original iPhone didn't even launch with apps. A big part of the vision was that "apps" would be dynamic websites which you could create links to on your home screen. I think if the web tooling ecosystem was up to snuff at the time, we may not have an "App Store" as we know it today.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      Which is amusingly sad today, as so many "applications" on desktop and elsewhere are Electron which is ... a dynamic website.
      - moolcool 3y ago
        What's old is new again, for better or worse
      - dr-detroit 3y ago
        [dead]
  - jasode 3y ago
    >Apps also sold iPhones. [...] And yet they're trying to squeeze app developers for all they're worth. It's because Apple was emboldened by the fact that the original June 2007 iPhone exceeded sales expectations of 10 million units without any 3rd-party apps. The App Store didn't exist until July 2008. In June 2007, consumers were getting in line to buy the so-called "Jesus phone" even though there were no 3rd-party apps ecosystem for it. (Look back at the hundreds waiting in line overnight to buy the first iPhone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iSE0bBgUsQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iSE0bBgUsQ) So, Apple rationally concludes that 3rd-party developers need access to Apple's customer base more than customers need access to outside developers. Back in 2008, the developers en masse could have revolted and said "fuck the Apple iOS SDK, fuck the App Store, and they can fuck off with their stupid rules and 30% fee" -- but they didn't. Instead, developers grumbled and complained while they were submitting apps to the App Store. Developers -- via their actions -- keep signaling to Apple that Apple has the leverage and not the developers. That's why you had 2008 articles and threads such as this: - This Is Why iPhone Developers Put Up With All the Bullshit From Apple (daringfireball.net) - 46 points by sant0sk1 on Sept 19, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 23 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=308975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=308975
paulcole 3y ago
You don't think Spotify would grub as much money as possible if they could? It's just that they can't because their business sucks.
sailfast 3y ago
They would not have been able to change it, since the podcast client was reliant on the standard of distribution which was open. I wouldn't attribute this to Apple "letting" it happen. They would've had to invest millions to get the content onboarded and monetized.
dpedu 3y ago
> The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's podcast directory I find this surprising whenever I hear it. Ditto for spotify. I don't listen to a single podcast via either of these services. Some of the shows I listen to might publish on them too, but I'm subscribed elsewhere. Most of the shows on spotify seem like the audio equivalent of shovelware anyways.
- watson 3y ago
  You most likely just don’t realize that your podcast app of choice actually gets its list of podcasts from Apple. That’s the authors point of Apple hosting it for free for everyone.
  - colinsane 3y ago
    my feeds seem to all be: `<title>.libsyn.com/...`, `anchor.fm/.../rss`, `feeds.feedburner.com/<title>`, `feeds.megaphone.fm/<title>`, `feeds.simplecast.com/<title>`, `omny.fm/show/<title>`, `rss.acast.com/<title>`, `rss.art19.com/<title>`, and then a bunch of `<showname>.com/rss` for shows which host their own website and link a feed from there. i recognize art19 as an amazon thing, and megaphone as a Spotify thing (or a thing which Spotify acquired?). i have no idea what any of the others are associated with. is one of those websites run by Apple?
    - Kwpolska 3y ago
      The Apple thing is the podcast directory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 Most (all?) feeds in there are not hosted by Apple. Many non-Apple podcast apps use this to power search and discovery features.
    - madeofpalk 3y ago
      The feeds - the actual rss files - are not hosted by Apple. But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple.
alberth 3y ago
> The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's podcast directory Check out: https://www.listennotes.com https://www.listennotes.com Listen Notes is an indie run service by a single person. Not only does it host its own podcast directory, it has advanced search and many other nice capabilities. The blog also talk about its tech stack. https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-podcast-api-business-46/ https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-... And you can even buy their Podcast Database https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/
- jayknight 3y ago
  This is great and does a thing I've wished existed for a long time: The ability to build an rss feed by picking individual episodes from existing podcasts.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  > And you can even buy their Podcast Database Or you can get one with 4M podcasts for free: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
Axien 3y ago
Apple was late to the game. In fact they tried to change the name away from podcast (in reference to the iPod). The TWiT team started calling them NetCast to appease Apple. In the end, Apple embraced the technology and dropped the name complaint. By then the RSS feed tech was already well established along with a few podcast software aggregators. Apple did not invent or even have a choice.
m463 3y ago
I think it was outside their ecosystem, and they let it happen probably in the same way they let HTML websites happen with modification (accept apple pay? install the app?) but not a lot. apple's podcast directory is NOT required to listen to a podcast. that said, most folks submit their RSS feeds to apple (and google play, etc)

by kemayo 3y ago

rchaud 3y ago

Podcasts have been supported on the iPod from the mid-2000s, years before Serial took off and VCs descended upon the medium with dollar signs in their eyes. Maybe Apple hosts it because it's a legacy thing that doesn't interfere with Apple-only podcasts.

internet_hugs 3y ago

Spotify is certainly monetizing their podcast platform. At least for the Spotify-produced shows, they’re injecting ads regardless of whether you pay for premium service or not.

kemayo 3y ago
There's a reason I said "unhindered monetization" -- imagine what Spotify would be doing if there wasn't a major podcast directory service outside of their control.
jmopp 3y ago
I did wonder why the podcasts I listened to on Spotify had ads in them which were clearly targeted to my region.
- lxgr 3y ago
  That's a thing for regular old RSS podcasts too: There are services that slice geo-targeted ads into your MP3 files. Caught me somewhat by surprise one day when I walked past a hospital and got an ad in a podcast for that very hospital (GeoIP for my mobile IPv6 is correct at the zip code level). In fact, Spotify even allows podcasts to deliver their own MP3s (if you meet the requirements for their "Passthrough" program), which gives distributors that don't want to use Spotify's ad platform more control and is probably a condition for them even listing on Spotify. By default, and presumably also for old Spotify Connect devices that only support Vorbis, they reencode all files and cache them on their own CDN.

anonymous_sorry 3y ago

If podcasting is truly distributed, then by definition it should be able to survive Apple podcasts going away. It's an interesting thought experiment. In what way does the ecosystem rely on Apple's infrastructure? Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? The fact that Apple haven't attempted to squeeze podcasting is perhaps an indicator that the ecosystem doesn't really depend on Apple (and they know it).

kemayo 3y ago
> In what way does the ecosystem rely on Apple's infrastructure? Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? Depends on which client you use. Google Podcasts has its own directory. However, it's approximately-true that any third party app on iOS / Android that aren't run by a big company (Spotify, Google, Amazon) use Apple's directory for their podcast-search. (Pocket Casts, Castbox, etc on Android all definitely use it.)
tcmart14 3y ago
It is distributed, but the problem comes in, what if everyone is using the same mechanism to distribute it. I guess a good, more clear example might be, using bitcoin as an example, Bitcoin is a distributed digital currency where anyone can run their own node. Cool. But what if everyone runs their bitcoin node on AWS's infrastructure. Sure, bitcoin itself is distributed, but it has a single point of failure of if Amazon's AWS goes to shit. Or think about Cloudflare. When Cloudflare has an outage, it feels like half the internet goes down. There is no requirement for all these people use to Cloudflare specifically, but a sufficiently large portion of the market has converged on utilizing Cloudflare.
boring_twenties 3y ago
I use AntennaPod from F-Droid, and it has the following search options, in this order: Apple, fyyd, gpodder, Podcast Index.
madeofpalk 3y ago
> Do listeners on Android, or even a third-party apps on iOS, use Apple's podcasts directory for search and discoverability? Yes, many third party apps use Apple's podcast directory. Probably many on Android. The other option is https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/

tootie 3y ago

Apple is still the biggest. Spotify is still second. There's a big gap between them and and even bigger gap to third place. More interestingly, Spotify rose to second by investing a gazillion dollars acquiring both a bevy of software tools (Megaphone, chartable, anchor), entire production studios like Gimlet and shelling out huge sums to take the biggest shows like Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy private so they were Spotify exclusive and no longer available via RSS. In the past few weeks, Spotify has formally admitted defeat and announced Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy will go back to the public market.

hedora 3y ago

I assumed overcast used something other than the Apple podcast directory, but nope: https://overcast.fm/podcasterinfo https://overcast.fm/podcasterinfo I’d definitely be interested in using an independent source for podcast search. (To help reduce the current single point of failure in Apple’s org chart).

swozey 3y ago
I always thought podcasters signed up to some media service that threw their podcast on the platforms they wanted I never even considered Apple having the singular podcast directory in the world. edit: Oh someone in thread po-inted to a secondary directory
TillE 3y ago
Marco could theoretically bootstrap a directory based on user subscriptions (the RSS feeds are polled server-side, not on every client), but then you still have the problem of how new podcasts get added. The iTunes API is poorly documented but completely public. No reason not to use it. https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api
- yreg 3y ago
  IIRC Marco also said that he is happy with the status quo. He really doesn't want to have responsibility for any moderation/curation and is happy to defer to Apple in that matter. This was shortly after Apple removed Alex Jones' podcast from the directory.
bombcar 3y ago
> Since Overcast is a one-person company that can’t possibly review and monitor all known podcasts for spam, adult content, hate speech, and other problematic, controversial, or illegal material, Overcast uses the human-reviewed Apple Podcasts directory as its filter for what should be included in search results and recommendations. There's basically why. You can manually add RSS feeds to various podcast apps, but Apple just slurps up those same feeds unless not submitted for some reason.

baryphonic 3y ago

> Given Apple's general money-grubbing ways (see: the App Store), this is somewhat surprising. Far be it from me to give Apple credit for altruism or openness, but this narrative isn't quite true. When the iPhone launched, Jobs and the execs at Apple envisioned that web apps would be the way the iPhone functionality could be extended. There was even a relatively straightforward way for web apps to be cached and saved on the Home Screen. The desire for compatability with open standards was even reflected in Jobs' open letter explaining why Flash would not be put in the iPhone.[0] Public outcry for the native APIs along with prodding from other Apple execs led to the App Store becoming a thing. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20100501010616/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ https://web.archive.org/web/20100501010616/https://www.apple...

FireBeyond 3y ago
> When the iPhone launched, Jobs and the execs at Apple envisioned that web apps would be the way the iPhone functionality could be extended. Doesn't pass the sniff test, because > Public outcry for the native APIs along with prodding from other Apple execs led to the App Store becoming a thing. Apple's vision of web apps was as second class citizens to Apple apps. The outcry was because those web apps, despite caching and saving and other things could not and would not ever be able to do what an Apple app could. Sherlocking/f.luxing/Dark Skying (maybe less so, the last) is bad enough as it is, but far worse when those as web apps could never do what an Apple app could (f.lux is a perfect example, there was, and I could never imagine a world where Apple would allow a web app to control color temperature on their phone).

MostlyStable 3y ago

Thanks for answering the question I had reading this article: how do podcasters manage to get listed on all these third party apps; with the answer being that apparently they don't, they are listed on a central directory which all the apps use. I'm curious if there is a way to achieve a similar result (open ecosystem that allows a huge amount of competition) without the central directory.

nfriedly 3y ago
The Podcast Addict app on Android has it's own directory[0], but it also gives you the option to search Apples, and a third one called The Podcast Index[1]. [0]: https://podcastaddict.com/ https://podcastaddict.com/ [1]: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/
- bluish29 3y ago
  Also, there is a list for apps and services that supports The Podcast index [1]. [1] https://podcastindex.org/apps https://podcastindex.org/apps

agloe_dreams 3y ago

> Given Apple's general money-grubbing ways (see: the App Store), this is somewhat surprising. The age of it is the why. Steve was far less focused on service revenue. Plus, podcasts sold iPods and iPhones.

Hamuko 3y ago
Apps also sold iPhones. They built an entire marketing campaign around the idea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrsfeyLzyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrsfeyLzyg). And yet they're trying to squeeze app developers for all they're worth.
- moolcool 3y ago
  The original iPhone didn't even launch with apps. A big part of the vision was that "apps" would be dynamic websites which you could create links to on your home screen. I think if the web tooling ecosystem was up to snuff at the time, we may not have an "App Store" as we know it today.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Which is amusingly sad today, as so many "applications" on desktop and elsewhere are Electron which is ... a dynamic website.
    - moolcool 3y ago
      What's old is new again, for better or worse
    - dr-detroit 3y ago
      [dead]
- jasode 3y ago
  >Apps also sold iPhones. [...] And yet they're trying to squeeze app developers for all they're worth. It's because Apple was emboldened by the fact that the original June 2007 iPhone exceeded sales expectations of 10 million units without any 3rd-party apps. The App Store didn't exist until July 2008. In June 2007, consumers were getting in line to buy the so-called "Jesus phone" even though there were no 3rd-party apps ecosystem for it. (Look back at the hundreds waiting in line overnight to buy the first iPhone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iSE0bBgUsQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iSE0bBgUsQ) So, Apple rationally concludes that 3rd-party developers need access to Apple's customer base more than customers need access to outside developers. Back in 2008, the developers en masse could have revolted and said "fuck the Apple iOS SDK, fuck the App Store, and they can fuck off with their stupid rules and 30% fee" -- but they didn't. Instead, developers grumbled and complained while they were submitting apps to the App Store. Developers -- via their actions -- keep signaling to Apple that Apple has the leverage and not the developers. That's why you had 2008 articles and threads such as this: - This Is Why iPhone Developers Put Up With All the Bullshit From Apple (daringfireball.net) - 46 points by sant0sk1 on Sept 19, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 23 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=308975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=308975

paulcole 3y ago

You don't think Spotify would grub as much money as possible if they could? It's just that they can't because their business sucks.

sailfast 3y ago

They would not have been able to change it, since the podcast client was reliant on the standard of distribution which was open. I wouldn't attribute this to Apple "letting" it happen. They would've had to invest millions to get the content onboarded and monetized.

dpedu 3y ago

> The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's podcast directory I find this surprising whenever I hear it. Ditto for spotify. I don't listen to a single podcast via either of these services. Some of the shows I listen to might publish on them too, but I'm subscribed elsewhere. Most of the shows on spotify seem like the audio equivalent of shovelware anyways.

watson 3y ago
You most likely just don’t realize that your podcast app of choice actually gets its list of podcasts from Apple. That’s the authors point of Apple hosting it for free for everyone.
- colinsane 3y ago
  my feeds seem to all be: `<title>.libsyn.com/...`, `anchor.fm/.../rss`, `feeds.feedburner.com/<title>`, `feeds.megaphone.fm/<title>`, `feeds.simplecast.com/<title>`, `omny.fm/show/<title>`, `rss.acast.com/<title>`, `rss.art19.com/<title>`, and then a bunch of `<showname>.com/rss` for shows which host their own website and link a feed from there. i recognize art19 as an amazon thing, and megaphone as a Spotify thing (or a thing which Spotify acquired?). i have no idea what any of the others are associated with. is one of those websites run by Apple?
  - Kwpolska 3y ago
    The Apple thing is the podcast directory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 Most (all?) feeds in there are not hosted by Apple. Many non-Apple podcast apps use this to power search and discovery features.
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    The feeds - the actual rss files - are not hosted by Apple. But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple.

alberth 3y ago

> The entire podcast ecosystem rests upon the shoulders of Apple's podcast directory Check out: https://www.listennotes.com https://www.listennotes.com Listen Notes is an indie run service by a single person. Not only does it host its own podcast directory, it has advanced search and many other nice capabilities. The blog also talk about its tech stack. https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-podcast-api-business-46/ https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-... And you can even buy their Podcast Database https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/

jayknight 3y ago
This is great and does a thing I've wished existed for a long time: The ability to build an rss feed by picking individual episodes from existing podcasts.
CharlesW 3y ago
> And you can even buy their Podcast Database Or you can get one with 4M podcasts for free: https://podcastindex.org/ https://podcastindex.org/

Axien 3y ago

Apple was late to the game. In fact they tried to change the name away from podcast (in reference to the iPod). The TWiT team started calling them NetCast to appease Apple. In the end, Apple embraced the technology and dropped the name complaint. By then the RSS feed tech was already well established along with a few podcast software aggregators. Apple did not invent or even have a choice.

m463 3y ago

I think it was outside their ecosystem, and they let it happen probably in the same way they let HTML websites happen with modification (accept apple pay? install the app?) but not a lot. apple's podcast directory is NOT required to listen to a podcast. that said, most folks submit their RSS feeds to apple (and google play, etc)