Losing “Podcast”
We’re losing the word “podcast” very quickly. It’s come to mean video interviews on YouTube mostly. Our only hope is upgrading the open platform in a way that stimulates the imagination of creators, and there’s no time to waste. If you make a podcast client, it’s time to start collaborating with competitors and people who create RSS-based podcasts to take advantage of the open platforms with no silo walls, otherwise having a podcast will mean getting distribution deals from Google, Apple, Spotify and Amazon. And they, as we know, are nuzzling up to the government leaders, who will want to impose severe limits.
Previously:
- Scripting News at 30
- iTunes Podcast Directory Now Hiding Feed URLs
- Luminary Proxying Podcasts Without Asking
- Joe Rogan No Longer Exclusive to Spotify
- Spotify Now #1 Podcasts Platform
Update (2024-12-04): Ben Cohen:
But this year, YouTube passed the competition and became the most popular service for podcasts in the U.S., with 31% of weekly podcast listeners saying it’s now the platform they use the most, according to Edison Research.
Via Nick Heer:
Cohen omits key context for why YouTube is suddenly a key podcast platform: Google Podcasts was shut down this year with users and podcasters alike instructed to move to YouTube. According to Buzzsprout’s 2023 analytics, Google Podcasts was used by only 2.5% of global listeners. YouTube is not listed in their report, perhaps because it exists in its own bubble instead of being part of the broader RSS-feed-reading podcast client ecosystem.
But where Google was previously bifurcating its market share, it aligned its users behind a single client. And, it would seem, that audience responded favourably.
[…]
Of the top twenty podcasts according to Edison Research, fifteen have what I would deem meaningful and regular video components.
[…]
Also, YouTube channels have RSS feeds, though that is not very useful in an audio-only client like Overcast.
Previously:
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The other day I saw people using "podcast" to refer to audiobooks, the battle is lost.
I think one problem is that YouTube has built in monetization. It's not impossible to monetize RSS based podcasts, but it's not super easy either.
I also think the issue is monetization, but I'm going to remain naively hopeful that podcasts will survive alongside YouTube talkshows.
Money is such a poor proxy for value though.
"Also, YouTube channels have RSS feeds, though that is not very useful in an audio-only client like Overcast."
Can Overcast not simply fetch the audio stream? You can grab the audio from YouTube videos pretty easily if so desired (I don't know about officially but certainly every third party YouTube client I use seems to be able to do this.)
@Nathan_RETRO I wish it could. I convert lots of YouTube videos to audio using Downie and upload them to Overcast.
Are you guys referring to YouTube's typical channel feeds (/feeds/videos.xml)? AFAIK they only include a link to the video page, not to the actual media. Overcast would need to use something like yt-dlp to fetch the audio/video, and I don't think Marco (or anyone, really) would want to set themselves up for another Juno situation.