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Jared White

Read my lips:

An audio show that can only be played in an Apple player on an Apple device is not a podcast.

An audio show that can only be played in Spotify is not a podcast.

Repeat ad nauseam for any other proprietary audio show platforms.

A #podcast is an #RSS feed with enclosures of audio files which are playable across the whole ecosystem of podcast players.

Any reporter who reports on exclusive audio shows and calls them “podcasts” are doing a grave disservice to their audience.

309 comments
LaurenZannah 🏳️‍⚧️

@jaredwhite @binarytango I mean it could be an ATOM feed but yes I completely agree

Nobilis Reed

@jaredwhite

I agree, but the vernacular (as opposed to technical) definition is getting away from us.

I got into a disagreement with the Parsec awards over this.

Kevin Gamin

@jaredwhite Same for video shows only available on YouTube.

ROTOPE~1 :yell:

@jaredwhite @brouhaha it's not a podcast if it doesn't have some words from this week's sponsor - a cook-at-home meal service or mail-order foam beds.

Jared White

@rotopenguin @brouhaha and also that all-in-one platform for building your very own website 😆

James Cridland

@jaredwhite As a reporter who reports on exclusive audio shows and occasionally calls them podcasts, I would humbly ask you to consider putting the audience's views first.

James Cridland

@jaredwhite And, in case you want a rather more considered view, here is a couple of hundred words from this reporter on why I say that. podnews.net/article/definition

Jared White

@jamescridland I'll have to strongly disagree with your conclusions on this. Companies like Spotify do not get to redefine what the word "podcast" means any more than some random company can just decide what a "website" is.

And no, some audio show that's exclusively on YouTube or BBC or whatever is *not* a podcast.

The reason the public is confused is because (some) tech journalists aren't doing their damn job.

Rokosun

@jamescridland @jaredwhite There's no point in arguing about semantics. For me the real issue with Spotify exclusive podcasts is that I can't access them from my favorite podcast player (@AntennaPod). So this is an issue of accessibility and freedom to choose how you wanna listen. This is why platforms like Spotify is known as a walled garden, not supporting open standards like RSS was a deliberate decision to keep people locked onto their platform & apps.

James Cridland

@futureisfoss @jaredwhite @AntennaPod Agree - walled gardens are bad for podcasting.

(And if AntennaPod supported more podcast 2.0 features, I'd be using it more too; I use Pocket Casts and Fountain).

James Cridland

@jaredwhite I would also add - the use of "tech journalist" doesn't help your argument. People talking about the content in podcasts - whether they're open RSS enclosures or things like Joe Rogan - aren't tech journalists. They're media journalists.

I come from radio. A lot of radio (but by no means the majority) is now listened-to online, rather than radio waves. Doesn't stop it from being "radio", though.

Jared White

@jamescridland The ecosystem of podcasting, like the ecosystem of the blogosphere before it, like the ecosystem of the web itself, has a certain inherent set of characteristics. One of them is that you can subscribe to a podcast in any player which supports podcasts. I consider that an inviolate feature of this medium.

If I can't subscribe to your podcast in my player of choice, it's not a podcast.

Jared White

@jamescridland With regard to "aren't tech journalists. They're media journalists"

What? Are you trying to tell me that because someone's a "media journalist" it means that they don't have any responsibility to understand the basic technology by which said media is distributed? That's a total cop out.

James Cridland

@jaredwhite With respect, I think it would be a good idea to read the article I've shared, wind your neck in a little, and think for a bit about "distribution platforms" vs "media formats".

You don't get to tell millions of people listening to Joe Rogan that they aren't listening to a podcast.

Mark Derricutt (talios)

@jamescridland @jaredwhite For awhile I took the revised thought that aggregated platforms - the slight precursor to Spotify etc. was they _still_ used that underlying RSS feed to consume our podcast feeds to bring them into their walled garden - end users may not use RSS directly (even with say Pocket Casts I’m not sure the _player_ uses RSS now - the server… sure.

Jared White

@talios @jamescridland Well that's just splitting hairs. Whether Pocket Casts' servers download the RSS and then send the info to my client, or my client downloads it directly, is an implementation detail. The point is that Pocket Casts is nothing more than the middleman between where the feed is hosted and my ears.

Mark Derricutt (talios)

@jaredwhite @jamescridland true - just saying in that instance - as far as an end user is concerned there's nothing RSS specbabble involved in the consumption of a podcast.

James Cridland

@jaredwhite @talios But, whether it uses RSS at all or not is also just an implementation detail.

The product that we describe is a piece of on-demand audio. It isn't wedded to a delivery platform or mechanism. Perhaps it was once.

Mark Derricutt (talios) replied to James Cridland

@jamescridland @jaredwhite I guess with the recent rise of Mastodon/Fediverse - reminding, and _maybe_ returning to the roots of podcasting away from walled gardens isn’t a bad thing. That may be fine for grass roots indie podcasters, but the high-profile big-money media behind Podcasts-with-a-capital-P just might not care.

We’ve removed (one of) the technical barriers to getting peoples voices heard - and that’s always a good thing.

Bed replied to Mark Derricutt (talios)

@talios @jamescridland @jaredwhite I mean by all means call out “Spotify exclusive podcasts are bad for the common good”. I agree with that 100% as a good fight. Fighting to say that “they shouldn’t be technically called podcasts” is beating a dead horse and achieves nothing except mainstream eyes glazing over IMO.

draxil replied to James Cridland

@jamescridland
If it were an implementation detail it wouldn't have a side effect on the behaviour being implemented. Putting things in a corporate walled garden directly affects people who don't even know what "RSS" means.

Jared White

@jamescridland It's worth noting that not all of the Spotify-branded original shows are exclusive to Spotify. Of the ones that can be played in other players via RSS, those are most certainly podcasts. But it is my contention that when that's not the case, as it seems to be still with The Joe Rogan Experience, that then does not qualify as a podcast.

James Cridland

@jaredwhite I understand where you're coming from, now you've calmed down and stopped shouting at reporters.

I think the ship has sailed though. I understand your technical definition of what you consider a podcast; but I also look at this from a consumer point of view. There is no difference between Rogan and No Agenda; no difference between a BBC Sounds show and one on Apple Podcasts. It's a piece of on-demand audio, a bit like a radio show. And that is what most people call a podcast.

Bozo Shaw

@jamescridland @jaredwhite hi, I don't know either of you and I definitely don't have a horse in the "definition of a podcast" race but I am fascinated by your characterizing of Jared's language here as "yelling at reporters." To me it all comes across as very measured and polite, never turns personal in any way and allows for the presence of differing opinions while taking a position and holding it out of principle. Are you willing to clarify what you mean by this?

Matt Jordan replied to Bozo

@mshaw @jamescridland @jaredwhite

Yeah, the "now you've calmed down and stopped shouting at reporters" bit was uncalled for.

James Cridland replied to Matt

@muhkayoh @mshaw @jaredwhite

The phrase was: "tech journalists aren't doing their damn job" which doesn't really come across as measured, polite, or proportionate.

I do my damn job. I do it very damn well.

James Cridland replied to James Cridland

@muhkayoh @mshaw @jaredwhite I'd also suggest that the initial post from Jared was written very combatively, from the "Read My Lips" kick-off. Make a point, yes, but don't make it while being rude and inconsiderate, and best not to denigrate an entire profession while you do it. That's not really the best plan if you're trying to change the world.

Matt Jordan replied to James Cridland

@jamescridland @mshaw @jaredwhite

I see your bio says "passionate about audio." Could that passion be causing you to project a little?

Bozo Shaw replied to James Cridland

@jamescridland @muhkayoh @jaredwhite I see, thanks for clarifying. To be honest this strikes me as a shockingly low tolerance threshold, especially for someone in the profession of journalism (my mother the retired science museum curator gets more heated in discussing her birding newsletter), but I appreciate your honesty.

James Cridland replied to Bozo

@mshaw @muhkayoh @jaredwhite Thanks for your unsolicited thoughts on whether I should or shouldn't have just rolled over when someone tells me to "do my damn job". I think I'll go with my own thoughts on the matter, though! :)

Doug 🇺🇦

@jamescridland @jaredwhite I've rarely been so dissuaded from clicking a link.

Incidentally, how would you define a blog?

Trezzer (aka Helvedeshunden)

@jamescridland @jaredwhite No. They're not listening to a podcast. They're listening to a ranting idiot on Spotify. Just like Calm's/Audible's gated content was never a podcast. It has similar form, but no feed = no podcast.

eleanor, ofs

@jamescridland @jaredwhite

You the media journalist are telling us that our problem is that we aren't putting the audience's views first? I mean we're "the audience" every bit as much as the 18% of people who say they listen to podcasts on YouTube, and while I certainly have my disagreements with Joe Rogan listeners I don't have any evidence that they think of it as a "podcast" versus an audio show.

(1/2)

Bed

@jaredwhite @jamescridland seems pretty clear over the course of human history that mass common usage is what defines (and redefines) meanings of words.

Simon Lucy

@bed @jaredwhite @jamescridland

Well no. Usage can be distinguished from definition. The confusion of terms into a generic usage is common, Hoovers for vacuum cleaners and Kleenex for tissues, for example but we can still distinguish the actual from the generic.

RSS is a distribution format which when it includes audio is called a podcast, the general listener doesn't care about that. If it's generally available it's a podcast (includes BBC).

Bed

@simon_lucy @jaredwhite @jamescridland yes I understand the technical definition and the differences. These are different from the common understandings. My wife for example doesn’t know or care what an RSS feed is and nor should she ever need to care. Common understanding isn’t technical and nor should it be.

Simon Lucy

@bed @jaredwhite @jamescridland

Knowing that it's the distribution and availability that defines it, rather than the platform is useful (BBC podcasts are available as RSS).

Bed

@simon_lucy @jaredwhite @jamescridland useful to technical people sure. To everyone else they’re all just podcasts (audio episodes of content playable on demand and subscrible to). Public RSS feeds is merely an implementation detail.

Simon Lucy

@bed @jaredwhite @jamescridland

You just repeated what I said already. Some streamed audio can't be played except on the owning/licensed platform.

As I said RSS is the distribution format, not the distribution itself. But I would say it's likely the format most common freely available is in.

Bed

@simon_lucy @jaredwhite @jamescridland apologies we seem to be caught in reply chaos ;) my argument is just in support for calling all subscribe-able on-demand audio to be called “podcasts”. That some are delivered by public RSS and some are exclusive to one platform is an implementation detail that most people don’t care about. This is arguing with the OP’s contention that only public RSS delivered audio are allowed to be called podcasts.

Simon Lucy replied to Bed

@bed @jaredwhite @jamescridland

True, on the reply chaos.

I'd only say that if it's only available on one platform (which may even be public) it can't be a podcast because that independence of platform is the real defining characteristic.

If there was an alternative portable open format then there's nothing to stop that being used for a podcast.

R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd: replied to Bed

@bed

"Most people don't care about" anything at all until it is far too late to change it for the better.

Look all around you. This is the biggest community of Don Quixotes I've ever seen, and once we get a taste of the freedom from corporate-controlled garbage, we ain't letting go of it.

I'm all for "lost" causes, because they're only truly lost when you decide to surrender them.

@simon_lucy @jaredwhite @jamescridland

Bed replied to R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd:

@RL_Dane @simon_lucy @jaredwhite @jamescridland I don’t disagree. My point is argue against exclusivity itself. Don’t argue semantics on terminology

R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd: replied to Bed

@bed

But even the semantics are a bloody corporate PsyOp. :blobcatverysad:

If the corporations think it's important enough to pour millions into re-defining a word, is that definition then inherently worth fighting for? I certainly think so.

I'm not even necessary anti-capitalist; I'm seeing where things are heading and I'm responding with one big fat "Aw hail no."

Corporate efforts toward digital hegemony doth make digital socialists of us all.
Or digital chattel.

@simon_lucy @jaredwhite

@bed

But even the semantics are a bloody corporate PsyOp. :blobcatverysad:

If the corporations think it's important enough to pour millions into re-defining a word, is that definition then inherently worth fighting for? I certainly think so.

I'm not even necessary anti-capitalist; I'm seeing where things are heading and I'm responding with one big fat "Aw hail no."

Bed replied to R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd:

@RL_Dane @simon_lucy @jaredwhite it’s a nice ideal, I just don’t think it’s particularly pragmatic. Good luck tho!

tomasino

@jamescridland @jaredwhite this is good writing. It's frustrating to see the term slipping away from what we want it to mean, especially when it feels intentionally hijacked by business interests. Still, language describes common usage. It doesn't prescribe it. You're on the money.

Mike Currie

@jaredwhite this is silly. A show doesn’t stop being a
Podcast just because it goes to a different platform.

Mike Currie

@jaredwhite also think about shows where extra episodes are Apple only - are all the other episodes ‘podcasts’ but those exclusive ones are not?

Jonathan del Strother

@jaredwhite I agree on a technical level, but feel like this is the cracker/hacker argument all over again. It’s doomed to follow whatever the masses think it’s called

Richard Young

@jaredwhite There is a certain irony in choosing to die on the hill of a word that is derived from the playing of audio files on a specific company’s specific device. (We can agree to differ: sometimes you just have to let the language evolve. ‘Podcast’ has come to mean non-linear spoken audio, I’m afraid. Just as it’s no longer files played exclusively on iPods, it also now applies to BBC Sounds shows, et al 🤷)

OldeNaturalist

@RichardYoung @jaredwhite the responses to this remind me of Brian Deer, the man who exposed Andrew Wakefield as a fraud.

Whilst Wakefield was ultimately responsible for his fraudulent MMR "research", Deer would take no responsibility for the headlines and pages of nonsense that his, and other media, printed that propagated the big lie.

Journalists and media appear to bother little about facts and truth in the main, as long as they have *something* to write.

Fish Id Wardrobe

@jaredwhite this this this. It's a podcast if I can listen to it in my app of choice – which for the vast majority of app means RSS.

bazkie bumpercar

@jaredwhite hmm is that so? I figured the word comes from the 'ipod', so I thought the opposite: anything that isn't intended for apple specifically isn't a podcast. Not that it matters, since colloquial blah blah

FC Stoffel

@jaredwhite Well said. But unfortunately a lot of people don't care and are stuck forever in their little ecosystem. Let them have their tiny experiences. And stop telling them about the open and federated world of RSS. They are afraid, that it's a world of witchcraft where dragons roam.

Dr Bob

@jaredwhite Perfectly enunciated, lips read!

If I can’t get it on #Overcast, I’m not getting it! @marcoarment

Camiel Hirschberg

@jaredwhite What i still don't get is that Apple goes "hey, please use our podcast app" but then it can't even sync listening progress between devices, that's so dumb

Jerry Goldbaum

@iwamoto @jaredwhite Been using Apple Podcasts app for years and with my HomePod devices. No issues with sync.

Adnan 🦙

@jaredwhite @donmelton I know the ship has sailed on the term “podcast”.

DELETED

@jaredwhite You're right of course, but good luck fighting that battle. To journos, a podcast is anything that's audio that's not on the radio

RJ

@jaredwhite Apple wouldn't know (or support) an open standard if one smacked them in the face.

Bluszcz

@jaredwhite #Spotify is shit for the artists, perhaps one of sorts things which could happen...

Buying album clearly distributed the money, which is never case for Spotify or similar shit

Leocadio A. de Melo

@jaredwhite 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿 that simple!

Phipio

@jaredwhite Are you sure you are not just mad, because you haven't subscribed to "Enlightenment Through Capitalism" for only 14.99/Month.

If you sign up now within the next 30 minutes you get your first month for only twice the price of a single month!

"All your friends will envy you, trust me, bro!" - The Internet

David Stein

@jaredwhite While I agree, I fear you may be fighting a losing popularity battle against those who believe podcasts to be any audio show delivered over the internet.

Alejandro Martinez

@jaredwhite and a video show in youtube is not a podcast either

Joshua Newton

@jaredwhite hmm, sounds a bit exclusionary thinking in this way though? The average consumer perceives a podcast as listening to an audio show on a podcast platform. Not sure force framing it in any other way increases value? 🙂 this sounds more like a helpful technical point to improve the standard

Jerry Goldbaum

@jaredwhite Ship has sailed on that. Any audio that is streamed, a discussion or otherwise, regardless of the app that receives it is a “podcast”.

Stephen Gower

@jaredwhite I get where you're coming from, but it's not a hill I'm going to die on. Now, trying to call someone's YouTube video a podcast...that's where I draw the line.

Kolombiken

@jaredwhite
I’ve seen ”Please subscribe to our podcast on Instagram!”

So I guess it needs to be said:
Two people talking to each other in a video only available on Instagram is not a podcast!

Phillip Winn

@jaredwhite I 100% agree, despite the claims made by two persistent commenters in response to this post. They’re unconvincing to me. An on-demand audio show I’m forced to use a particular app to listen to is not a podcast. Spotify can call those shows whatever they want, that doesn’t make their labels true. If their co-opting of a popular label fools some in the press, that’s sad. We have so many examples of that in every area of life, it shouldn’t be hard to understand that this is another one.

This is one of the most disappointing things Apple has done, from where I sit. Just terrible behavior from a company that should know better.

@jaredwhite I 100% agree, despite the claims made by two persistent commenters in response to this post. They’re unconvincing to me. An on-demand audio show I’m forced to use a particular app to listen to is not a podcast. Spotify can call those shows whatever they want, that doesn’t make their labels true. If their co-opting of a popular label fools some in the press, that’s sad. We have so many examples of that in every area of life, it shouldn’t be hard to understand that this is another one.

Daniel Smith

@jaredwhite *opens door - peeks my head in the room for a moment*
an idea borrowed from Patreon would be to have each episode exclusive to a platform for 1 week, and then widely available after that. It's a bit of a middle ground (but perhaps that doesn't make anyone happy :)

It doesn't work so well for up-to-the-minute stuff, but there's much otherwise.

*closes door - pads away silently*

Christopher S

@jaredwhite Absolutely 💯, this. If it is in a closed ecosystem, it is NOT a podcast.

Max Leibman

@jaredwhite YES. I don’t see this one as much lately, but I also want to add: a YouTube channel is not a podcast.

(I know there are podcasts they also appear on YouTube, but I mean things that are YouTube native and not released in an rss feed.)

British Tech Guru

@jaredwhite sadly, you used the word reporter. Media journalists generally don't know very much about any subject and the little they do they seek to use to sensationalize as much as possible.

Lance

@jaredwhite Well said. I don't subscribe to any streaming audio services, and I regularly listen to podcasts on an Android device. I'll never hear shows on proprietary platforms.

oldmanmike

@jaredwhite and any “reporter” on Twitter is a PR person, people talk shit all the time.

lertsenem

@jaredwhite The D&D alignment chart meme but for what is a podcast.

Chaotic neutral: A youtube channel is a podcastLawful evil: a music playlist is a podcastChaotic evil: an Apple audio show is a podcast
Dave Winer ☕️

@jaredwhite -- i just saw this, thanks for defending podcasting. i see you're getting some flack on this, i recommend just muting it. there is nothing to debate on this imho.

Kat M. Moss

@jaredwhite Joe Rogan, anyone? Then again, he's somewhat irresistible sometimes.

kennon :VIP:

@jaredwhite Abso-fucking-lutely.

I might also throw in that a Youtube channel is not a podcast. I run into that one a lot.

Travis Fantina

@jaredwhite the walled garden is precisely the reason I switched from Spotify to Tidal, any company that’s interested in owning the “podcast” landscape is not a company I want to support.

Steve

@jaredwhite 'podcast' has an established meaning. It's like email being an open standard. Personally I'd have issues with the 'pod' part as I never owned an Apple audio player.

Adam McCue

@jaredwhite I dunno, seems contrary to the etymology of the word podcast.

benx

@jaredwhite

The recuperation of the term podcast is criminal and regularly annoys me also.

Gregory B Sadler

@jaredwhite I'd add that a show that is just video, with no audio location, let along RSS feed isn't a podcast either.

I get invites from people who want me to come on their "podcast", which is basically just doing a Zoom call that goes into their video channel

Vladimir Chicken

@jaredwhite YES! Same for some BBC "Podcasts" which can only be accessed in BBC app.

Ephraim Z. Hoogenblatter, Jr.

@jaredwhite I don't disagree, but your first point is more than a little ironic, given that the term "podcast" is rooted in the name of an Apple device.

loucovey

@jaredwhite so far, I haven’t found any show that isn’t available on multiple services. Which are you talking about?

pato 🦆

@jaredwhite related but also unrelated -> I worked for a publishing company that put audio files on DVDs and called them podcasts

a1

@jaredwhite I have yet to stumble upon a podcast which I wouldn’t have preferred to be written text as I read fast and skip crap but can’t do that with podcasts (or videos for that matter). Oh the time-saving art of reading!

Keith :csharp: :veritrek:

@jaredwhite @jeffjarvis if I can’t listen to it on PocketCasts, it doesn’t exist

Gareth Simpson

@jaredwhite

I understand why you want to make that distinction but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me when you compare it to other similar concepts. We don’t usually mix the medium and specific characteristics of the distribution method.

TV remained TV when cable subscription services came along.

Podcast is (or has become) the popular name for non-live, episodic audio. RSS or no. Paywall or no.

Sumocat 🐈‍⬛

@jaredwhite Podcast is an exclusive term for podcasts that are not exclusive.

Rev. Kellyn Delgado

@jaredwhite We should add Video shows and Video Podcasts to the discussion as well. I've seen a disturbing trend of people making Video versions of their shows and only putting them on #YouTube and calling them Video Podcasts. Those are not Podcasts either, even if YouTube provides an #RSS feed for the channel.

It's only a #Podcast if it has an RSS distributing the media. I really wish more Video Podcasts existed because it would be a great alternative to subscribing to YouTube channels.

Hunter Gough 🍦🌹

@jaredwhite it's only a podcast if it plays on an iPod. Otherwise it's just a streaming whine.

TootUncommon

@jaredwhite

I've never seen something so uncontrollably furious over a distinction so minor and pedantic.

Do champagne. Tell us how it *has* to be from the correct region. Or the difference between "affect" and "effect" and how you literally want to eat a person's family for using the wrong one.

Oh and be sure to put👏the👏clap👏emojis👏👏between👏each👏word👏 so everyone sees you Mean Business.

CausticMango

@jaredwhite is the complaint that the term shouldn’t apply if the feed has items exclusive to a channel or that such exclusivity shouldn’t exist?

LucanH

@jaredwhite it is safe to say you are a tradionalist? 😅

Joshua

@jaredwhite definitely not one that's only on YouTube

Morten Bay

@jaredwhite Interesting, considering the "pod" in "podcast" comes from the iPod, where the phenomenon originated (I agree with you, of course...)

Todd Cochrane

@jaredwhite While I agree the listener does not literally give a shit, and that is what we also must remember that we serve audiences, and as pure as one wants to be, the Audience does not care, and that ship has sailed.

We know what a podcast is technically, but listeners are defining podcast in many ways we have to recognize that.

Matt Ferrel

@jaredwhite you may be right, however you are not fighting a losing battle but one that is already over.

Jason Weill

@jaredwhite I’ve seen some great television programs that are only available via media that don’t conform to standard television tuning mechanisms, though

alcinnz

@jaredwhite There's a few of these companies striving to monopolise the industry through "exclusives" on their apps.

"Apollo" comes to mind right now, I can't say I like their artistic style judging by one of their public feeds... Feels overly dramatic with little substance.

Others buy out successful indie creators in hope their audience follows them.

Though what really strikes is the whole reason I started getting into podcast fiction is to avoid DRM, & what is Apple doing?

Alan Bradley

@jaredwhite @robincapper@mastodon.no See also Spotify-hosted stuff.

Justin Maxwell

@jaredwhite fundamentally (semantically) i agree with you but that's not how language works and this is a lost battle.

GB

@jaredwhite “You check out this podcast… it’s a nightly video series available for streaming or download on the Paramount+ app. It’s called ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’.”

Paul Foster

@jaredwhite If you forget the casting part, it’s just a playlist of talking. A ‘Podlist’.

David Todd McCarty

@jaredwhite You don’t get to decide what a word does or doesn’t mean, nor do I. Culturally, a podcast is an audio program that is made available as a download to your chosen device, as opposed to a program broadcast live and requiring a receiver. No one cares how it works.

Frankly, I don’t care, but I find language police annoying. On the other hand, the democratic beauty of the RSS feed is a worthy ideal.

Dr Hitchcock

@jaredwhite feel free to subscribe to my music podcast 😉 podcast.str.nz/@starlifterfm/f rock and electronic music colliding!!!

David (fka on bird Toado 2)

@jaredwhite

Ok. Well, as good a hill to die on as any I suppose.

Though “grave disservice” might be a skosh hyperbolic. 😉

txt.file

@jaredwhite what about atom feeds instead of proprietary RSS feeds?

Hippasus500 aka jwn2

@jaredwhite
#podcast #RSS

Talk about your tempests in a teapot…

A citation from Wikipedia might be helpful (but probably won’t as I scan the comments on the thread):

"Podcast" is a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast".[9][10][11] The earliest use of "podcasting" was traced to The Guardian columnist and BBC journalist Ben Hammersley,[12] who coined it in early February 2004 while writing an article for The Guardian newspaper.[13]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

@jaredwhite
#podcast #RSS

Talk about your tempests in a teapot…

A citation from Wikipedia might be helpful (but probably won’t as I scan the comments on the thread):

"Podcast" is a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast".[9][10][11] The earliest use of "podcasting" was traced to The Guardian columnist and BBC journalist Ben Hammersley,[12] who coined it in early February 2004 while writing an article for The Guardian newspaper.[13]

Mike Ramberg

@jaredwhite i won't use stitcher because you can only listen to what they approve, no free-range RSS fees allowed. How crappy is that?

Mike Ramberg

@jaredwhite actually if you want to get pedantic podcasts should only be on iPods, hence the name, and on any other device should be called streaming internet audio shows, or somesuch.

Eric Mann

@jaredwhite I get your point, particularly re: Spotify and RSS. But given the "pod" in podcast literally comes from the Apple iPod ... your first note is a bit hard to reconcile.

daringfireball.net/linked/2022

That said - I 100% agree with your ultimate goal here and I'm merely being pedantic about things because I'm bored, not because you're wrong.

🟢-🟢-Jon-Agirre-🟦-🟦-

@jaredwhite With all due respect, a “podcast” is precisely an audio show that can only be played on an Apple player on an Apple device. "Podcast" is a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast". We might want to find a better word for what you are proposing?

Alan P Parsons

@jaredwhite why does it matter? creators and service providers should be able to pursue revenue strategies like subscriptions for recorded audio and video content without needing to include advertising in their content.

Joel M. Benge - Nerd That Talks Good

@jaredwhite As one of the original "pod casters" (when there was a frickin' SPACE in the word), hear hear!

GET OFFA MY LAWN!

daryl :verified: 🤡

@jaredwhite Damn right! been screaming this since 2005. (yes, that is when I started podcasting)

traecer 🍂🍁

@jaredwhite I'm getting sick of "journalists" coming to platforms we made and telling us what the platforms are and how to use them.

steelman

@jaredwhite I haven't come here to argue, but if memory serves me well it was Apple who invented Podcasts when they started selling iPods, so techically… And I suspect it was a business decission to build RSS reader into iTunes, so costs of content hosting could be externalized.

And as much as I like open stuff, I'd kind of understand those walled gardens if they enabled authors to monetize their work. I think about these platforms like cable TVs.

Adara Astin

@jaredwhite I agree with this sentiment and I'll raise you one:

Any reporter who report on anything by using words without knowing what they mean is doing a grave disservice to their audience and their profession.

Edwin Downward

@jaredwhite I'm also seeing a lot of video only shows calling themselves podcasts.

Frank derFrankie Neulichedl

@jaredwhite I actually disagree - the meaning shifted to this definition years ago as originally it was „an audio show that was broadcast to an iPod“ … many people didn’t like that and tried other definitions like audio casts - it didn’t stick. Now podcast just means “audio shows that you can subscribe and listen to in an app” - and that is fine - even though I am a fan of the open podcasts and format

Jack Regan :screwattack:

@jaredwhite Do you want to be technically correct or do you want people to know what you’re talking about? Language adapts to how people use it.

Sparr

@jaredwhite Wait, what? It's right there in the name. A podcast is exactly a broadcast audio show meant to be subscribed/listened/played on an iPod (apple device), managed through (as far as most users are concerned) the only program that can do so (iTunes, apple player/software).

Ricky Buchanan

@jaredwhite this is a literal accessibility issue for some of us too

Due to disability issues I can only listen to audio that’s slowed down by a bunch, 50% at the moment

This VASTLY limits my choice of players because very few of them think about the teeny percentage of users who need to slow audio down. Spotify doesn’t let you slow audio down (at least last I checked) and Apple Podcasts won’t go slower than 75% so it’s useless for me.

I need actual RSS as an access issue

Mike Mathews

@jaredwhite Agreed. But we had audioblogs in the 1980s, pre-web! Well before the word "podcast" was created for iPod marketing and I'd prefer having a non-Apple name for online or download audio. @leo promoted "netcasts" for years, but it never took off.

harmonicarichard

@jaredwhite Today I just wrote about how I stopped listening to podcasts during the pandemic, in favour of audio books. I loved podcasts, but now that they're just a different form of commercial radio my interest has waned, I dislike hearing US centric ads in Europe.

Karl Fuzz

@jaredwhite ha agreed but the name came from the iPod!

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