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Podcasting is Not Walled (Yet) (rakhim.org)
Rakhim Davletkaliyev, a software developer, writer and podcaster, recently launched two new podcasts. One of the things he was asked by people following the launches was "but how do I subscribe, it's not on iTunes/Google Podcasts?" He writes: Podcasts are simply RSS feeds with links to media files (usually mp3s). A podcast is basically a URL. And podcast clients are special browsers. They check that URL regularly and download new episodes if the content of the URL changes (new link added). That's it, no magic, no special membership or anything else required. The technology is pretty "stupid" in a good way.
Ever since tech companies started waging war against RSS, podcast distribution became visually RSS-free. What do you do to subscribe? Easy, just search in the app! For the majority of iOS users that app is Apple Podcasts, and recently Google made their own "default client" for Android -- Google Podcasts. It looks like podcast clients are similar to web browsers and just provide a way to consume content, but the underlying listings make them very different. Corresponding services are actually isolated catalogs. When you perform a search on Apple Podcasts, you aren't searching for podcasts. You are searching for Apple-approved podcasts. And if the thing you're looking for is not there, then... well, you get nothing.
Most Podcast clients still accept RSS. Apple Podcasts, iTunes, PocketCasts, OverCast, PodcastAddict. Google Play Music doesn't say anything explicitly, but you can just put RSS URL into the search field and it works. For now. I won't be surprised if these apps gradually and silently remove this feature.
Ever since tech companies started waging war against RSS, podcast distribution became visually RSS-free. What do you do to subscribe? Easy, just search in the app! For the majority of iOS users that app is Apple Podcasts, and recently Google made their own "default client" for Android -- Google Podcasts. It looks like podcast clients are similar to web browsers and just provide a way to consume content, but the underlying listings make them very different. Corresponding services are actually isolated catalogs. When you perform a search on Apple Podcasts, you aren't searching for podcasts. You are searching for Apple-approved podcasts. And if the thing you're looking for is not there, then... well, you get nothing.
Most Podcast clients still accept RSS. Apple Podcasts, iTunes, PocketCasts, OverCast, PodcastAddict. Google Play Music doesn't say anything explicitly, but you can just put RSS URL into the search field and it works. For now. I won't be surprised if these apps gradually and silently remove this feature.
If this guy can't go to the trouble of registering his podcast with the normal services which delineate podcasts, I can't be bothered with tracking it down nor listening to it.
The bulletin board days are behind us, neck beard. Get your shit together and join the real world. Stop acting like some social misfit. Nobody wants to hear about your 20 sided dice anymore.
you think this story is not goddamn stupid?
Look at you. Everyone wants to punch your face.
Recently, Apple, Google, and Facebook have colluded to censor views with which they disagree by removing authors from their platforms. The populist right wing in particular communicates by podcasts, and Apple and Google recently removed some, including some very popular ones, from the podcast indices that their walled-garden apps provide. TFA higlights the lengths to which Apple and Google go to make their indices seem the only avenue for surfacing content to users of their default applications, although the underlying technology is in fact open and accessible outside those indices and apps. That openness provides an avenue for resisting censorship, but the viability of that resistance relies on users understanding something about how RSS works.
In a wider context, this is also important in the overall contest between open standards like RSS and the closed approaches of centralized tech. Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al. despise RSS because it is impossible for them to monetize or censor and replicates much of their functionality. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are all built around the idea of a feed/wall/stream, which is basically RSS. The tech companies would love to kill off RSS and provide ad-filled, censored, feeds/walls/streams under centralized control instead of decentralized RSS feeds that anyone can publish. Hiding the RSS in podcast apps may work towards that goal.
"We...have the moral responsibility to educate the public about the way the internet was supposed to be."
OK, so don't distribute your work from a service that requires a proprietary client. It might require a bit more effort on your part, but otherwise you are planting your seeds in the walled garden.
Yes, there are IOS drones (the walking dead) who have never seen anything that isn't distributed on iTunes. That doesn't mean you have to cater to them.
Don't you mean audibly? Or, as is more commonly used, virtually?
I must’ve missed the news stories about this “war”.
Or, perhaps, podcast apps decided to add a different, easier way for the average user to subscribe to podcasts because the average person doesn’t find RSS to be particularly user-friendly.
#DeleteChrome
Dump the smart phone if they're going to start blocking. Why have one?
Rakhim is great specialist with non-standart thinking and he is not afraid finding new and better ways to solve any type of problem successfully.
A podcast client is a bit more than a web browser with RSS support. People are looking for more than that anymore in an podcast client. They want to be able to stream or download it. They want to be able to speed up / slow down playback. They want to support both audio and video podcasts. They want cross-device placement/bookmark sync. They want intelligent downloading so they don't blow their data caps (particularly with cell data). That's a bit more than just a web browser with RSS support.
But I do agree with you on the big players trying to take a chunk out of RSS podcasts and RSS in general. I talked about that in https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10677653&cid=54511965
But here is the thing, content rules. If people can't get the content that they want on big players app they want, they'll use a different app. Encourage you're content creator to stay platform agnostic. This doesn't let the draconian big players isolate content. If the big players want that content, force them to add support for open standards like RSS in their apps.
No good deed goes unpunished.
podcasts? seriously? its 2018.
What with the censorship by Google, Twitter et. al., I really don't want mega corporations telling me whom I may and may not listen to.
Using Safari to listen or watch a podcast doesn't cut it for a variety of reasons.
It's time to resurrect dedicated rss players and bypass the Internet's censors.
Nothing wrong with a good walled garden.
I would have summarized this differently. It looks like he's saying these two programs, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, have UI problems that ironically make those programs difficult to use for podcasts. They're probably pretty good at playing audio that those companies want to promote, but not so good for podcasts. If you're into podcasts, you probably don't use these companies' software.
It's just like you would never use some TV company's software to watch video. I don't need an app from CBS or HBO or Netflix. I have mpv. Your job is to sell content that works with a standard player, or else stand aside when I pirate everything you have and teach everyone I know how to do it too. Just as would be the case with a "podcast" that you can't play on any generic podcast player.
The parallels are striking. They think they're trying to win, but they're just training the public how to see through, and get out.
At least Google is finally making some useful hardware. Chromecast Audio is turning out to be one of the neatest toys in the last few years. But I don't want their services, any more than I'd want Disney's TV app.
People paywall themselves by buying into the Google or Apple or Facebook ecosystem. The rest of the Net is still out there and working just fine, even if most people aren't using it.
I don't respond to AC's.
RSS and things built on top of it like Podcasts are good for users. But the technology is bad for advertisers. If you see criticism of RSS, look closely at where it comes from. If it comes from someone trying to sell you something, take their advice with a grain of salt.
It's been said before that advertisers and ad brokers are at a disadvantage with RSS. But Web 2.0 developers that wish to sell frameworks and services are also at a big disadvantage too. You'll see self-described web experts that disregard RSS as being primitive, limited, or no longer relevant. But I have to wonder if this has more to do with such "experts" trying to compete with a free and established technology.
Still, I believe it is inevitable that RSS will die. Take Usenet newsgroups for example, that is basically dead, at least in terms of being a widely used communication hub as it once was. What replaces it? A fractured set of isolated web forums (that includes /. and Reddit). Instead of having a huge global network of message boards, we have tiny isolated communities, and even that medium is dying out. Replaced by the top post schemes of Facebook groups, Google+, and Twitter.
Why did Usenet die? There are many factors, but one of the big ones is that it's hard to get ad revenue from running a news server and easy set up on a web forum.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Podcasts is where my Zune still rocks. Seriously.
I purchased mine shortly after MS had thrown the proverbial towel, and local stores were getting rid of their inventory. I've been using it daily since, to keep up with a dozen or so podcasts. The software is a no-brainer - hook up the device, launch the software, and it'll sync automatically - removing anything you've listened to, and adding anything new. Except for shutting it down/launching it, I don't even have to look at the UI (I have to go through these motions as it won't re-detect the device being (re-)connected once the software is running). That's really its biggest flaw - a tiny one for sure.
It'll take a raw URL to any RSS feed for input, and I don't need anything fancier.
podget is a shell script. Probably 17 years old and I still use it. Give it a list of RSS URL and it will download the latest mp3 to the disk, keeping track of the downloads so it only gets the latest.
The only problem I have is web sites that have forgotten how to supply an rss URL, instead expecting everyone to be using an 'app' from their walled garden.
Any idea how to add the infowars feed to my podcast app?
I tried pasting:
http://rss.infowars.com/Alex.rss
To the search field on "my podcasts", as well as the more general search button. I am assuming that is the right URL, and the copypaste for direct reference is in older tech support posts as well as the title of the article.
I wonder what Alex Jones actually got right, that he had to be forcibly deplatformed from like a dozen places. Apparently I have hours of manic rants to sot through, but mostly the show is entertaining.
Well, it's been deleted from Stitcher and Player FM, in addition to the bigger players mentioned in TFA. It seems that you can still listen via http://rss.infowars.com/playlist.xspf (note: not RSS) using VLC.
The podcast link to the real RSS feed seems to be
http://xml.nfowars.net/Alex.rss , which works in iTunes (I tested it). The directions on Jones' website for subscribing are wrong: clicking on the buttons his site provides gives you the latest RSS file as a download, but it doesn't subscribe the feed in macOS (I tested it). You need to copy the URL and paste it into your podcast app.
I would never have subscribed to this on my own, but I searched out how to do it because of the ban that's been placed on him. Streisand effect blah blah. The censorship through which he has been put exceeds any qualms I might have had about his content.
You do know that anyone can censor stuff right? It's not restricted to the government.