HACKER Q&A
📣 justsomedude11

When will we have a centralised podcasting platform?


I'm subscribed to about 100 podcasts and use a nice little app for my phone. There are a few that I really like and I want to pay for premium content, but it's just so damn inconvenient. For every podcast that I want to pay premium content for, I have to download their app and install it. If I do that for every podcast I'm willing to pay for, I'm looking at about five extra apps at least plus those creators that don't have an app, but instead release their premium content on Patreon.

This inconvenience is the reason why I refuse to pay at all. Are we anywhere near having a centralised podcasting platform where we'll be able to easily pay for content and have it all under one app or are creators not interested in something like that?

My other question is, is this a good idea or am I making a mistake by supporting the idea of such a platform? Reason I'm asking is, I recently de-Googled and de-Amazoned myself because EvilCorp reasons. If I pressure creators into moving to a centralised podcasting platform in order to get money out of me, am I helping create another big EvilCorp who will take advantage of their position down the line and start abusing podcasters in a similar fashion Amazon is doing to writers?

  👤 latexr Accepted Answer ✓
Several prolific podcast creators would argue that being decentralised is a feature, and they worry about your last point. I haven’t saved any of the conversations to be able to link you to, but if you search in Marco Arment’s twitter[1] or perhaps Daring Fireball[2] and their podcasting friend’s circles (like Relay FM[3]), you may be able to find specific arguments.

NPR’s announcement of RAD[4] or Spotify getting into podcasts[5] are bound to have generated comments from those sources.

You may also try asking Marco on twitter. He seems to have strong feelings on the subject.

It’s worth noting that several podcasts are part of networks but are still open to listen to in any platform, such as 5by5[6], Radiotopia[7], and the aforementioned Relay FM—which also has an app[8].

[1]: https://twitter.com/marcoarment

[2]: https://daringfireball.net/

[3]: https://www.relay.fm/

[4]: https://rad.npr.org/

[5]: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/5/18243729/spotify-podcast-s...

[6]: http://5by5.tv/

[7]: https://www.radiotopia.fm/

[8]: https://www.relay.fm/app