<story><title>BBC podcasts on third-party apps</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/d68712d7-bd24-440f-94a0-1c6a4cdee71a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lbacaj</author><text>Technically speaking the way Podcasts work is a fascinating thing.&lt;p&gt;Most on HN May be familiar with this already but Podcasts are completely open and a creator simply publishes an RSS that they then provide to a podcast App such as iTunes so it can appear on the Apple podcast app. In exchange most of these podcast apps share any listen counts and analytics with the owner of the Podcast. However, almost always the files are hosted by the owner so the plays could also likely be counted that way. Even the artwork and everything is provided with this RSS that is completely open.&lt;p&gt;More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. Not sure if that’s what is happening here, it’s unclear from the article, but just think Podcasts are one of those last few technically open things on the internet and that’s great.&lt;p&gt;They are so open in fact I was planning on adding them to my audio App I’ve been building which lets people listen to any article right now. The more this closes up the less of an opportunity for people to create useful things and for people to find new ways to stay informed.&lt;p&gt;As a shameless self promotion if your interested in having articles read to you on the go try my app &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;articulu.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;articulu.com&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>simias</author><text>Admittedly I don&amp;#x27;t consume a massive amount of podcasts but I don&amp;#x27;t have a problem with this move towards a more closed platform. If people want to make money from their work as podcasters they basically have three possibilities: beg for donations, ad tons of ads before, after and often in the middle of the podcasts or move to a subscription model (which means the podcast is no longer available for free).&lt;p&gt;Since I vehemently despise ads I have no issues with the subscription model as long as it remains convenient to play the audio any way I feel like (i.e. no intrusive DRM).&lt;p&gt;So I actually think that&amp;#x27;s a good evolution overall, I wish more of the internet moved away from ads and towards other monetization models.&lt;p&gt;For your audio app I suppose that it&amp;#x27;ll mean that you&amp;#x27;ll have to strike a deal with the podcast platforms to share some of the revenue or figure out an API to let people use their license keys on third party players. I understand that it&amp;#x27;s annoying but that sounds perfectly fair to me.</text></comment>
<story><title>BBC podcasts on third-party apps</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/d68712d7-bd24-440f-94a0-1c6a4cdee71a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lbacaj</author><text>Technically speaking the way Podcasts work is a fascinating thing.&lt;p&gt;Most on HN May be familiar with this already but Podcasts are completely open and a creator simply publishes an RSS that they then provide to a podcast App such as iTunes so it can appear on the Apple podcast app. In exchange most of these podcast apps share any listen counts and analytics with the owner of the Podcast. However, almost always the files are hosted by the owner so the plays could also likely be counted that way. Even the artwork and everything is provided with this RSS that is completely open.&lt;p&gt;More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. Not sure if that’s what is happening here, it’s unclear from the article, but just think Podcasts are one of those last few technically open things on the internet and that’s great.&lt;p&gt;They are so open in fact I was planning on adding them to my audio App I’ve been building which lets people listen to any article right now. The more this closes up the less of an opportunity for people to create useful things and for people to find new ways to stay informed.&lt;p&gt;As a shameless self promotion if your interested in having articles read to you on the go try my app &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;articulu.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;articulu.com&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rbinv</author><text>You seem to be rather shameless yourself as you&amp;#x27;re still annoyingly dropping links to your app any chance you get (almost no matter the topic).&lt;p&gt;This was even mentioned to you roughly a month ago by someone else:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=19287119&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=19287119&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Didn&amp;#x27;t seem to have much of a lasting impact on you.</text></comment>