I guess it’s like articles / blogs going behind paywalls…
More like if blogs felt they had to host on the paywall company’s free tier or risk not having an audience in the future.
I get podcasting and money are heavily entangled at this point, but a lot of it still isn’t commercial or is lightly commercial. I don’t agree with giving up on it just yet.
I don’t imagine Spotify will be buying the rights to whatever your favorite three-guys-in-a-room with a microphone podcast is. They seem to be most interested in creaming off the top few percent and leaving the rest to Apple.
Someone was going to do it eventually…makes sense for it to be Spotify, who are already primarily in the audio business.
Again, all Apple does with podcasts is maintain an RSS feed. As far as I know, anyone can use their catalog. I know my player uses it because it’s (supposedly) quite good, but you would never know Apple had anything to do with it.
Yeah, you all seem to be very focused on Apple. Remember that outside of the US, Android is a lot stronger and this is more of an issue of single platform/paywall or free, irrespective of where you source it from. As Lee said, apple just has a list like all other podcast apps…
Are we having a disagreement on this point that I’m unaware of?
Ahh ok, well you said “leave the rest to Apple.” Just wanted to say they aren’t leaving them to Apple, they are leaving them to everyone else.
Well…that’s a fair point. I really just meant that the bulk of non-Spotify podcast listening is done through Apple. Obviously there are many smaller players as well.
Apple just happens to host the biggest open podcast directory. All Android podcast apps (except Spotify et al) are pulling from its directory.
It’s not a pro-Apple thing, it’s a pro-open-web thing.
Needless to say, Marco Arment has feelings
Funny, though, how Marco doesn’t often mention that he made money when Gimlet Media sold to Spotify. He did mention it before, but during the inevitable rant during this week’s ATP I hope he mentions it again.
I don’t even know who that is, but how fucking asinine. These are just radio shows over the internet. Expecting them to not sell out early and often is just rank idiocy.
Marco has two main gigs: He makes Overcast, one of the leading apps for podcasts on iOS (still a rounding error for the Podcasts app); and one of the hosts for ATP, a podcast that makes about 15k a week.
So, yeah, he is protecting his marketshare on both sides of this.
I don’t listen to Joe Rogan, but if any of the podcasts I follow went exclusive to a single platform (Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, etc) I would not follow them there. I happen to use Tidal already for music, but am glad they don’t really bother half assing podcasts.
I do support some of my more unique / smaller podcasts where I perceive my donation matters more, and think everyone should - I think everyone should pay for at least one source of written news as a civic duty, and the same goes for podcasting (if you listen to any). I’m fine with podcasts going private, so long as I can load that private feed into my preferred podcast app and forget about it.
I don’t blame Marco. I worry about a world where podcasts become like games and streaming TV where I have to go to a bunch of different apps/players to get to the content I want. I like the way it is now and don’t want that ruined.
Sure it’s inevitable, doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Remember a few years ago, when Gruber didn’t get a review unit of a new iPhone (I forget which), and a whole bunch of his Daring Fireball posts were pretty much, “this fucking YouTuber got a review unit, and I didn’t?”
Marco sounds like that here:
I mean, I don’t see how this fails Joe. Unless the deal is whacky, he is going to make north of 50-mill a year, and likely more. Gruber I think is correct here in comparing it to Stern. If Stern was successful with Sirus – when you needed dedicated hardware and two subs to listen to him – Joe is going to be successful.
I don’t think this has much to do with the “three dudes and a microphone” podcast fears, though.
It doesn’t, as mentioned above, none of those will get deals like that, but some of the mainstream stuff I listen certainly will. That’s part of what I am worried about. Not that I care that much about any of those podcasts.
I don’t like stuff like Stitcher either, but at least I can still listen to their podcasts in a regular player.
It’s just a weird hill to die on. He’s not going to lose his audience. His fans will follow him. A huge, huge number of them already use Spotify. We’re not talking about some out-of-the-mainstream platform here. Hundreds of millions of people already use Spotify every day.
It seems like there is a certain type of techie who really gets hung up on the term “podcast”. It’s just media companies buying exclusivity with each other. It’s not really something to have aneuryism about.
Marco’s angle I slightly get. He makes a podcast player, so the more content behind an appwall, the less demand for his app. That said, I think a large part of his user base are the techie/RelayFM market, so anything with Spotify isn’t likely to matter.
That said, this on-brand for their reaction.
I mean, I use Spotify. What I don’t use it for is podcasts, because it’s bad at them.
Yes, this exactly