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>Podcasts are, for the most part, decentralized No, they aren’t. Of course anyone can put up a podcast, but the successful ones tend to cluster into podcast ne
by Sangermaine 8y ago
>Podcasts are, for the most part, decentralized
No, they aren’t. Of course anyone can put up a podcast, but the successful ones tend to cluster into podcast networks of like shows or join the big podcast groups like Nerdist, Wondery, or Earwolf. Or be a part of an established media company like NPR or Slate.
It’s easy to start a podcast but very hard to survive and expand alone.
- zanny 8y agoAdditionally podcast revenue is heavily centralized, which warps the kind of programming around the whims of the sponsors - who are often Amazon or a subsidiary company of another Fortune 500. Within a margin of error I'd imagine virtually all tech centric web content has at some point been sponsored by Audible (Amazon), Squarespace (private), Dollar Shave Club (Unilever), or rarely one of a few VPNs like Tunnelbear or Private Internet Access.
- willio58 8y agoIsn't the idea of decentralization for podcasts to create an open protocol that anyone can conform to at their choosing? It is the choice of the content creator in those circumstances whether or not they join together in a group. Just because clusters form in a decentralized system doesn't mean the entire system isn't decentralized. Organisms do find it easier to survive in groups, but the main point here is that even these groups like Nerdist, NPR, etc. would still have publicly available working podcast feeds if somehow iTunes stopped working tomorrow.