5 ms·

You most likely just don’t realize that your podcast app of choice actually gets its list of podcasts from Apple. That’s the authors point of Apple hosting it f

by watson 3y ago

You most likely just don’t realize that your podcast app of choice actually gets its list of podcasts from Apple. That’s the authors point of Apple hosting it for free for everyone.

dpedu 3y ago
It's possible that is happening under the hood, but none of the feeds I'm subscribed to are on a URL clearly owned by apple.
- remh 3y ago
  it's the list of feeds that is hosted by apple (think of it as a search engine for podcasts), not the actual feeds or media files.
  - dpedu 3y ago
    Ah, my app doesn't have a directory of feeds. It requires that I add urls directly.
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    This would only matter in any way if you think that listening to podcasts is primarily a hobby that people engage in for its own sake. If you think they listen to some podcasts and not other podcasts because they care what's in the podcasts, why would they care if Apple hosts a list of podcasts?
    - remh 3y ago
      discoverability, if a friend talks to me about a podcast I could be interested in, i'd rather just have the name of the podcast than a full URL. Here i can just use any podcast app that integrates with Apple podcast service and type the name of the podcast i want to listen to. Your question is the same as: "Why do you care if $YOUR_SEARCH_ENGINE (google, kaggle, duckduckgo) hosts a list of websites?"
      - thaumasiotes 3y ago
        You can already find the podcast by name using the normal internet method of searching for it. Where does Apple come into it? The last search engine to host a list of websites was Yahoo!, and nobody did care.
        remh 3y ago
        sure, you can use google or a search engine, look in the results for the actual feeds url (vs just a website or something), and copy paste it in your podcast player. Or you can just search from it directly in your podcast app. The UX on the latter side is clearly superior.
        colinsane 3y ago
        not to mention that unless the podcast has an official site, a Google search for the feed will turn up 10 different mirrors of the feed, without any clarity about which one's the canonical source. in the past i've subscribed to a dead feed this way i think because the author changed who they syndicate through. i assume Apple's directory is maintained in a way that largely avoids this (simply by it being the canonical directory).
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        ska 3y ago
        > You can already find the podcast by name using the normal internet method of searching for it. You could, but I suspect most people search in their podcast app. Which is where apples directory comes in.
        Talanes 3y ago
        A lot of smaller podcasts don't have much web presence outside of their RSS feed, and often have pretty generic titles to boot.
- EricE 3y ago
  yes, but the app you used to find that feed most likely used Apple's directory to find it. Unless you went to each podcasts web page directly and picked the RSS feed directly from them.
colinsane 3y ago
my feeds seem to all be: `<title>.libsyn.com/...`, `anchor.fm/.../rss`, `feeds.feedburner.com/<title>`, `feeds.megaphone.fm/<title>`, `feeds.simplecast.com/<title>`, `omny.fm/show/<title>`, `rss.acast.com/<title>`, `rss.art19.com/<title>`, and then a bunch of `<showname>.com/rss` for shows which host their own website and link a feed from there. i recognize art19 as an amazon thing, and megaphone as a Spotify thing (or a thing which Spotify acquired?). i have no idea what any of the others are associated with. is one of those websites run by Apple?
- Kwpolska 3y ago
  The Apple thing is the podcast directory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 Most (all?) feeds in there are not hosted by Apple. Many non-Apple podcast apps use this to power search and discovery features.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  The feeds - the actual rss files - are not hosted by Apple. But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple.
  - pessimizer 3y ago
    > But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple. I do not know what you are talking about here. Apple has a podcast index. Podcasts do not need Apple's podcast index for anything. You can find a feed by going to the podcast's site and clicking on it, or googling the name of the podcast + rss. Or in any number of ways, really. Apple is one of many podcast indexes. So no part of a podcast is hosted by Apple, unless the podcast is actually an Apple podcast.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - 3y ago

by watson 3y ago

You most likely just don’t realize that your podcast app of choice actually gets its list of podcasts from Apple. That’s the authors point of Apple hosting it for free for everyone.

dpedu 3y ago

It's possible that is happening under the hood, but none of the feeds I'm subscribed to are on a URL clearly owned by apple.

remh 3y ago
it's the list of feeds that is hosted by apple (think of it as a search engine for podcasts), not the actual feeds or media files.
- dpedu 3y ago
  Ah, my app doesn't have a directory of feeds. It requires that I add urls directly.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  This would only matter in any way if you think that listening to podcasts is primarily a hobby that people engage in for its own sake. If you think they listen to some podcasts and not other podcasts because they care what's in the podcasts, why would they care if Apple hosts a list of podcasts?
  - remh 3y ago
    discoverability, if a friend talks to me about a podcast I could be interested in, i'd rather just have the name of the podcast than a full URL. Here i can just use any podcast app that integrates with Apple podcast service and type the name of the podcast i want to listen to. Your question is the same as: "Why do you care if $YOUR_SEARCH_ENGINE (google, kaggle, duckduckgo) hosts a list of websites?"
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      You can already find the podcast by name using the normal internet method of searching for it. Where does Apple come into it? The last search engine to host a list of websites was Yahoo!, and nobody did care.
      - remh 3y ago
        sure, you can use google or a search engine, look in the results for the actual feeds url (vs just a website or something), and copy paste it in your podcast player. Or you can just search from it directly in your podcast app. The UX on the latter side is clearly superior.
        colinsane 3y ago
        not to mention that unless the podcast has an official site, a Google search for the feed will turn up 10 different mirrors of the feed, without any clarity about which one's the canonical source. in the past i've subscribed to a dead feed this way i think because the author changed who they syndicate through. i assume Apple's directory is maintained in a way that largely avoids this (simply by it being the canonical directory).
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - ska 3y ago
        > You can already find the podcast by name using the normal internet method of searching for it. You could, but I suspect most people search in their podcast app. Which is where apples directory comes in.
      - Talanes 3y ago
        A lot of smaller podcasts don't have much web presence outside of their RSS feed, and often have pretty generic titles to boot.
EricE 3y ago
yes, but the app you used to find that feed most likely used Apple's directory to find it. Unless you went to each podcasts web page directly and picked the RSS feed directly from them.

colinsane 3y ago

my feeds seem to all be: `<title>.libsyn.com/...`, `anchor.fm/.../rss`, `feeds.feedburner.com/<title>`, `feeds.megaphone.fm/<title>`, `feeds.simplecast.com/<title>`, `omny.fm/show/<title>`, `rss.acast.com/<title>`, `rss.art19.com/<title>`, and then a bunch of `<showname>.com/rss` for shows which host their own website and link a feed from there. i recognize art19 as an amazon thing, and megaphone as a Spotify thing (or a thing which Spotify acquired?). i have no idea what any of the others are associated with. is one of those websites run by Apple?

Kwpolska 3y ago
The Apple thing is the podcast directory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/genre/podcasts/id26 Most (all?) feeds in there are not hosted by Apple. Many non-Apple podcast apps use this to power search and discovery features.
madeofpalk 3y ago
The feeds - the actual rss files - are not hosted by Apple. But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  > But the index of those feeds (the podcast search engine essentially - how podcast apps turn 'Three Dudes Talking' into a libsyn feed url - is hosted by Apple. I do not know what you are talking about here. Apple has a podcast index. Podcasts do not need Apple's podcast index for anything. You can find a feed by going to the podcast's site and clicking on it, or googling the name of the podcast + rss. Or in any number of ways, really. Apple is one of many podcast indexes. So no part of a podcast is hosted by Apple, unless the podcast is actually an Apple podcast.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - 3y ago