Spotify is buying up all the popular podcasts and removing them from the commons in order to drive you to their platform.
Podcasts have somehow stayed open access, built on standards, and just (mostly) work. Moving them to a proprietary platform just so a few people (ie: not you) can make money is bad for everyone who isn't making money. (ie: you.)
@readsteven There was a time when every podcast wouldn't shut up about how important it was to get stars and comments on iTunes, which is arguably just as much a proprietary platform. Not arguing against you on the importantness of open platforms, but I just see it as one proprietary platform trying to wrestle another one for the spot of top dog. So far, none of the podcasts I listen to seems to have been affected and hopefully none will be exclusive but rather view it as another distribution platform. My podcast app has not yet asked me to log in to spotify.
@espen Apple podcasts is just an aggregator of RSS feeds. They don't "own" podcasting. Yes, they like their RSS feeds in a specific way, but connecting your podcast to Apple doesn't change how your podcast operates. It still syndicates openly and you can use any player for them.
People want reviews on Apple because it's a popular aggregator, and higher reviews means more eyes.
Spotify "podcasts" aren't podcasts. They don't syndicate like podcasts and the Spotify app is required to listen.
@espen Today it was annouced that Joe Rogan's podcast (Which has an audience of at least a hundred million regular listener/viewers) will be exclusive to Spotify. It's only the latest exclusive, but by far the biggest. They've been collecting them for more than a year. https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/joe-rogan-experience-spotify-podcast-exclusive-1234610885/
A 'real' podcast is just an RSS feed with a description and a link to an MP3. Apple provides a listing service for them, with a layer of reviews and ratings on top. The podcast app downloads the MP3s.
@readsteven Oh that is interesting. Thanks. Like I said, if things go exclusive, then they are pushing it too far and I have an issue with them
@readsteven Thats probably why I'm getting confused. Like I said, I don't listen on spotify because I find it more cumbersome, but as far as I have observed, many if not all of the podcasts I listen to are available on spotify, yet all are also available elsewhere. So I have not observed any podcasts that are exclusively available through Spotify. I'm open to the fact that you might have had other experiences and there are indeed shows that are only available though spotify and nowhere else, but as mentioned, that's not my personal experience. They appear more like an aggregator, like iTunes and distribution network.
I was unaware that Tunes only distributed RSS feeds, I was under the impression your could download the actual podcast file from apples systems.