I agree 100%. The defining characteristic of a podcast is how it is distributed. Otherwise it's just an audio program. However, we are losing the word already. The least technical people I know think "podcast" means any kind of audio program with talking.
As in, "Hey I just started a podcast on youtube!" but literally it's just a yt channel.
your podcast app should be able to subscribe to a Youtube channel. Youtube links that feed as a recognizable `<link rel=...>` tag, so even if your app doesn't index Youtube you should be able to just paste that 'youtube.com/@MyChannelName` URL into it and it'll figure out the actual feed URL from that.
There are no audio files in that RSS, so how would podcast apps be able to do anything with it (unless they reverse engineer Youtube's non-public player API)?
That's really what it is to me too, and I'd consider myself pretty technical: A podcast is what I can listen to in the gym or on my bike without missing anything important on the video.
The only difference to an audiobook is that Podcasts are usually free and often (but not always) in serial format, but these boundaries are blurring more and more.
That said, I do definitely prefer open RSS distribution than something like "Youtube for Audio", and I'm glad there isn't any such thing (yet), but I wouldn't not call a podcast exclusive to Spotify, Apple etc. "not a podcast", just an annoyingly-distributed podcast.
> A podcast is what I can listen to in the gym or on my bike without missing anything important on the video.
If I were listening to a talk show on a pocket FM radio while in the gym, would you call that a podcast? What about a an audiobook on a cd player? How about a 30 minute audio recording my wife made to encourage me that I saved in my phone? If not, why not?
> As in, "Hey I just started a podcast on youtube!" but literally it's just a yt channel.
That's always worth a laugh. But I have seen actual podcasts that did this, too. They have a real audio podcast, but also put up a YouTube video of them making the podcast.
Do it live on Twitch. Publish video recording on Youtube. Audio as podcast. Transcript as blog/newsletter. Short snippets on Tiktok. Images with quotes on Instagram...
colinsane|2 years ago
your podcast app should be able to subscribe to a Youtube channel. Youtube links that feed as a recognizable `<link rel=...>` tag, so even if your app doesn't index Youtube you should be able to just paste that 'youtube.com/@MyChannelName` URL into it and it'll figure out the actual feed URL from that.
lxgr|2 years ago
speckx|2 years ago
lxgr|2 years ago
The only difference to an audiobook is that Podcasts are usually free and often (but not always) in serial format, but these boundaries are blurring more and more.
That said, I do definitely prefer open RSS distribution than something like "Youtube for Audio", and I'm glad there isn't any such thing (yet), but I wouldn't not call a podcast exclusive to Spotify, Apple etc. "not a podcast", just an annoyingly-distributed podcast.
getoffmyyawn|2 years ago
If I were listening to a talk show on a pocket FM radio while in the gym, would you call that a podcast? What about a an audiobook on a cd player? How about a 30 minute audio recording my wife made to encourage me that I saved in my phone? If not, why not?
JohnFen|2 years ago
That's always worth a laugh. But I have seen actual podcasts that did this, too. They have a real audio podcast, but also put up a YouTube video of them making the podcast.
qznc|2 years ago
Do it live on Twitch. Publish video recording on Youtube. Audio as podcast. Transcript as blog/newsletter. Short snippets on Tiktok. Images with quotes on Instagram...