When Apple broke the openness of Podcasts

When Apple added Podcast-support in iTunes, they really did improve the overall adoption of Podcasts. The number of Podcasts available spiked dramatically, providing people with tons and tons of niche Podcast to choose from. Podcast had become the new media, and also the new word of 2006!

However there is also a dark side to this story. Apple introducing special iTunes code in the XML accompanying the audio-files. This broke with the delivery-standard and upset the existing Podcast-publishers. And as there is no support for the open source audio format; OGG Vorbis in iTunes, it effectically killed Podcasts as a free and open media. And turned it into another iTunes-feature.

It is possible to publish a Podcast without the iTunes code and at the same time have it work in iTunes. However, it will not be included in iTunes Store's Podcast directory! - Which today is the #1 source users look to for Podcasts. - And you will have to publish it in the proprietary MPEG file-format.

The Podcast �movement� was a grassroot one, it wasn't invented by some multimillion-dollar corporation or foundation. It was created by users and private content-publishers, moving a formerly popular hobby, of having your own raadio-station, into the Web 2.0-age. Thus the format was originally entirely open, and the name was chosen because of the creators love for their iPods.

Then came Apple. What Apple does best is take something someone already has invented, and do it better and make it popular. Which is exactly what happened with Podcasting. It had already become somewhat popular, and was beginning to pop up in the media, but it wasn't yet mainstream. So Apple included full support for it in iTunes, and added a directory for them in the iTunes [Music] Store. And with that it exploded.

Today everything is Podcast, even summaries of Simpsons-episodes. Businesses have found Podcasting to be immensly successfull to build better customer relations. Everyone has gotten a voice online, and users are being able to decide for themselves when they want to listen to their favourite show.

When Apple added the Podcast-support, they decided it was missing something, so they introduced the �enhanced Podcast�, with new tags including the �iTunes-brand�, allowing the publisher to add images and more information to their subscriptions. And the Podcasting-community exploded. These features were already available, following XML-standards, but Apple had to come and make the entire open Podcast-movement into a proprietary thing. Now Apple owns Podcasting.

The superior and (one of the very few) open audio-format OGG Vorbis was also a great part of the first Podcasts. But Apple's iTunes doesn't support OGG Vorbis, so now it is almost dead in that context.

Podcast syndication had unwillingly become a proprietary matter…

Thanks to Christian Knappskog for helping me with this entry.

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3 comments

I've never been much into podcasting. And now I know why.
This tactic reminds me of the "golden years" of Microsoft. Force the customers to use their software, and do not let them have the opportunity to use anything else to see or read their documents. In many ways this reminds me of the .doc vs .odt "battle" that has been going on for quite some time now.

On a side note; I'm not sure who is the worst enemy of the open source movement Apple or Microsoft.

Comment by Kent Vegard Evjen at 2007-01-18 @248.

Really couldn't care less.

OGG Vorbis can in either way be converted to Apple Lossles for the same quality of sound, playable on iTunes.

Ogg Vorbis is also supported by iTunes through a codec (though probably not through the store).

There's a reason why it wasn't so broadly used before Apple improved Podcasting. It wasn't intuitive enough, and that's a killer for me.

I like intuitive things.

.doc and .odt really shouldn't be an issue.
You shouldn't send raw format files to customers, friends or family anyways.

Use PDFs instead.

Comment by Magnus Damli at 2007-01-18 @827.

Oh, by the way, you're not entitled to use MPEG for podcasts. Apple Lossless works just fine, or H.264 for video.

Comment by Magnus Damli at 2007-01-18 @827.

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