Notices by James Cridland (james@bne.social)

@evan A quick and simple answer: interop.

The RSS feed is the primary distribution tool for podcasts (not the case for blogs). With podcasts you get the full experience whatever you use to consume it (whereas blogs via RSS are almost entirely unformatted text, very different to a blog on a webpage with fonts and styling and graphics and layout). The directory of RSS feeds is essentially free using Apple’s search and discovery APIs, or those of Podcast Index (again, blogs mainly don’t have this). And the audio file plays on everything, unencumbered by DRM.

It’s all interop. It’s why the fediverse is interesting (there are many parallels to podcasting here).

Interop is the foundation of podcasting. And, arguably, why it still has problems monetising and with analytics - because it was built to be as open as possible.

@fahrni @evan There is an Open Directory operated as a non-profit. It’s run by @adam and @dave - and it’s free for everyone. https://podcastindex.org

No podcast apps build their own directory really, except Spotify (and Apple of course). Everyone else uses Apple’s APIs or Podcast Index. Some odd corporate things like iHeart or SiriusXM have their own podcast directories, I guess, but they’re few and far between.

Here’s (I think) a full list of them all.
https://podnews.net/article/all-the-podcast-directories

The tale of two search engines.

Google, which uses its crappy AI to give a confidently wrong answer on every search. Or @kagihq which a) is confident enough to tell you if it doesn’t know, and b) only uses AI if you end a query with a question-mark.

Guess which search engine I use. #kagihq

Ah, I was unaware that the ABC has decided that it’s going to play the click bait game of not telling us the actual news story and just posting nonsense like this. This has no place from a public broadcaster. #AusPol

On the day the BBC closes its BBC Sounds app to international users, Spanish broadcaster RTVE says "hold my beer", and decides to cut off open, free podcast apps in favour of Apple and Spotify. What is it with European broadcasters?

https://podnews.net/article/rne-blocks-open-rss

I'm speaking on Clubhouse (right now!) about Podcasting 2.0 and Podnews. Come join!

https://www.clubhouse.com/room/lgpcEYoZdLUAN1v:4-zwKGE_kGDG5TncvdbH-HZupqGzZViylW42Uio17H8?utm_medium=ch_instant_invite&utm_campaign=1kp1JvgzIXD05g8qf8AaRg-1859215&chs=4dJSGZKN%3AKyIxRgMbkEAebJuCYiPux--dCTC6HyTe4vEYPtQdJU8

Listen Notes seems to be suggesting that there are LOADS of active podcasts this year: double the rate of last year.

But, Podcast Index claims 477,891 have updated in the last 90 days.
That number this time in 2024 was 452,602.
And this time in 2023, that number was 487,364.

I don't really understand the difference. @js @dave what say you?

https://www.insideradio.com/free/podcast-boom-active-podcasts-numbers-are-soaring-in-2025/article_8754ebbf-d776-4f34-8def-54985c47f417.html

Always nice to read from big companies about Podcasting 2.0 things. Here's a blog post from Supporting Cast, highlighting how NPR is using the podcast:funding tag. Go podcasting! https://www.supportingcast.fm/post/rss-funding-tag

I’m not allowed to talk about iOS26 - because if you download the developer beta, one of the terms you agree to is confidentiality (which makes me wonder about those YouTubers breathlessly covering every little thing).

The one thing I’ll say is that the changes to Apple Podcasts, particularly the multi-speed playback that can be saved specific to each show, is a game changer. So I’m back on this for now. Let’s see how well this works as a daily driver.

Spotify, publicly: "these selected creators who add video see amazing increases in consumption!"

Also Spotify, to selected creators: "if you add video, we'll give you $5000 in ad money to market it"

https://podnews.net/update/spotify-free-money

A dumb question: Podnews has over 500 citations on Wikipedia (yay!) but has no Wikipedia page. That might be nice. Are there any Podnews supporters who might be able to help there?

Exciting, @samsethi - my phone has your fancy app on it. All works so far…

This @tailscale post from Avery Pennarun made me switch Podnews's log-in cookie from daily to "permanent" (in fact, it's yearly). Very good article.

https://tailscale.com/blog/frequent-reath-security

My latest Radioland radio trends newsletter - a fancy title in Latin which won't do much for the SEO. Also mentions Bauer closing every radio station outside of London I've worked for, Radiodays Asia, 612 ABC Radio Brisbane, and BBC Radio 2. You're welcome!

https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/meliora-consilia/

@cubicgarden Interesting bit on Techgrumps regarding "self-hosting". While you were talking about your own hardware, @wendyg was talking about self-hosting her own stuff with a provider. Both equally valid, of course.

My blog is "self-hosted" but also it isn't: it is self-hosted because I'm not using Medium or Blogger or whoever; but it's not self-hosted because it's using flat-file Amazon S3 with a CDN in front of it. My Bitcoin node is actually self-hosted (using Umbrel on a Pi in my house), which offers much the same apps as @yunohost which you mentioned.

I don't know what the words are for "self-hosted but not on my metal" vs "self-hosted on my own hardware"; I'm nervous about self-hosting on my own metal for things that require constant security updates; and I think there are interesting reasons to do both.

(I'd also question your assertion that "it is getting more popular now". Citation needed!)

I think it's now clear that Google is lying to me. The latest about the odd podcast downloads - all coming from its audio news service. https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/odd-podcast-downloads/

Woot! Pocket Casts has been updated - now with "podroll" creator recommendations. It also supports the funding tag, as seen here.

My big story for later today... how disappointing.

https://podnews.net/article/radio-canada-versus-open-podcasting

#podcasting #podcastingchannel

CBC just called the Canadian election for the Liberals. So that's nice.

(If you're #auspol what they really mean is the good people, rather than the conservatives, who are the equivalent of the nasty, racist liberals we have here, who you will not be voting for on Saturday because you're a good person).

This is very cool - using OP3's real-time API, it's a live look at who is listening and where they are. https://earport.vercel.app

Amusingly, Indonesia and Malaysia is full of people listening to Podnews, because of Google...

Anyway - one for @js