How iTunes Hurts Podcasting - Technology Evangelist

I just listened to a podcast that you'd really enjoy. It's an hour long, so you probably can't drop what you're doing right now to listen to it, but if you agreed that it sounded interesting, you'd probably click on a this link to download it through iTunes so you'll have it ready when the time is right to listen to it on your computer or using your iPod. Of course, the link labeled "this link" above doesn't actually go anywhere because it isn't possible to generate a link from an iTunes subscribed podcast for a web site.

I'm not going to share the cool podcast I listened to with you because Apple makes it too much of a pain to do so.

While YouTube makes it extraordinarily easy to link to or embed video content in a blog, MySpace page, etc., Apple has not provided similar collaborative features in iTunes.

Here's what I expect to be able to do with podcasts:

1. Listen to podcast
2. Like it
3. Decide to share it
4. Find it in my Podcast Library
5. Ctrl-Click on it
6. Copy podcast URL
7. Add to web page
8. Have the option to share individual podcast URL or podcast subscription URL.

That's is a simple and intuitive process for sharing great content, and seems like something Apple would want to enable since it causes iTunes users to actively market iTunes to their friends.

But here is how it actually works today:

1. Listen to podcast
2. Like it
3. Decide to share it
4. Find it in my Podcast Library
5. Ctrl-Click on it
6. Realize there is no sharing feature in iTunes

Which forces me to:

A1. Click on iTunes Store
A2. Search for the podcast I'm already subscribed to
A3. Ctrl-Click on it
A4. Click "Copy iTunes Store URL"
A5. Link to the iTunes Store URL
A6. Explain to people which of the podcasts in the subscription is the one I thought was cool. Of course, this one could be gone from the feed by the time they check it out depending on how the feed is set up.

Or I could:

B1. Search Google to find a link to the podcast on original site
B2. Link to the podcast's blog page
B3. Which may or may not have a simple process in place for pulling that podcast into iTunes

Rather than going through the pain involved in sharing great content . . .

Rather than making my friends jump through hoops to hear what I recommend . . .

Rather than promoting great content being created by great podcasters . . .

. . . I delete the podcast while cursing iTunes.

Great points, James. Yes, there are things that can be done by podcasters to make their podcasts easier to share. This was meant to be a look at what iTunes could be doing to make their service more valuable. As your examples show, the burden is on podcasters and podcast listeners to make up for inadequate sharing features in iTunes today.

The iTunes Store links are turned on by default in iTunes. Just highlight the podcast, click the arrow, right click, "copy iTunes URL", and paste. It will take the person direct to the exact podcast you wish while showing them the rest that author has put up.

Now I agree on the point of easier sharing. Apple should have a "share" or "send to a friend" link on the podcaster's iTunes site for easier sharing.

There is the website link on the iTunes page, which if a person is podcasting they have to have a place to host their files with the required RSS feed.

A lot of sharing falls upon the podcaster themselves. Many people find my podcast and are able to share it without issue.

The title and tone of your article makes it sound like you're whining. Because iTunes isn't hurting podcasting, it only is hurting the iPod, unless you wrongly assume all podcasting must go through iTunes and the iPod. Your premise should've been "Apple is making the iPod less valuable by not making it easier to share iTunes podcast links through a webpage."

Because as you said (buried way down in your article), it's not a problem to put the original podcaster's link in a webpage, but if you do so the reader will have to go through extra steps to get it into iTunes and onto an iPod.

Taking such an approach would elicit a lot better reaction from others and from Apple.

Maybe the title of your story should have been "How iTunes could improve Podcasting" or something to that effect. The iPod has made podcasting what it is today. Could it be better. Yes. But what's with the attitude.

James was spot on and you didn't like what he has to say. You are just looking for extra hits with that headline and I suspect you may get equally nasty replies. Negativity begets negativity. Constructive criticism begets more constructive criticism and positive solutions.

Great tip, Spider. Sending people to the correct podcast within the feed is an improvement over sending them to the feed, then leaving it up to them to dig for the appropriate episode. However, this still involves looking up the podcast in the iTunes store rather than sharing directly from my podcasts directory.

Mark, I an whining. I certainly could have written the same article from the perspective of how this hurts Apple. Maybe it does, but maybe they don't see podcasting as a make or break deal for iPod sales (or music through iTunes), so I decided to look at it from the perspective of podcasters who face an uphill battle growing their subscriber base due to iTunes' poor sharing features.

Fair points, nerrad. My negativity comes from frustration with a product I use an love but expect more from.

I'm not sure this is Apple's fault. When I click on the little left arrow next to the "KCRW's The Business", it automatically opens my browser and sends me to KCRW's The Business site directly. Then I can point people to the homepage, where they can get the iTUnes podcast link or just click on a Listen link and hear the podcast in the browser.

As for sharing straight from iTunes, I would imagine that Apple doesn't want that much traffic to the store for free podcasts. Keep in mind, Apple doesn't run any advertising in the Music Store, unlike YouTube, so basically they host your podcast out of the kindness of their cold, corporate heart. I can see why they don't want to make it too easy for you to share the iTunes podcast.

They're giving you the ability to reach more people, but obviously they'd prefer that you host the podcast on your own site and pay the costs.

They could go the other way, but then they'd probably need to start charging for podcasts (which will kill podcasts altogether) or add advertising to your podcast page on the Apple store to bring in some revenue (which you'll scream bloody murder about).

What comes to me right now is an old saying : "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." or even better, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, shove your arm down its throat, and then check if it's a boy." Be thankful someone's broadcasting your material without slapping ads all over it and they don't make you pay for it (it's not like Apple makes you prove you own an iPod in order to host on iTunes, which would be reasonable in my opinion).

If a podcaster doesn't set up a webpage to refer listeners to so they CAN share a podcast, that's the podcaster's fault.

3.) When someone tries to perform a task that isn't immediately obvious on the surface, they give up.

Matthew, just to clarify: iTunes does not host podcasts. They simply point to the podcast's location on the web, so there are no bandwidth or hosting costs coming out of Apple's pocket by providing easier access to podcast content.

Paul: 1) no, I'm trying to make it easier for people to discover podcasts through word of mouth rather than stumbling upon them through other means, 2), no, but it's the largest, 3) this is why so many VCR clocks flash 12:00.

Maybe it's not quite the solution you want (but it's easier than the convoluted one you say is the present way to do it) is to save your favorite podcasts as a playlist and send that playlist to a friend. Itunes recognizes the playlist and the links to the podcasts.

Apple could make it easier on the user by having the podcast MP3's URL saved with the MP3. That way it can by copied via iTunes. This is a simple feature addition that did not require a whole whining article.

But, of course, again, a specific podcast can simply be emailed to another person if sharing is desired. That way, the person doesn't have to even look up the URL or podcast website.

It makes sense to give podcasters control over sharing. They may not want early podcasts, which may be no longer useful, for example. Podcasters may want a subscription to a podcast - and payment at their site may be required before a podcast can be downloaded. Etc.

The podcaster has to have a website which hosts the podcasts. The podcaster can also have users directly download podcasts from the site. Or the podcaster can have users click on a button to immediately subscribe to their podcasts in iTunes.

The iTunes store provides a means to aggregate podcasts. But it is not the only means to do so. The iTunes store also provides a link to the podcaster's website, which the user SHOULD refer to if they want to share podcasts.

Andrew, great idea. It's a bit trickier than what I'd like to see, but at least it works.

James, in my Utopian world, podcasters would focus on creating great podcasts while podcast aggregators would provide tools that make it easy for people to discover and share great content.

Podcasters would still have control over sharing. For example, your example of not wanting to share old podcasts is covered by the podcaster's control over which items they put in their feed. This has no impact on paid podcasts.

I realize that Apple doesn't host the podcasts. It's similar to how Democracy Player doesn't host videos. Yet they manage to provide "Share It" icon next to each file that takes me to an "Email to Friend" form pointing my friend to the download location. I don't have to email an attachment.

I think you summed up the point of the post very well here: "Apple could make it easier on the user by having the podcast MP3's URL saved with the MP3. That way it can by copied via iTunes." I think my examples helped explain the reasons why this simple feature is worth adding, thus justifying the article.

We just released a new RSS video aggregator based on FireAnt platform that supports blog permalinks and open dialogue with content creators (via direct embedded creator webpage). Of course it supports "email this"...

It's stand alone and has integrated video podcast channel guide from Network2 and FireAnt. It's bulletproof and fast.

I - the podcaster - would like to create a web page with links to a podcast on it. I don't want my video podcast displayed on iTunes directory, and I'm not sure if they would have me. I simply want to be independent, and put a podcast link on a web page, and make it incredibly easy for users to listen to and share my podcast.

I can do 1-click subscribe for Democracy. Brilliant! But Democracy is more of a video player, and my podcast is music videos. I want users to be able to use iTunes to mix videos in with their audio playlists, or music video playlists. And move songs to their video iPods. Democracy is probably a better podcasting client for video, but podcasting with iTunes is a great medium for music videos. If only there was a simple, standard 1-Click solution, so people could easily subscribe in the first place. (Telling people to cut and paste is never going to lead to mass, unified adoption.)

For Macs, 1-click publishing is a breeze: simply change "http://" in the podcast URL to "itpc://" (or apparently "pcast://"). User clicks link on web page - iTunes launches, subscribes the user, and starts downloading the first video. Excellent. Done.

For Windows, that's another story. I don't know - I"m trying to find out. Apparently Apple has used a non-standard method for Macs, and so has had to come up with some completely different method for Windows. It seems to involve an XML file ending in ".pcast" and configuring some mime-type thing somewhere. Or, installing a PHP script. It's not like a solution is published anywhere, at least that I can find. That's one reason for the next option: publishing your feed through some third party which provides their own 1-click solution - much like Apple does with their directory, I imagine.

We could instead, have a standardized kind of link. Podcaster creates link on web page. Everything works for everyone. Done. I could spend my time podcasting instead of trying to figure out subscription link hacks.

As Ed suggests, it's a complete mess. I'm really not sure *how* I can make it easy for Windows users. Some sites have about 5 different buttons, one for each possible podcasting client. What I'm choosing to do is support 1-Click in Democracy and iTunes, a generic link that people can copy and paste, and a direct download link for each video, which I achieved - I think - by reconfiguring a server configuration file. But multiple buttons is not a solution - it's a workaround.

As Apple is a heavyweight in the podcasting arena, I would expect them to work with the World Wide Web Consortium to create and support a standard that would work for everything. The lack of a standard hurts podcasting by wasting everybody's time.

People are turned off because it doesn't just work. People turn to YouTube - it looks like crap (I think Flash uses a very aged codec), the video is stuck in a browser, it's tough to really share for anyone but publishers - but at least the link works. It's 1996-era video in a web browser.

Podcasting is superior in a great many ways, but it has no link-to-subscribe web standard. As a result, the podcasting community is a series of ghettos whose boundaries are defined by podcasting clients. That's no way to allow mass adoption - that's how to prevent it.

Charles, you linked to the subscription URL rather than a specific podcast in the thread, which is exactly the problem I described in my post.

iPod...Podcast...See the relation there? No iPod, no Podcast. You wouldn't even be able to whine about a PODCAST if the IPOD hadn't been INVENTED

Comments

1. Posted by: James Katt on November 11, 2006 10:59 AM:

The developer of a podcast can easily make it shareable.

He or she just needs to put up a webpage of their podcasts with the appropriate RSS feed buttons so that the user can download it manually or subscribe to their podcasts either played iTunes or other software.

You are wrong:

In iTunes, set the general preference pane to show links to iTunes Store.
This allows you to go to your podcast title, click on the arrow icon and directly go to its page on the iTunes store. You don't have to search for it in the iTunes Store.

If the feed was gone from the iTunes Store, this means the author took it off. This also means if the author took it off from their website - thus preventing it from being shared.

A podcast is not copy-protected or DRM'd. It would be easy to just attach it to an email and send it to whomever you want.

By allowing direct links from your podcast in iTunes to the podcast's page on the iTunes store, it is easy to get the URL of the podcast to share to others the subscription to the podcast. All you do is: click on the podcast title line, click on the button to copy the iTunes Store URL, paste the URL anywhere.

Required fields marked with: *
Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:
Remember personal info?

Comments*:

HTML Tags you can use in your posts:
<b>Bold</b> = Bold
<i>Italicized</i> = Italicized
<a href="http://www.othersite.com">Link to Other Site</a> = Link to Other Site

Please keep comments on-topic. Contact authors or other commenters
directly for off-topic conversations.

Notify me of future comments via e-mail

Technology Evangelist Digest - Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Technology Evangelist Digest to receive daily updates, editorials, and practical advice on emerging technology trends in hardware, software, webware, marketing and beyond.

Technology Evangelist Digest will keep you up to date on the technology trends that will help make you more productive and efficient both in business and your personal life.

Let's face it: If you made it to this line, you must have found something valuable on this page, right? Think about how cool it would be to have something free and interesting to read every day from Technology Evangelist by signing up today.

1. Fill in your email below,
2. Then click on the confirmation email you receive.
3. That's it. Your first Technology Evangelist Digest will arrive within 24 hours.