Social Media + Article Society
The Platforms of Podcasting: Past and Present1 John L. Sullivan Abstract This article explores the role of digital platforms in podcasting (both past and present) and their impacts on the emergent podcast industry structure, content, and governance. Nieborg and Poell’s (2018) theoretical framework for understanding the impacts of platformization on culture is leveraged here to better understand the changes underway in podcasting. Like other forms of media, podcasting is being profoundly re-shaped by platformization, though these transformations are distinct from other media in several key ways. Because podcasting emerged as a technology at the beginning of the 21st Century before the advent of social media and the cloud, its decentralized architecture is structured around RSS, also known as “Really Simple Syndication.” When Apple added RSS aggregation into their iTunes Music Store in 2005, their market dominance in digital audio sales shaped early popular conceptions for the medium. I then outline how platformization is reshaping podcasting today by exploring how the three primary functions of media-related platform services – storage, discovery, and consumption – are shaping producers’ and audience experiences. Market imperatives for audience consumption data, as well as the structural features of platforms, are currently fueling industry consolidation. Even though podcasting is built upon the open architecture of RSS, commercial pressures and the desire of market players to capitalize on the “winner-take- all” features of platforms are shaping the trajectory of the medium’s current development.
Keywords podcasting, platform, Apple, RSS, distribution, audio, media industries
This article has been accepted for publication in the journal Social Media + Society. Please carefully note that subsequent versions of this manuscript may have different content.
Podcasting is expanding rapidly as a popular the logics of capital with them. The increased cultural phenomenon, connecting listeners to visibility of podcasting in the past ten years is audio content created by professionals, radio due in no small measure to the market power stations, and amateur hobbyists. Recent data Apple’s digital platform (specifically its Apple from Edison Research revealed that an Podcasts directory, iOS mobile operating estimated 73 million Americans had listened to system, and hardware such as iPods and a podcast in the previous month, and those iPhones). For example, podcast hosting firm audiences listened to an average of seven Blubrry (2017) reported that approximately podcasts per week (Edison Research, 2018). 56% of all podcasts it hosted in 2017 were Encouraged by the huge success of the 2014 downloaded or accessed via Apple’s platform. podcast sensation Serial – which was After years of requests, in late 2017 Apple downloaded more than 80 million times in the Corrresponding Author: first six months (Mallenbaum, 2015) – John L. Sullivan, Muhlenberg College, Dept. of Media entrepreneurs and legacy media companies and Communication, Allentown, PA 18104, USA. with commercial interests in broadcasting have Email: [email protected] rapidly expanded their commercial interests in podcasting, bringing professional standards and
1 The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the Faculty Development and Scholarship Committee as well as the Provost for providing funds to support this research.
May 6, 2019 began releasing some limited forms of podcast commercial pressures and the desire of market consumption data to its users (Kafka, 2017; players to capitalize on the “winner-take-all” Webster, 2017). Other major tech companies features of platforms may begin to take a more such as Google and Spotify have also recently active role in shaping the trajectory of the integrated podcasting into their their own medium’s current development. existing music services, further expanding the potential reach of the medium. Podcast hosting Podcasting and Platformization firms such as Stitcher, Libsyn, blubrry, and Podbean (among others) have also become Platforms can be understood at their most basic important players in the podcasting ecosystem level as “digital infrastructures that enable two by lowering offering ancillary production and or more groups to interact” (Srnicek, 2016, p. data analytical services to podcasters. 43). These infrastructures act as intermediaries This essay explores the role of digital between different types of users, including platforms in podcasting (both past and present) customers, suppliers, producers, service and their impacts on the emergent podcast providers, suppliers, and advertisers. Gillespie "This essay explores industry structure as well as its content and (2018, p. 254) offers a similar definition, noting the role of digital form. As suggested by Srnicek (2016, p. 43), that platforms can be understood as “sites and platforms in the key leverage provided by platforms stem services that host public expression, store it on podcasting (both from the ability of these services to and serve it up from the cloud, organize access past and present) “monopolize, extract, analyze, and use the to it through search and recommendation, or and their impacts on increasingly large amounts of data that [are] install it onto mobile devices”. Platforms consist the emergent being recorded.” In the case of podcasting, the both of the technical infrastructure that allow podcast industry market imperative for audience consumption for sharing of information as well as a set of structure as well as data, in particular, is fueling industry rules (governance) that enable and constrain its content and consolidation among these competing particular types of user activity. The shared form." platforms, though Apple’s early dominance technical infrastructure and open nature of makes it the most likely beneficiary of podcast these platforms2 often provides them with the platformization. The increased centrality of aura of neutrality, much like a utility or common platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and carrier service. Platforms are much more than Google Podcasts will make it more likely that neutral arbiters of interactions and transactions, discovery takes place via these platforms. These however. By shaping the types of interactions major distribution platforms are increasingly among their participants in differential ways, operating as gatekeepers to audiences by platforms can also shape “how modularity and canalizing audience attention into a smaller power are negotiated between a core unit with number of high-profile shows. As I note in the low variability and heterogeneous components conclusion, podcasting’s early roots as a service of high variability” (Plantin, Lagoze, Edwards, & built upon the open architecture of RSS would Sandvig, 2018, p. 298). seem to blunt the forces of platformization In a Web 2.0 era, platforms have gripping other forms of online media. However, become a focal point for scholarly inquiry due to
2 Platforms are “open” in the sense that they enable users to easily create, store, and distribute media content with little to no technical knowledge. This “openness” is bounded in important ways, however. For example, users typically have little control over the storage or modification of their data. Additionally, the algorithms that make their content available to other platform users are often opaque at best.
2 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 their increased centrality in the creation and houses, journalists, and educational distribution of media. The financial success of institutions...as well as content created by major sites like YouTube, Facebook, and iTunes independent radio producers, artists, and radio has encouraged the proliferation of new amateurs” (Bonini, 2015, p. 21). One of the platforms in the marketplace. Nieborg and Poell distinguishing features of podcasting is the (2018, p. 2) have identified these changes as openness of its distribution mechanism. platformization, or “the penetration of Because it emerged as a technology at the economic, governmental, and infrastructural beginning of the 21st Century before the advent extensions of digital platforms into the web and of social media and the cloud, podcasting app ecosystems, fundamentally affecting the features a decentralized technical architecture, operations of the cultural industries.” Their whereby audio content is stored all over the web model emphasizes three specific aspects of and linked together via RSS, also known as platformization: how platforms shift larger “Rich Site Summary” (or, “Real Simple market structures, how cultural production is Syndication”). RSS was initially developed by governed through platforms, and how Dan Libby and Ramanathan V. Guha at Netscape platformization transforms the infrastructure of in 1999 as a text-based tool for allowing users cultural production (via data-oriented practices to get automatic updates from blogs and other such as algorithms, data structures, SDKs, and websites. As an open technical standard, RSS is APIs, among others.). This last element, they free and allows listeners (via a helper app or note, refocuses attention on the “actual “podcatcher”) to locate, subscribe, and listen to production and circulation practices” that are new content without the necessity of visiting a both enabled and constrained by platforms specific storage platform or website (Markman (Nieborg & Poell, 2018, p. 8). Nieborg and & Sawyer, 2014, p. 20). Poell’s theoretical framework is particularly Given its later significance in the useful for understanding the impacts of popularization of podcasting, it is worth noting platformization on culture, and is leveraged here that the seeds of RSS were originally sown to better understand the changes currently within Apple itself. Guha had developed a underway in podcasting. Like other forms of precursor software project in 1995 called the media, podcasting is also being re-shaped by Meta Content Framework (MCF) while he was a platformization, though these transformations software developer at Apple. MCF was intended are distinct from other types of media largely to function as a means to describe and catalog due to the openness of its technical metadata about webpages, but when Steve infrastructure. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as its CEO, he shut down much of Apple’s research activity. An Open Architecture: RSS as Anti Guha then began developing a new version of Platform MCF at Netscape called the Resource Description Framework (RDF) which was based Podcasting can be understood as “a technology in the new XML format (Hammersley, 2003, p. used to distribute, receive, and listen, on- 2). Netscape popularized the first use of RDF demand, to sound content produced by Site Summary (RSS) in its browser by displaying traditional editors such as radio, publishing headlines and links from other web pages within
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 3 a single window, something that was unique to data through which it connects producers and its browser. audiences, podcasting data files are scattered RSS was eventually abandoned at across the internet and connected together via Netscape and left to the developer community. RSS links. Key to the early popularization of the Dave Winer, CEO of Userland software, released podcasting was the ability of programmers like RSS version 0.91, though this competed with a Winer and Curry to leverage the open RSS more complicated and enhanced version of the standard to write new code (iPodder) that would software (RSS 1.0) championed by Rael enhance its features by allowing it to interface Dornfest at O’Reilly (Hammersley, 2003, p. 4). with existing audio playback software (iTunes) The innovation of RSS feeds for podcasting and hardware (iPods). occurred in 2000 when Dave Winer discussed with former MTV VJ Adam Curry the possibility Apple’s iTunes and Early Podcast of leveraging web content syndication for video, Platformization though the technology would be later implemented with audio files (Cochrane, 2005b, Podcasting has been inextricably linked to tech p. 8). Winer developed the concept of giant Apple, which was chiefly responsible for “enclosure” whereby URL addresses could be popularizing it in the early 2000s. In the first passed along to an aggregator. In September few years of its existence, users were required 2003, Winer created a feed with enclosures and to cut and paste RSS links into podcatching married it to a software script he wrote called software in order to download audio files and “iPodder” that would move MP3 files from syndicate (or “subscribe to”) a podcast. In an Userland Radio’s website to Apple’s iTunes era before social media giants like Facebook software (Wikipedia, 2017) and finally to his and Twitter, RSS feeds were popularized via own iPod for listening. Curry’s iPodder was the individual websites, through blogs, traditional first podcatcher to leverage RSS feeds to allow news websites, and via several new online for syndicated audio web content, or directories that were launched in 2005. Two of podcasting. The addition of media enclosures to the most popular directories of the time were RSS by software developer Dave Winer and PodcastAlley.com and PodcastPickle.com Adam Curry allowed for media aggregators to (Cochrane, 2005a). Thematic podcast networks locate and create directories for web content via also began to emerge, such as the feed (For a full discussion of the early history techpodcasts.com, which featured technology- of internet audio, see Berry, 2006; Bottomley, themed podcasts. Users during this era were 2016; Sterne, Morris, Baker, & Freire, 2008). required to utilize a multi-step process to The word “podcasting” wasn’t popularized until successfully listen to a podcast: first, locate the 2004, when journalist Ben Hammersley (2004) podcast via one of these small directories; coined the term in an article in The Guardian (he second, copy the RSS feed address; third, paste also suggested the term “audioblogging”). it into podcatcher software; and finally, Unlike many platform-based cultural download the audio file to the computer for forms available on the web today (such as playback. YouTube for video, Flickr for photos, and While RSS made it technically possible Facebook for social data, for example) wherein for users to subscribe via podcatcher software the platform acts as a centralized repository of like iPodder, the process was cumbersome and
4 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 not well understood outside communities of podcasting into the cultural tech enthusiasts. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs mainstream” (Bottomley, 2015, p. 164). announced the release of iTunes 4.9 at the The structure of Apple’s initial Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on podcatcher interface and governance structure June 28, 2005, he trumpeted its ability to shaped the development of podcasting provide easy access to audio podcasts, calling distribution in several important ways. On the podcasting “TiVO for radio.” Unlike iTunes’ surface, the iTunes version 4.9 podcatcher music store, which sold music MP3 files direct software interface was virtually identical to that to consumers, iTunes operated as a visually of iTunes’ music store, with a search bar attractive and easily-navigable podcatcher, interface to facilitate keyword searches, a list of allowing users to subscribe to RSS-enabled “Top Podcasts” indicating popular or most audio feeds via Apple’s software (see Figure 1). downloaded shows, and thematic categories of As one tech journalist recalled, “prior to the podcast content. To harmonize the podcasts iTunes 4.9 update on June 28, 2005, podcasts section of iTunes with its music store were so clumsily arranged around the internet counterpart (which featured music album and so technologically challenging to use on any covers), Apple introduced cover art for their device other than a desktop or laptop computer podcasts. This encouraged producers to create that only the most tech-savvy even knew they visually stimulating identifiers for podcasts (all existed” (Friess, 2015). Apple’s dominant others were given a generic RSS icon), which, in market share in digital music sales (which turn, shaped consumers’ expectations for reached 69% of the market by 2009) had the podcasts. In his keynote address announcing effect of instantly introducing podcasts to iTunes Version 4.9, Steve Jobs’ enthusiasm for millions of potential listeners (Frommer, 2009). podcasting was specifically linked to larger In essence, “iTunes 4.9 effectively brought companies’ content (including major radio
Figure 1. Apple’s initial podcatcher software in June, 2005 (iTunes, version 4.9)
Image used with permission of AskDaveTaylor.com.
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 5 broadcasters, network broadcasters, infrastructure on market structures. In the case magazines, newspapers, and companies like of podcasting, the decentralized infrastructure Disney, Proctor & Gamble, Ford, and General of RSS is largely responsible for its fragmented Motors) rather than amateurs. Content from structure today. Since 2005, there has been a these institutional content providers was given proliferation of podcast platforms. While this prominent space on iTunes which allowed level of fragmentation would seem to defy the consumers to discover it more readily. This centripetal pull of platformization, recent moves linkage created by Steve Jobs and Apple – toward greater centralization are slowly altering between podcasting and professionalized, the status quo. There are three primary corporate media – bears more than a passing functions of media-related platform services: resemblance to David Sarnoff’s RCA in the early storage, discovery, and consumption. Typical days of radio. In the late 1920s, RCA effectively Web 2.0 platforms such as YouTube, Flickr, defined the practice of radio broadcasting as a Netflix, or Amazon Prime encapsulate all three corporate one-to-many experience, rather than of these functions: they present content for an audio exchange among everyday citizens or users to discover or search through their creative amateurs (see Sterne, et. al., 2008). interface; they serve as a data repository for the Lastly, unlike its music store counterpart, files to be delivered to the user (whether via Apple’s pass-through of RSS feeds meant that download or streaming); and they offer all podcasts were distributed for free on iTunes. embedded playing software to allow users to Since Apple did not choose to host the audio consume media. Other types of interactions are data files for download (thereby essentially made possible by platforms, of course, such as adopting the decentralization model of RSS), it sociality, branding, and advertising, but I argue also thereby rendered paywalls, pay-per- that storage, discovery, and consumption are download, or other monetary exchanges for the core functions without which content podcasting impossible via iTunes. This was one platforms services are incomplete. In the case of the factors that pushed early podcasters to of podcasting, these three functions have been pursue advertiser-supported revenue models. often (though not always) separated into Apple’s iTunes was the first service to offer what different services. As the primary distribution scholars note as a “platform” service for mechanism, RSS is simply a text file that points podcasting, in that it provided a centralized to content housed elsewhere on the web. repository of podcasts for ease of discovery, Consequently, directory services like Apple while also enabling podcasters to easily reach Podcasts (Apple’s new name for its iTunes audiences by bundling their respective RSS podcatcher) point to the content rather than feeds into a seamless digital interface. storing the audio or video files. Podcast data is typically stored on a traditional web host or on a Podcasting’s Post2005 Platform dedicated podcast host site. Second, the Proliferation content discovery function in podcasting is typically served by podcast directories that The first element of Nieborg and Poell’s (2018) organize podcasts into categories along with model concerns the impacts of platform keyword search capability. Third, listeners must
6 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 rely upon software to consume digital audio more easily create a maintain an RSS feed from content. On the one hand, this separation of their WordPress webpages and blogs. Other functions into separate services has lowered podcast hosting services have developed similar barriers for market entrants, creating a rush of WordPress plugins. As interest in podcasting new competitive services specializing in one or has risen dramatically, there has been a rapid more of these functions. On the other hand, the expansion in podcast hosting companies, all of rush of companies and entrepreneurs to enter them promising to streamline the process of the podcasting market has created a somewhat storing podcast audio files, maintaining and confusing and chaotic landscape for both validating podcast RSS feeds, and registering consumers and podcasters. The drive to podcasts on the major directories (discussed streamline the process of podcast discovery and below). These hosting companies include consumption in order to maximize audience size Podbean (launched 2006), Podomatic (in order to capture advertising revenue) is one (launched 2008), BlogTalkRadio (launched of the major driving forces behind the increasing 2008), Audioboom (launched 2009), platformization of the medium today. While Buzzsprout (launched 2009), Spreaker these core functions are outlined separately (launched 2009), Simplecast (launched 2013), below for the purposes of analysis, it’s Fireside.fm (launched 2015), and Castos important to note that they are often less clearly (launched 2017), among many others. Like all demarcated in practice, with some podcast forms of web hosting, there is a monthly services encompassing more than one function. subscription cost associated with podcast These three functions and the current podcast hosting (often graduated according to the platformization trends found in each are briefly number of downloads), so the distributed considered below. infrastructure of RSS ironically may create an initial financial barrier to new podcasters.3 1. Storage Platforms and Consumption Podcast hosting companies are typically the first Metrics point of contact with independent podcasters, and they are the strongest podcast evangelists, Podcasting requires that audio data files are since their business depends upon increasing stored on servers and hosting services. There the number of new content producers. With the are a plethora companies hosting data files, rising commercial potential of the medium, many of which cater to the specific needs of some consolidation has begun to among podcasters. Libsyn (short for “Liberated podcast hosts. In 2017, for instance, Syndication”), launched in 2004, was the first BlogTalkRadio merged with Spreaker, and dedicated podcast web hosting company, recently both companies were bought out by followed in 2005 by Blubrry. These services Voxnest. typically offer podcasters an array of features in A recent entrant to podcasting, addition to the storage of audio files and the Anchor.fm, launched to fanfare at South by management of the podcast RSS feed. Blubrry, Southwest festival in 2016, has staked its for example, developed a plugin entitled business model on providing its users a free, PowerPress in 2008 to allow its customers to “one stop” solution to podcasting (Shontell,
3 This is not the case for two large storage platforms that offer free accounts, SoundCloud and Anchor.fm. Additionally, Blogger.com and Wordpress.com have typically offered free hosting services for blogs.
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 7 2016). Anchor.fm enables users to record audio For context, it’s important to note that directly via a smartphone app, edit the file and Anchor.fm’s share of podcasts eclipses Libsyn, add music via app, upload it to Anchor’s servers, which has a long history as one of the first and distribute it directly to major directories like companies to host podcast RSS feeds. Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, and Spotify, Hosting companies are key players in all for free. Anchor.fm generates income by the podcast market because their platforms embedding advertising across all of its user- allow them to gather valuable data on content produced podcast content. There has been consumption. Specifically, when content exponential growth in the introduction of new directories (like Apple Podcasts) reference the podcasts in the last year, and much of that can RSS feed to signal the transfer of an audio file, be attributed to the success of Anchor in the podcast host registers the download from lowering the entry barrier to podcast its server and notes the distribution source for production. As Figure 2 illustrates, despite its the download as well as the operating system recent market entry, Anchor.fm hosts 9.4% of all (desktop, iOS or Android). Although podcast podcast episodes listed on the Apple Podcasts metrics are still in their infancy and there has directory, second only to Soundcloud, which been much debate among industry players also offers free file hosting and audio streaming. about the appropriate consumption data, one key measure has been “downloads per episode” (DPE) as reported by the podcast host. Figure 2. Podcast media hosting services In 2017, hosting companies, along with (all time) advertisers, ad agencies, podcast networks, and representatives from public radio, collaborated under the auspices of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to create a set of podcast measurement standards (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2017) that were based largely on the DPE standard. This move placed podcast hosts as the central platforms in the generation of an industry-wide standard for podcast consumption (Fleck, 2018). The file storage platforms, then, act as a service provider to both podcasters and advertisers, though in distinct ways.
2. Discovery Platforms and the Threat of Podcast Enclosure Source: Chartable.com. (2018, August 29). What’s really the top podcast hosting service? Since audio files are scattered around the Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https:// internet and locatable via their RSS feeds, the chartable.com/blog/whats-really-the-top- second major function of podcast platforms is to podcast-hosting-service
8 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 facilitate the discovery of those podcasts and to linking their apps to the Apple Podcasts allow listeners to “subscribe”, which then API. Apple’s terms of service also provides them updates when new content is introduces a form of editorial control over added for a particular show. Network the content and presentation of podcasts externalities play an outsized role in podcast on its directory. Recently, podcast hosts discovery, since listeners gravitate to directories have received complaints about their that allow for greatest ease of discovery and shows being “de-listed” from Apple that have the most comprehensive directories Podcasts for violating its rules or terms of (network externalities are also key for search service. For example, Apple does not engines, and account for the huge market allow its name or the names of its advantage of Google, for example). Discovery products to be in any podcast title, it platforms typically do not store the audio files blocks long podcast titles, it prevents URL on their servers, and instead pass through the links from podcast show notes and even MP3 file that is accessed from the podcast host polices cover art images (Cochrane & server. Like the MP3 file itself, the RSS feed acts Greenlee, 2018). Apple Podcasts currently as a “container technology” (Sterne, 2006). The acts also as an archive for podcast shows, most dominant directory is Apple Podcasts allowing listeners to discover shows that (formerly iTunes), which has enjoyed a are no longer being actively produced significant “first to market” advantage such that (something that podcasters call most podcast listeners in the United States “podfaded” shows). Some estimates are today are accessing those shows via Apple’s that perhaps only half of the more than directory (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 500 thousand podcasts listed on Apple 2017). While there are over a hundred podcast Podcasts have posted new content in the directories online, there are only two other past three months (Goldstein, 2018). If significant discovery platforms: Google Play Apple were to automatically “de-list” Music and Spotify. Professional and indie podcasts that had not recently updated podcasters are often bewildered at the panoply their content, for example, Apple Podcasts of distribution outlets. Most aim to include their would look quite different and much shows in as many discovery platforms as content would become almost impossible possible to maximize audience traffic. This has for listeners to find. Podcasting’s fueled the growth in podcast hosting platforms dependence on platform APIs like Apple’s that promise a “one stop” solution for is similar to trends in other social media distribution via the largest directories. such as Facebook and Twitter, wherein Nieborg and Poell’s (2018) model upstream decisions by the platform about draws attention to the re-alignment of technical information distribution can have infrastructures thanks to the expanded reach of profound consequences for downstream platforms via algorithms, SDKs, and APIs. In the services, apps (Kastrenakes, 2018), and case of podcasting, Apple’s dominance as a even media scholars (Burgess & Bruns, discovery platform is even greater thanks to its 2012). API, which extends its directory service beyond Along with the power of discovery its own Apple Podcasts service. Popular mobile platforms to direct listeners’ attention, podcast consumption apps such as Overcast, they also have the potential to create Pocket Casts, Downcast, and Podcast Addict all artificial scarcities of content in order to utilize Apple’s directory for listing podcasts by maximize the potential for revenue. For
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 9 example, the business press has been excitedly Spotify has made perhaps the most suggesting for some time that the “Netflix of aggressive moves in favor of platform podcasting” moment has arrived, whereby enclosure. For example, it introduced platforms serve up “premium” or “exclusive” three new podcasts in 2017, and these audio content to listeners that requires a shows were only available on its subscription fee (Nagy, 2015; Porch, 2018; streaming app, and not via RSS (Roettgers, Rowe, 2017), although some are more 2017). Spotify went a step further in 2018 circumspect about this potential (Quah, 2018; and secured a deal to exclusively Rosenblatt, 2018). Podcasters have largely distribute the Joe Budden Podcast, a approached the notion of “Netflix-ization” with popular hip-hop music podcast scorn and derision (Fang, 2018). In their eyes, (Saponara, 2018). Spotify’s deal with Joe podcasting will never transform into a Budden was noteworthy because it subscription-based service due to the open stipulated that new episodes of Budden’s architecture of RSS: How can you take podcast would not be distributed via RSS, something that is freely distributed via RSS and but would instead be found only on essentially lock it up behind a paywall? Spotify. Spotify’s deal is the first that The reality is, however, that platform would essentially remove content that enclosure – the creation of “walled gardens” of was previously distributed via RSS and content available only to monthly subscribers – lock its distribution into a proprietary is slowly taking hold in podcasting. Ironically, platform. This move is not dissimilar to the indie podcasters themselves have paved the recent strategic alliance between way for enclosure by adopting similar Facebook and the New York Times, where techniques for monetizing their own podcasts: readers increasingly link to online news that is, by offering “premium” content that is via the social media giant at the expense available only via a monthly subscription. Larger of the open framework of RSS (Plantin et industry players are replicating these strategies al., 2018). Finally, in February 2019, in an attempt to either lure more customers to Spotify stunned the podcasting industry their platform, or to “lock in” existing customers by announcing its $337 million acquisition by encouraging them to access podcast content of Gimlet Media - the podcast production via their existing service. How can platform company co-founded in 2014 by NPR enclosure take hold in a medium that is built veteran Alex Blumberg - and Anchor.fm, upon the open standard of RSS? The answer is the fastest-growing podcasting platform that major audio content platforms are slowly (Spangler, 2019; Szalai, 2019). Spotify’s steering listeners away from RSS-delivered aim is likely to capitalize on the high audio content and into premium content that is production values and audiences for platform-exclusive. Existing podcast networks Gimlet’s podcasts by bringing its listeners such as Howl Premium and giant Stitcher to Spotify’s platform and away from other Premium, for example, offer listeners paywalled discovery platforms like Apple Podcasts content that is otherwise not available to and Google Podcasts. As podcasting listeners on other discovery platforms. Luminary becomes less dependent on the open RSS - a new venture-capital backed podcasting standard for distribution (See Figure 3), service that launched in early 2019 – offers only podcast directories and streaming exclusive, paywalled podcast content by media platforms are aiming to shift distribution celebrities such as Trevor Noah and NPR’s Guy away from open infrastructures and Raz and will not make the content available via toward their own services to maximize the RSS (Rottgers, 2019). Music streaming giant “winner take all” functions of platforms. In
10 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 Figure 3. Google search queries for “RSS” (2005-Present)
other words, once RSS is no longer required to competing apps that allow users to distribute podcasts, the threat of platform subscribe and consume podcasts such as enclosure will only increase. Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Podcast Addict, BeyondPod, DoggCatcher and 3. Consumption Apps and Platform Downcast, and Castbox, among many Alliances others. Adding to the fragmentation in consumption apps, some podcast hosting The third important function of online media companies (like Podbean, for example) platforms is to allow users to consume the have launched a dedicated podcasting content. In the early years of podcasting prior to app. Lastly, the app-ification of podcasting the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, most is also well underway, with a number of listeners consumed podcasts either on their popular podcasts such as This American computers or on dedicated digital audio devices Life and The Dave Ramsey Show launching such as iPods. In an increasingly mobile era, their own dedicated apps within the iOS however, podcast consumption has shifted to and Android app stores. Podcast hosting mobile devices, mediated largely via the iOS and companies like Libsyn and Spreaker have Android mobile operating systems. The fueled app-ification by offering to launch a Interactive Advertising Bureau (2017) found dedicated app for their customers’ that roughly 45-52% of all podcast podcasts as part of their subscription fee. consumption in the United States was achieved Mobile consumption apps are via the Apple Podcast app on iOS. The inclusion critical to the infrastructure of podcasting of a default, pre-installed podcast app in because they provide a dual functionality Apple’s iOS Version 8.0 update in 2014 was a as both tools of content discovery and significant factor in expanding the audience for consumption. Many of these apps are podcasting, resulting in 13.7 billion episode aligning themselves strategically and downloads on that platform in 2017 alone financially with discovery platforms in (Locker, 2018). This dramatic increase in order to monetize their users’ data and to podcast listenership over such a short period of introduce artificial scarcities. A number of time demonstrates the power of apps – and the mobile apps have been increasingly default software settings behind those apps – to become the target of acquisitions by large drive discovery and consumption behaviors (for media companies wishing to gain a more on the power of software defaults, see foothold in the podcasting market. For Kitchin & Dodge, 2011; Shah & Kesan, 2008; example, E.W. Scripps, a traditional media Shah & Sandvig, 2008). While Apple’s iOS company that owns a diverse portfolio of podcast app dominates, there are numerous legacy media such as newspapers,
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 11 broadcast radio and television stations, indicate that the fragmentation in purchased podcast advertising firm Midroll in podcasting is slowly giving way to 2015 for $10 million and quickly followed with a platform consolidation in the service of $4.5 million purchase of podcasting app monetization and audience maximization. Stitcher in 2016 (Perlberg, 2016). Sensing the importance of consumption apps, in May 2018 Platform Governance in a a consortium of public radio organizations Fragmented Ecosystem including NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life, purchased Pocket Casts Nieborg and Poell’s (2018) model also (Mullin, 2018). draws attention to the means by which Podcast mobile apps offer their own platform governance shapes the means of forms of interactivity, sociability, and content cultural production. As noted above, curation by highlighting within the app a unique podcasting has seen a proliferation of constellation of content specifically designed for storage, discovery, and consumption users (Morris & Patterson, 2015). This form of platforms since 2005, making governance specialized curation has been increasingly a patchwork affair. Each of the storage and influenced by strategic alliances among discovery platforms come with their own consumption apps and large content providers. terms of service (TOS) and editorial For instance, Castbox – a new podcast mobile guidelines. As Gillespie (2018, p. 263) has app that has already raised over $13 million in noted, the rules established by platforms venture capital funding – has a section of its exist primarily to protect the platform’s free app designated as “premium” content that public brand and profitability, though is available via an in-app subscription (Sawers, these goals are often intertwined with a 2018). Some of the content in this premium “deeply felt commitment of the platform section is produced by Castbox itself, and the operators for nurturing a healthy rest is produced by its content partner, Wondery community.” As the leading discovery (InsideRadio, 2018). Similarly, the iHeartRadio platform in the U.S., Apple Podcasts’ TOS app (which has a very small curated list of outlines content parameters that are podcasts in its own directory of 20,000), has similar to those of other online platforms. leveraged its ties to the broadcast radio industry For example, Apple’s terms of service to make aggressive moves into podcasting. prohibits the following from podcasts iHeartRadio purchased the HowStuffWorks listed on their iTunes services: podcast network for $55 million on September 15, 2018, enabling it to exclusively feature the • Irrelevant content or spam. those podcasts and paving the way for more • Explicit language without setting the “premium” content for its mobile app (Jarvey,
12 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 • Third-party content or trademarks without points to the power of platforms to offer legal authorization or usage rights. universal access as a “loss leader” in order to monetize user-generated content, Source: Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions in much the same way as Google (https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/ leverages its content to sell advertising on itunes/us/terms.html) YouTube. The fragmented nature of podcast Apple’s governance structure goes beyond the platforms also makes for a patchwork above editorial guidelines to include the enforcement of editorial guidelines. In protection of its brand identity. For instance, 2018, controversy surrounding the Apple prohibits the words Apple Music, iTunes content of radio host and conspiracy Store, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Apple Inc. in theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars program podcast titles or descriptions, and prohibits epitomized the challenges in policing pictures of its corporate logos, or of its content across podcasting’s many technology (such as iPhone, iPad, or iPod) in any platforms. On his Infowars radio program, cover art image in its podcast directory. Podcast which is also released as a podcast, along hosting companies have similar, but distinct, with several other Infowars-branded TOS agreements listed on their services, but podcasts, right-wing host Jones was well- given the increase in podcast launches post- known for trafficking in conspiracy 2014 and their relatively small staffs, these theories, including one that the Sandy services do not closely monitor the content of Hook shooting was staged by “crisis the podcasts they host. actors.” On August 5, 2018, after New podcast host entrant Anchor.fm complaints from Sandy Hook victims’ has caused controversy within the podcasting families and listeners, Spotify removed community over its TOS. Flush with $10 million several episodes of Jones’ podcast for in venture capital funds (Roof, 2017), Anchor violating its “hate speech” policy, followed has offered itself to would-be podcasters as a swiftly by Apple, which completely free service. Veteran podcasters and podcast removed (de-listed) five of its six hosting companies immediately began Inforwars-branded podcasts from its scrutinizing Anchor’s TOS and found that the service (Vernon, 2018). Podcast host users of the site “grant [them] a worldwide, Spreaker, which stored the audio files for non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and The Alex Jones Show podcast, found itself transferable license to use, edit, modify, suddenly thrust into the midst of a public aggregate, reproduce, distribute, prepare controversy. Citing its own terms of derivative works of, display, and perform the service which prohibited the publication of User Content in connection with the operation “any content that promotes, either directly of the Services.” As well-known podcaster Dave or indirectly, hate, racism, discrimination, Jackson (2018) has noted, Anchor’s claim of pornography, or violence,” Spreaker ownership of user-generated content are much removed Jones’ content from its own more restrictive than comparative social media servers following the moves by Spotify platforms, including those of Twitter and and Apple (Schneider, 2018). Many Facebook. As the fastest growing site for podcasters took note, however, that the podcast hosting, Anchor’s move to centralize main Infowars RSS feed was self-hosted the control of the rights to podcast content on Jones’ own website, and that listeners
May 6, 2019 Social Media + Society | 13 who wanted to access the content could simply podcast market is undergoing rapid subscribe manually to the feed (as they had transformation, spurred largely by the done in the early days of podcasting) and interest of large tech giants like Apple, continue to receive new episodes. Additionally, Spotify, and Google. Strategic alliances Apple faced mounting criticism for allowing the among discovery and consumption Infowars app (which contained much if not all of platforms, in particular, are moving the same content) to remain in its App Store, podcasting in the direction of fully arguing that it had not violated its App Store integrated content platforms like YouTube, TOS, which did not feature the same language Facebook, and Twitter. As Srnicek (2016, explicitly banning forms of hate speech. After a p. 98) has noted, the “tendencies” that month of heavy criticism, on September 7, emerge from the competitive dynamics of 2018 Apple relented and removed the Infowars large platforms include the “expansion of app as well (Nicas, 2018). Apple’s choice to de- extraction, positioning as a gatekeeper, list Infowars also laid bare the symbiotic and enclosure of ecosystems.” Each of entanglements between their podcast directory these tendencies can be observed in and other apps, since all consumption apps that podcasting today, at least in the United relied on Apple’s directory API saw Alex Jones’ States. While major U.S. internet content immediately removed from their companies Apple and Google have already directories as well, effectively ceding editorial begun pushing podcasting in the direction control to Apple. The Infowars debacle served of platformization, recent strategic as an important inflection point in podcasting acquisitions by Swedish audio giant because it demonstrated the difficulties in Spotify point to a more platform-centric managing a fractured governance structure future worldwide thanks to Spotify’s from a multi-platform ecosystem. global reach. The network effects associated Conclusion with platformization have differential benefits for listeners, content producers, Podcasting is in the midst of a transition. Online podcast platforms, and advertisers. As platforms have begun making major podcasting becomes more popular, the investments in the medium, hoping to attract number of podcasts in production has listeners, advertisers, and new podcasters. vastly expanded, creating an increasingly Thanks to the decentralized architecture of RSS, crowded content landscape. This presents the process of platformization outlined by a challenge for listeners hoping to Nieborg and Poell (2018) is progressing discover new shows that may appeal to somewhat differently than for other large their particular interests. For listeners, content-sharing services. Since the three then, centralized repositories like Apple functions of content platforms – storage, Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Play carry discovery, and consumption – are dispersed positive network effects thanks to the among podcast hosting companies, directories ease of discovery and the crowdsourced like Apple Podcasts, and mobile apps, curation of podcasts (much like the Rotten respectively, it would appear that podcasting is Tomatoes ratings for films or Amazon’s less susceptible to the forces of platformization. user-generated product reviews). Podcast However, as this discussion has outlined, the networks, distributors and advertisers, on
14 | Social Media + Society May 6, 2019 the other hand, derive much different benefits industry leader. Spotify’s recent from the network effects of platform acquisitions of Anchor and Gimlet Media centralization. For these players, the major present a serious challenge to Apple’s value of platformization comes from their ability long-held platform dominance in to glean more accurate consumption data from podcasting, however. If Spotify eschews a large audience for the purposes of anonymization in its metrics and links its monetization. Current audience consumption podcast audience consumption data to data are based chiefly on server-side measures specific subscriber accounts - including (downloads per episode) and platform-side credit card data and demographics, for measures such as subscriptions via a example - it could offer a stronger value podcatchers like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, proposition for podcast networks and Castbox, and Overcast, among others. What advertisers keen on monetizing via target centralized platforms like Apple Podcasts and marketing. Spotify offer to distributors and advertisers is a The implications of platform glimpse into actual audience listening consolidation for independent podcasters consumption. How much of that podcast are potentially more negative. On the one episode, for example, was actually heard by hand, the proliferation of storage and audiences, and at what point did large numbers discovery platforms today works to the of listeners abandon the episode? Moreover, benefit of independent podcasters and who is actually listening to what podcast? amateurs because the ecosystem is still in Thanks to the dominance of Apple’s considerable flux. Competing services and mobile iOS platform, at least in the United new technologies are launching almost States (Perez, 2018), Apple has access to a vast daily, which lowers barriers to entry for trove of personal data, including valuable new producers, particularly in the case of information such as names, addresses, age, free services like Anchor.fm and race, gender, credit card numbers, and more. Soundcloud. Once this industry churn has While Apple agreed to release more specific settled and the pace of consolidation consumption data to podcast producers and quickens, distribution options for publishers in late 2017 (Webster, 2017), it podcasters may begin to dwindle, leaving chose to anonymize the audience data, thus them with less autonomy to transform preventing would-be podcast advertisers from their hobby into full-time work on their employing target marketing campaigns with the own terms. Once large market players like kind of precision that they routinely employ on Apple, Google, Amazon, and Spotify begin social media platforms (Willens, 2017). leveraging the power of network Choosing to protect user-level audience data externalities to expand the podcast and essentially give away anonymized podcast audience by offering paid subscription- consumption statistics may serve to further based podcast content to their large cement Apple’s dominance in the podcast existing customer bases, professional- ecosystem. Since the value of these data will quality podcasting (sometimes called only increase as more and more audiences “procasting”) will become inextricably access their podcasts via Apple’s iOS platform linked to platform services. As Nieborg (or via the Apple Podcasts’ API), Apple is likely and Poell (2018, p. 3) note, “as cultural seeking to retain its long-held position as the production is becoming increasingly
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