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Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 54 posts

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#2
> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to.

I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms.

Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players.

Good on the BBC for thinking ahead and taking difficult steps to protect consumers.

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#3

> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a…

There's a very simple solution to keeping podcasts free and open: don't buy paywalled content, and don't listen to shows that are "only available on [proprietary app x]!"

I'm going to continue supporting independent, freely-available RSS podcasts through Patreon/direct donation, and you should too. Nothing (short of ISP-level censorship) can make those hundreds of thousands of hours of decentralized, self-hosted content go away.

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#4
I love the Radioplayer and to date I can’t get my head round Sounds. It just hasn’t got the same functionality unless one wants to listen to music. Radio plays, comedies et al are my listening menu. It seems that things are gradually being removed from the iPlayer. I’m old so not important to the new BBC.

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#5
post #3

> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a…

There's a very simple solution to keeping podcasts free and open: don't buy paywalled content, and don't listen to shows that are "only available on [proprietary app x]!" I'm going to continue supporting independent, freely-available RSS podcasts through Patreon/direct donation, and you should too. Nothing (short of ISP-level censorship) can make those hundreds of thousands of hours of decentralized, self-hosted cont…

That works until all your favourite podcasts get bought up by distribution channels (eg see Spotify’s acquisition of gimlet media)

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#6

> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a…

”pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players.”

Perhaps if viewed through a technical/hacker lens. But platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and iPlayer have been successful at attracting (paying!) users precisely because their UX is so much better.

Better than traditional TV boxes, and also better than the pirate world.

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#7

I love the Radioplayer and to date I can’t get my head round Sounds. It just hasn’t got the same functionality unless one wants to listen to music. Radio plays, comedies et al are my listening menu. It seems that things are gradually being removed from the iPlayer. I’m old so not important to the new BBC.

They made me sign into iPlayer radio the other day. That’s not what I want from iPlayer.

Why don’t they do what users actually want?

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#9

> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a…

”pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players.” Perhaps if viewed through a technical/hacker lens. But platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and iPlayer have been successful at attracting (paying!) users precisely because their UX is so much better. Better than traditional TV boxes, and also better than the pirate world.

As long as there is only 1 or 2 platforms, which you have to choose and pay for. If there are too many fish in the see and you have to pay for all of them, people will pay for none of them.

Re: Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

#10

I love the Radioplayer and to date I can’t get my head round Sounds. It just hasn’t got the same functionality unless one wants to listen to music. Radio plays, comedies et al are my listening menu. It seems that things are gradually being removed from the iPlayer. I’m old so not important to the new BBC.

I’m still a iPlayer Radio user and don’t really plan to switch to Sounds anytime soon, due to missing functionality. (I listen to podcasts on the Apple app)

But I haven’t seen anything being removed from iPlayer Radio yet.

BTW - you can find non-music stuff in Categories below the fold on the Sounds app - so there’s Drama, for example.

No more granular categorisation into Crime, Historical etc - which is a shame

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