{"id":7259,"date":"2019-04-14T02:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softwareengineeringdaily.com\/?p=7259"},"modified":"2021-10-11T05:52:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T12:52:46","slug":"podsheets-open-source-podcasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/softwareengineeringdaily.com\/2019\/04\/14\/podsheets-open-source-podcasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Podsheets: Open Source Podcasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Podsheets<\/a> is a set of open source tools<\/a> for podcast hosting, publishing, ad management, community engagement, and\u00a0more.<\/h2>\n
\n
\n

Podsheets is influenced by our experience managing Software Engineering Daily, a full-time podcast business.<\/p>\n

Software Engineering Daily is a podcast that airs 5 times per week. With 4 ads per show and 50 business weeks per year, we have 1000 podcast ads that we manage per year. Podcast ad sales is an inefficient market, and the tooling around managing ads for the individual podcaster is poor.<\/p>\n

Difficulties in the podcast ecosystem also exist for new podcasters. It is still very confusing to get started as a podcaster. Podcasting should be as easy as blogging but remains far from it.<\/p>\n

Podsheets serves the use cases of all podcasters\u200a\u2014\u200afrom beginners to full-time professionals.<\/p>\n

In this document, we outline the landscape of podcasting. We describe the major corporate players, the workflow of a podcaster, and the mechanics of running a podcast business.<\/p>\n

Next, we present Podsheets, a set of open source tools for podcasters.<\/p>\n

Finally, we give our predictions for how the media landscape will shift in the coming years, creating a need for more open source media publishing tools.<\/p>\n

The State of Podcasting<\/h3>\n

Podcasting has been having a renaissance over the last five years.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the launch of Serial coincided with improvements to cellular bandwidth in the US. It was now possible to stream podcasts from your phone easily and cheaply. There was great content to listen to, and the improved infrastructure made it listenable.<\/p>\n

Still, podcasting remained in a fractured stalemate for five years after the launch of Serial. This was due to the fact that Apple had first-mover advantage as the dominant podcast index, but Apple opted not to capitalize on that fact. This is understandable, as Apple\u2019s core competency is futuristic hardware, and its resources are allocated to business lines such as self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Spotify acquired Gimlet (a source of premium podcast content) and Anchor (the most popular, simplest podcast host).\u00a0Spotify is making a play at consolidating the market of podcasting. Spotify has a clear path to becoming the \u201cYouTube of podcasts\u201d, which we should all celebrate as a long time coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, we recognize the hunger for decentralized media platforms. The centralization of video content within YouTube has driven conspiracy theory, ad fraud, and other problems that are difficult for a centralized player to solve. These problems manifest for text as well, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has spoken enthusiastically about the potential for blockchain technology to improve trust for applications such as Twitter.<\/p>\n

Podcasts have suffered and benefited from the lack of centralization. As the podcast world swings towards a centralized marketplace, there is a need for a countermovement towards open, decentralized infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The Players<\/h3>\n

Below is an overview of the types of players in the podcasting ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s ecosystem is fragmented and messy. The line between podcast networks, ad agencies, and production studios is blurry.<\/p>\n

Podcasters<\/h4>\n

Individual podcasters range from small, unmonetized podcasts to individuals with millions of listeners.<\/p>\n

The staff for an individual podcaster may include ad sales, editing, scheduling, and technical operations such as website management. The individual podcaster might hire these people on full- or part-time basis.<\/p>\n

To sell ads, a podcaster often works with a podcast ad agency. The podcaster might join a podcast network to consolidate inventory with other podcasters.<\/p>\n

Some podcasts, such as Software Engineering Daily, manage all their ad sales in-house. This requires demanding sales activities such as prospecting, account management, close management, and client services.<\/p>\n

Podcast Production Studios<\/h4>\n

NPR, Gimlet, and Vox Media are examples of podcast production studios. These companies own physical studio space to produce high quality audio content on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Podcast Networks<\/h4>\n

Earwolf, Nerdist, and Podcast One are examples of podcast networks. A podcast network combines the inventory available across multiple podcasts in order to sell more efficiently to advertisers.<\/p>\n

Spotify<\/h4>\n

Spotify is perfectly positioned to become the YouTube of podcasts.<\/p>\n

With its acquisition of Anchor, Spotify has a real chance at capturing the creation, distribution, hosting, and automated monetization of podcasts.<\/p>\n

With its acquisition of Gimlet Media, Spotify gains high quality content, established production processes, and sales teams. Gimlet was co-founded by Alex Blumberg, whose roots in NPR give Spotify knowledge of the entire history of the modern audio space.<\/p>\n

Apple<\/h4>\n

Apple maintains the central index of podcasts.<\/p>\n

Other podcast indexes are usually built by scraping Apple. Compared to its available resources, Apple has invested almost nothing into podcasting over the last five years. Its biggest milestone is a detailed analytics tool that lets podcasters see detailed data on when users are dropping off from podcasts.<\/p>\n

Apple Podcast Analytics is a seemingly simple tool, but not trivially easy to build and deploy. It could be a bellwether for more vigorous technical investments.<\/p>\n

In any case, Apple could have acted sooner. Apple could have poured money into podcasting at any point in the last 5 years. Why hasn\u2019t Apple become the Spotify of podcasts?<\/p>\n