Podcasting is changing

This thing we call “Podcasting” has been around for over a decade and it shows no signs of slowing down. The secret sauce of the Podcast ecosystem is that it’s built on open standards. We’re talking geeky things like RSS and XML the “eXtensible Markup Language.”

Both of these are open standards that everyone can use, thus enabling a huge variety of useful apps. There are countless hosting companies and podcast apps on all major platforms. Try as we might with Podcast Guru, we are well aware that there isn’t a single podcast app that can please everyone. But whatever your must-have feature is, there’s likely already a niche app that you’re going to love.

Pardon the five dollar word, but what is this “extensibility” property exactly? In simple terms, it means that we can add new stuff without breaking the old stuff.

In comes Podcasting 2.0!

A few years ago a group of app devs, podcasters and techno dweebs gathered around a campfire. This (metaphorical) campfire was set alight by Adam Curry and Dave Jones. Adam (AKA The Podfather) and Dave had a vision of how to upgrade podcasting. Take a bunch of wild and experimental ideas and battle test them. Then take the fun bits and coalesce them into new “extensions” to the podcasting spec. Between Dave’s hacking chops and Adam’s inspirational ranting, magic started to happen.

The entire Podcasting 2.0 thing is another blog post in itself. Here’s a couple links to learn more.

• http://adam.curry.com/html/WhatIsPodcasting20-28mcN0CfHFRjZRpkjpSf56jDCkMjTb.html
• https://podcasting20.substack.com/p/podcasting-20-is-just-a-vision-and

And let’s not forgot YOU, pat yourself on the back if you’re already a Podcast Guru user, you’re part of this too!

So what’s in the new podcasting spec?

We won’t cover it all here, but there are two new “extensions” that are seriously game changing for the industry. The liveItem and value tags, commonly referred to as “LIT” and “V4V”.

Probably you’ve heard of Bitcoin by now. One of the coolest things about crypto is something called “micro-tipping”. A low friction way to send tiny amounts of money (even sub-cent in USD terms). This is not possible with traditional payment systems. As it turns out, it’s an awesome way to tip or reward podcasters. In the world of podcasting we even have a name for tips, “boostagrams”.

Let’s borrow a short description of a boostagram from seetee.io.

A boostagram is a short text message attached to a voluntary value-for-value payment integrated into modern Podcasting 2.0 apps. The payment and the message are direct, peer-to-peer, enabled by Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

So in brief, it’s a tip along with an optional message you can send directly to the podcaster. If you want to learn more, read the full article from seetee.io.

The other extension to cover is the LiveItem tag, simply referred to as “LIT.” These are podcasts that can host live streams. For these, you’ll get instant app notifications and can tune in as soon as they go live. Many of the LIT podcasts also have have chat rooms. No more, “leave a question” for next weeks show via email. Engage with the creator and hang out with your fellows comrades in fandom. Of course, you will need a using a LIT enabled podcast app, like Podcast Guru.

The real magic happens when you do both at once!

You can boost a podcaster during a live stream and get real time engagement with the creator. This is similar a YouTube livestream with superchats, but better! It’s decentralized. There’s no need to have a big centralized player censoring or sucking the value out of the experience.

So will wrap it up here with a couple more links. There are currently over 12,000 V4V enabled podcasts, and you can find more of them here: https://podcastindex.org/podcast/value4value

For LIT enable podcasts, this twitter account maintained by John Spurlock is a good place to start.

Podcast Guru partners with Alby

To enable lightning payments in Podcast Guru, we’ve partnered with our friends at Alby.  To get started all you have to do is head over to https://getalby.com/ and create an account.  From there jump back to Podcast Guru and in the app settings, sign in with your Alby account.  With a funded Alby account and a V4V enabled podcast, you’ll see a new button appear on the Now Playing screen and other places in the app.