Rob Greenlee

The Word “Podcast” Is Owned by the Audience Now

By Rob Greenlee

For years, the podcast industry has argued over what a podcast really is.

Is it an RSS feed?
Is it an audio file?
Is it a downloadable media enclosure?
Is it open distribution?
Is it something in Apple Podcasts?

Those definitions still matter, especially to those of us who helped build and protect the open podcasting ecosystem. RSS matters. Creator control matters. Portability matters. Ownership matters.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: The word podcast is no longer owned by the industry. It is now owned by the audience.

The audience does not care nearly as much about the delivery technology as we do. They say they “watched a podcast on YouTube,” “followed a podcast on Spotify,” “saw a podcast clip on TikTok,” or “listened to a podcast in the car.”

They are not thinking about RSS, hosting platforms, download measurement, API delivery, or whether the file was streamed or downloaded.

They are thinking about the show. That is the shift.

To the public, a podcast is increasingly a recurring show with a host, a point of view, a topic, a relationship, and a familiar format. It may be audio. It may be a video. It may be clipped, streamed, summarized, searched, or recommended by an AI system.

This is where the old industry definition starts to break down.

The podcast industry can argue that YouTube shows are not “real podcasts.” But if millions of people call them podcasts, watch them as podcasts, and advertisers buy them as podcasts, then the market is already redefining the word.

That does not mean open podcasting is dead. It means open podcasting has to compete within a much larger media environment.

The danger is obvious. Platforms want to shape the meaning of podcasting around their own business models.

YouTube wants podcasts to look and behave like YouTube.
Spotify wants podcasts inside Spotify.
Apple wants podcasts inside Apple Podcasts.
Social platforms want clips.
AI platforms want structured metadata knowledge and summarized answers.

Each platform pulls the word in its own direction. But the audience is the real force behind the change.

Words follow behavior. Television is no longer just a living room device. Radio is no longer just a local tower.

Podcasting is no longer just an RSS audio file. It is becoming a broader show format.

That means new media creators need to stop building only for the old definition of a podcast and start building for how audiences actually consume media now.

The show is the center.
The RSS feed is infrastructure.
The website is the home base.
YouTube and Spotify are discovery and consumption engines.
Social clips are attention triggers.
Email and community are direct relationships.
AI search is becoming the next discovery layer.

This is the new podcast stack. The biggest mistake would be to fight the audience over the word. The smarter move is to protect the open foundation while accepting the expanded meaning.

Podcasting’s future will not be won by telling people they are using an incorrect term. It will be won by building trusted shows that work across audio, video, social, search, AI, and community.

The word podcast may have started as a technical, open, but narrow standard distribution term. But today, it means something much bigger. It means a trusted show people choose based on what the platform it is consumed on calls it; if a production looks and sounds like a podcast, then that is what they will think it is in their lives.

And that definition now belongs to the audience.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new-media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots and its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

Personal note: I used AI tools to help organize this article and hand-edited it; the views, clarifications, responsibility, and industry perspective are mine. I have been working in podcasting and platform adoption for more than two decades, and this article reflects my own position. The original word choice was mine, and so is the clarification.

Spotify Supporting Apple’s HLS Video Shift Shows Apple Podcasts Still Moves the Podcasting Market

By Rob Greenlee

Spotify’s decision to support Apple Podcasts’ HLS video streaming approach is a bigger signal than it may first appear.

On the surface, this looks like a practical product update. Spotify for Creators and Megaphone need to support Apple’s new HLS video publishing workflow, so Spotify-hosted creators can publish video podcasts into Apple Podcasts without having to rebuild their whole setup on a different platform to get video into Apple Podcasts. Spotify has said that support for both Spotify for Creators and Megaphone is coming later this year, and that it is working with Apple on the integration.

But underneath that announcement is a much larger industry reality. Apple Podcasts remains the market mover in podcasting. When Apple changes something meaningful in podcasting, the industry aligns around it very quickly. That has been true since the early days of the iTunes podcast directory, and it remains true now. YouTube is massive. Spotify is powerful. Both are major forces in video, discovery, audience behavior, and creator monetization. But neither one has historically been able to shift the core technical direction of podcasting the way Apple can.

Apple’s move to support HLS video podcasts inside Apple Podcasts is not just another video feature. It is a market shift signal.

Apple is saying that video podcasting needs to work more like modern streaming media while still preserving the podcast model that creators, hosting companies, and listening platforms have built around for two decades.

Apple describes the new HLS video experience as allowing listeners to switch between audio and video, view horizontally, download video for offline viewing, and continue using existing podcast features, such as follows and downloads. Apple also says creators can monetize through sponsorships and dynamic advertising, including video ads provided by the creators’ hosting platform.

Since 2005, video podcasting has been available in Apple Podcasts as an MP4 video download via RSS, while non-RSS-based video distribution has gained traction on platforms like YouTube, which support video. Spotify has had video podcasts via direct upload, like YouTube, with a few API based submission processes.

Below is Apple iTunes Podcasts page on MAC and Windows.

Below is a screenshot of the Microsoft Zune Marketplace software on Windows from 2011.

Apple is not new to video podcasts, as well as the early (2007-2014) Microsoft Zune supported Video Podcasts (see image above); Apple has supported video since the earliest years of podcasting, when they were a significant part of the medium, with most mainstream media companies, large and small, supporting video podcasts via RSS, like HBO, Showtime, CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central, and most others you can think of. Independent creators like Ask a Ninja and startups like Revision3 and TWIT.TV.

But since about 2014, video has not been central to the Apple Podcasts app, making it hard to discover it there today. Video podcasting was there but not treated as a first-class media experience in the Apple ecosystem, and thus declined in popularity as audio podcasts became dominant.

Now Apple and Apple Podcasts are moving video podcasting into a more modern HLS streaming framework, the same method YouTube uses to stream video.

All the above is why Spotify’s support for Apple’s HLS video publishing workflow is not optional. It is required if Spotify wants Megaphone and Spotify for Creators to remain competitive in podcast hosting.

Spotify cannot afford to be in a position where a creator using Spotify’s own hosting tools has a harder time publishing video to Apple Podcasts than a creator using Acast, ART19, Omny Studio, Transistor, Podigee, Libsyn, Blubrry, iHeart, or other hosting providers that have moved quickly into Apple’s HLS video workflow. Apple’s support materials already tell creators to work with a hosting provider that supports video via HLS on Apple Podcasts.

So Spotify had to move.

That does not mean Spotify suddenly became a fully open podcasting infrastructure company. Spotify has always been a bit of a rebel in the podcasting market. It often adopts podcasting approaches that shift the advantage toward Spotify’s own platform, app experience, audience data, and monetization systems. That is not always bad. Spotify has pushed the market forward in some areas, especially around video adoption and creator monetization inside its own ecosystem.

But Spotify has not typically been the company that aligns the whole podcasting industry around open, cross-platform technical standards.

Apple still plays that industry leadership role more than anyone else.

The next big question is whether Spotify stops at supporting Apple’s HLS publishing workflow or goes further.

Will Spotify add HLS video streaming support via RSS using an Alternative Enclosure or a similar pass-through model, so video stream links can flow beyond Apple Podcasts into other podcast apps and platforms?

That is the question that matters now.

If Megaphone and Spotify for Creators can support HLS video for publishing into Apple Podcasts, could they also support HLS video links inside RSS for external podcast consumption platforms like iHeart, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Fountain, and other apps that may want to support video playback in a more modern way?

That would be a much bigger move.

It would mean Spotify is not only supporting Apple’s new video podcast workflow because it has to. It would mean Spotify is helping make HLS video distribution more available across the broader podcast ecosystem. Really helping the broader industry to actually innovate in the RSS feed they have spent years criticizing was not happening.

The Alternative Enclosure concept matters because podcasting has long been built around the RSS media file enclosure model. Traditionally, that meant an audio file, often an MP3, delivered as a downloadable media file. For years, video podcasts have often meant an MP4 file. But modern video distribution does not really want to live solely in a giant downloadable-file model anymore.

HLS, or HTTP Live Streaming, breaks video into adaptive streaming segments. It is the way much of modern video delivery already works across the streaming media world. It can adapt to bandwidth. It can create a better user experience. It can open up better advertising possibilities. It can improve playback reliability. It can make video podcasting feel less like downloading a file and more like a contemporary media experience.

That is where podcasting is heading: Video-First.

The download model has served podcasting incredibly well. It gave podcasting its open distribution foundation. It allowed creators to publish once and reach many apps. It gave the medium independence from a single-platform gatekeeper, was simple, and took advantage of the limited bandwidth of the earlier medium-birth era that has now passed.

But as the industry moves deeper into video, dynamic video and audio ad insertion, cross-device (screen sizes) consumption, and seamless listen-to-watch and watch-to-listen behavior, the old download-first model is increasingly looking outdated as both the central delivery method and the metrics, too.

That does not mean RSS goes away. It means RSS has to evolve.

Podcasting needs to preserve the creator-controlled, open distribution layer while allowing modern media delivery, such as HLS, underneath it. That is the real importance of Apple’s HLS move. Apple is not adding video, as they have had video all along. Apple is forcing the hosting industry to rethink how podcast video and increasingly audio should be delivered, monetized, measured, and experienced.

Then everyone else has to respond. That is the cascade effect.

Hosting platforms have to support HLS publishing workflows. Ad tech platforms have to think about video and audio ad insertion differently. Metrics providers have to account for streams, downloads, plays, watch behavior, and hybrid listening/viewing sessions. Podcast apps have to decide whether they remain audio-only experiences or become richer show-consumption platforms. Creators have to decide whether their shows are audio-first, video-first, or multi-format, adapting to where the audience is.

Podcast Consumers will not care about the technical details. They will just expect the experience to work.

They will expect to start listening in the car, continue watching on a tablet, pick up later on a desktop, and still feel like it is the same show, because it is. Apple’s HLS video podcast experience is clearly aimed at that kind of seamless consumption behavior.

This is where podcasting becomes less about podcast media files and more about consuming shows at scale.

I have been saying for a while that podcasting is moving into a broader show-based media era. Audio is still core. Audio remains the most intimate and flexible format.

Video is now central to discovery, trust, audience connection, and monetization. The question is not whether video belongs in podcasting. It does. The question is whether the podcasting ecosystem can support video without simply handing everything over to YouTube, Spotify, or any other closed platform.

That is why Apple’s move matters.

Apple Podcasts is the only major podcast platform with sufficient market power to drive the industry toward a more modern technical layer while keeping podcasting connected to RSS-based distribution and creator-controlled publishing.

Spotify’s support for Apple HLS video is a practical business decision. Megaphone and Spotify for Creators need to stay competitive. But it is also an acknowledgment that Apple still has the power to set the technical direction of podcasting when it chooses to act.

The next test is whether Spotify will support this only where Apple requires it, or help extend HLS video publishing more broadly through RSS pass-through and Alternative Enclosure-style support.

This is where the industry should be watching.

If the HLS video format becomes something Apple supports only through approved hosting integrations, then we have a powerful new Apple Podcasts video layer.

If HLS video becomes something that can travel through RSS in a broader, interoperable way, then podcasting takes a much bigger step toward a modern open media future.

That second path is the one that could change everything.

It could impact consumers, creators, hosting companies, monetization systems, metrics standards, and listening/viewing platforms.

It could also finally move podcasting beyond the limits of the download model while preserving the open publishing spirit that made podcasting matter in the first place.

Spotify’s support for Apple’s HLS video shift is not just about Spotify. It is about Apple once again moving the podcasting market, and the rest of the industry deciding how open, modern, and creator-controlled the next era of podcasting will be.

Why “Fringe” Was the Wrong Word and What I Actually Meant About Podcasting 2.0

By Rob Greenlee

This article provides context about my comments on New Media Show episode 660 with Libsyn CEO Brendan Monaghan, where we discussed Podcasting 2.0, RSS tag adoption, and the gap between innovation and mainstream platform implementation.

During my recent interview conversation with the Libsyn CEO, I used the word “fringe” when discussing Podcasting 2.0 RSS extension tag ideas. That comment in an extended audio clip was played and discussed on “Podnews Weekly Review“, and understandably, it raised concerns in parts of the podcasting 2.0 community, including Dave Jones and Adam Curry on the Podcasting 2.0 podcast. Let me say this clearly. That was not the right word for me to use, and I regret saying it that way.

Not because I am backing away from the broader point I was trying to make, but because the word itself does not reflect how I actually view the work happening in the Podcasting 2.0 and open RSS ecosystem.

The comment came out quickly in a live discussion and did not carry the full context I intended.

What I was trying to describe is something I have repeatedly seen said over the past two decades working with large platforms, hosting companies, and media organizations: there is a real difference between something that is not widely adopted yet and something that is not valuable.

Podcasting 2.0 Innovation Has Real Value

Podcasting 2.0 innovations are valuable. RSS namespace expansion, new tags, and experimentation around monetization, identity, transcripts, funding, and distribution all matter. This is where much of the real innovation in podcasting is happening.

At the same time, many of these capabilities have been around for several years, in some cases for close to five years. That historical context matters. My comment was not about the value of the ideas themselves. It was about the pace and pattern of adoption, especially among larger platforms.

When I used the word “fringe,” I was referring to the broader set of emerging and evolving tag ideas within the Podcasting 2.0 initiative.

There are many tags and concepts at different stages of maturity, market fit, timing, and implementation. Not all of them have broad agreement or adoption, even within standards-focused efforts like the Podcast Standards Project. From a product and platform perspective, this creates a spectrum of adoption rather than one unified standard that everyone has fully embraced.

What I Was Trying to Say

What I meant is that market fit and timing play a major role in what gets adopted at scale. Larger podcasting platforms tend to move more deliberately. Their decisions are shaped by user experience, engineering resources, monetization models, product stability, support complexity, and business priorities.

That often means only a subset of new capabilities gets integrated into mainstream products at any given time.

That has been the pattern over the past several years.

But it is also important to say this pattern is changing.

Momentum Started Very Slow, But Is Building

Over the past year or so, we have started to see real momentum around some Podcasting 2.0 tags and capabilities. More platforms are experimenting. More tools are supporting them. More creators are becoming aware of what is possible and how these features can be used in real workflows.

That has been great to see.

I believe we will continue to see more adoption of certain RSS tags as platforms, tools, and creators find clearer ways to integrate them into everyday use.

Some Tags Are Seeing More Adoption

You can already see this progression in parts of the ecosystem.

Tags like transcript, chapters, and person have seen meaningful adoption because they provide immediate and understandable value. The Alternative Enclosure tag is being more widely adopted across platforms, too. They improve accessibility, discovery, context, and creator attribution.

The funding tag has gained traction within parts of the ecosystem, especially among creators and platforms exploring alternative monetization models. The value tag, which supports value-for-value and streaming payment models, has been adopted within specific apps and communities, though it has struggled more recently and has not yet become mainstream across larger platforms.

Other tags and ideas are still at an earlier stage. Some are being tested. Some are evolving. Some are still looking for the right use case that will drive broader adoption.

That is what I meant by a spectrum of innovation.

Innovation and Adoption Are Not the Same Thing

Podcasting operates across two layers simultaneously.

There is an innovation layer, where developers, independent platforms, and forward-thinking creators create and test new ideas. Then there is a platform layer, where those ideas are evaluated, prioritized, supported, and integrated into products used by millions of people. The gap between those two layers is where much of the tension comes from.

I have seen this pattern many times. Podcasting itself began outside the mainstream.

Mobile listening took time to become the default. Video podcasting has gone through multiple cycles before finding its current role. Programmatic advertising in audio took years to mature. Innovation usually moves faster than adoption. Adoption follows when user demand, product fit, creator benefit, and business alignment come together.

That is where many Podcasting 2.0 capabilities have been.

My View of Podcasting 2.0 and the Podcast Standards Project

I also want to be clear that Podcasting 2.0 and the Podcast Standards Project are not the same thing. They overlap in some areas, but they do not necessarily embrace every tag or idea in the same way.

That is part of the larger point

When standards-oriented efforts evaluate which capabilities to support, it shows that this is not simply a question of innovation versus resistance. It is about maturity, usefulness, interoperability, timing, and market fit. That is the context I was trying to convey, though I did not do so well at the time.

I Respect the Podcasting 2.0 Community

So when I used the word “fringe,” I was trying to describe how some organizations have historically perceived ideas that had not yet reached scale or product integration. But I understand how that word sounded dismissive of Podcasting 2.0, and that is not how I really see it.

I respect and appreciate the innovation and work happening through PodcastIndex.org, Podcasting 2.0, and the broader open podcasting community, including the work and advocacy of Adam Curry, Dave Jones, Daniel J. Lewis, and many others.

The opportunity now is to build on the momentum emerging and move the most valuable ideas toward broader adoption. That means making these capabilities easier to use, improving listener experiences, aligning them with sustainable business models, and demonstrating clear value at scale.

That is how innovation moves from experimentation into everyday use.

My Role in the Conversation

I do not want to frame this as one side versus another. I am focused on helping connect what is being built with what is actually being adopted and used at scale.

That is the conversation we are having every week on the “New Media Show“. Join us LIVE on Weds, 3 pm PST/6 pm EST, or on demand in all the podcast apps and live on YouTube.com/@robgreenlee, LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, and X.com

So, yes, I regret the word “Fringe” I used. But I stand by the broader point that there has been a gap between innovation and adoption in podcasting over the past several years.

The good news is that momentum is building, and that gap is starting to close. That is where the real opportunity is for all of us in this industry.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots with its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

The Evolution of Digital Media and the Creator Economy (With “Your Brand Amplified” Host, Anika Jackson)

By Rob Greenlee

I’ve been around digital media long enough to be skeptical of the phrase “this changes everything.” Most things do not. They repeat, evolve, and come back in new packaging.

But every so often, you can feel the real shift. Not because a new app launches, but because audience behavior changes, distribution changes, and the business model underneath it all gets rewritten.

That’s why I’m excited for this conversation with Anika Jackson below. We’re going to unpack what’s truly evolving in digital media right now, what’s repeating from the past, and what creators need to do to stay in control as the creator economy becomes more platform-driven, more video-driven, and more AI-accelerated.

I’ve watched the cycles, and I’ve lived the transitions

My career started in marketing, radio, and customer acquisition. Early on, I saw that the internet was not just a new way to distribute content, but a new opportunity for content marketing. It was a direct channel for customer or audience relationships. When creators can build a direct connection with an audience, content stops being “promotion” and becomes the bridge that creates trust, loyalty, and momentum.

That belief is what pulled me from traditional radio into podcasting and platform work. I have spent years inside the infrastructure of media and creator ecosystems, and I have also built independently as a creator and strategist. That combination gives you a clearer view of what is hype and what is structural.

Media is no longer about categories; it’s about direct community relationship building

Radio, podcasting, streaming, and video on many platforms like YouTube, Shorts, and other social content in text/images. Those used to feel like separate lanes. Now they overlap constantly. A “podcast” might be an audio and video feed, a YouTube show, a short-form clip engine, a newsletter, and a community touchpoint all at once.

Audiences do not wake up thinking, “I’m going to consume a podcast today.” They wake up wanting something that helps by sharing inspiration and opportunities for life improvement, entertains, or just emotionally connects. They will take it in the format that fits the moment.

Creators who win are the ones who can package the same core value across multiple formats without losing their voice.

Video podcasting is not new; it’s a comeback with better delivery infrastructure

Here is the part that gets lost in today’s industry debates. Video has been part of podcasting since the earliest days on Apple Podcasts. Major media companies distributed video via RSS for many of the early years of Podcasting, then the medium prioritized audio. There were media startups and major media networks built around RSS video-first and video-only shows long before the current hot trend of “video podcasting” became a newer catchphrase increasingly linked to video streaming, not downloads.

So when Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify push deeper into video via a streaming rather than a download model, I do not see much new. I see a return, upgraded with modern streaming, modern ad systems, and better discovery mechanics.

What has changed is the platform incentive. Video produces stronger discovery signals, deeper measurement, and more automated monetization options. That is why it is accelerating again.

AI is both an accelerant and a mirror

AI is the biggest accelerant we have ever seen in content creation, and it also acts like a mirror. It amplifies what is already true.

If you have a clear point of view, AI helps you move faster and scale formats. If you do not, it helps you produce more volume, but it still lacks meaning.

The creators who thrive will be the ones who use AI as an extension of human judgment and creativity, not as a replacement for it. I also see real upside here for creators with disabilities and for solo creators with limited budgets. AI can expand presence and production capability in ways that used to require full teams.

The real fight is ownership

As AI gets better, the most important question becomes: who owns your digital self?

Your voice, your likeness, your archive, your back catalog, your distribution access. If you do not actively claim ownership and set boundaries, platforms and tools will gladly define them for you.

Creators need to think like asset owners now, not just content producers. Control of IP and distribution options is what protects your future opportunities.

The consistency problem still matters more than the tech

One truth has not changed. Most shows do not last.

Creators burn out because the show is isolated from a larger mission or business outcome. When a show is connected to a bigger purpose, your content becomes an engine. It feeds your brand, your offers, your community, your partnerships, and your long-term momentum.

That is why strategy matters as much as production.

What’s next is informed flexibility

The next few years will be messy in a productive way.

AI will accelerate everything. Video will keep pushing discovery. Platforms will keep tightening control. Monetization will keep shifting.

The creators who win will not be the ones who perfectly predict the future. They will be the ones who stay observant, test intelligently, protect ownership, and keep their work anchored in something human: trust, connection, clarity, and creative intent.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and global new media leader who bridges podcasting’s roots with its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com, NewMediaShow.com, and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.