Rob Greenlee

Liquid Content Era Enables Creators To Become Trusted Media Brands

by Rob Greenlee, CEO/Founder, Trust Factor Lab and Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.com, Host of NewMediaShow.com & Spoken Human

Podcasting’s New Liquid Content Era has growing potential to turn audio and video creators into Trusted Media Brands.

Let’s stop pretending podcasting is still just an audio strategy.

It isn’t.

We are in a major reshuffle right now. The old boundaries around what a podcast is, how it gets discovered, and how creators build momentum are extending fast. What once felt fixed is becoming far more fluid and complicated. That is why I see this as podcasting’s new liquid era, where creators are becoming more than just podcasters.

Many are becoming trusted, personified, or human-centric media brands.

That shift did not happen overnight, but the major platform moves made it impossible to ignore. YouTube pushed podcasting deeper into its video ecosystem. Spotify reinforced video publishing and monetization. Apple pushed even further with a new video podcast experience via HLS streaming inside Apple Podcasts.

“That matters because it signals something bigger than a feature update.“

YouTube changed creator behavior. Spotify and Netflix reinforced the business case.

“Apple Podcasts has now validated that video podcasting via HLS is much closer to the center of gravity in podcasting. None of that means audio stopped mattering. Audio still fits some of the most valuable moments in people’s lives. It still works while driving, walking, working out, commuting, and doing everything else that makes spoken-word media so powerful. Audio still matters deeply.”

Video is not replacing audio in every context, but it is clearly driving much of the momentum, experimentation, audience behavior, and acquisition deals right now. That is why I do not think the smartest framing anymore is audio-first versus video-first.

The smarter framing is to trust first and to focus on content liquidity.
Because in a liquid content era, formats can move. Platforms do change. User behavior does shift. Discovery pathways evolve. But trust is what survives the reshuffle.

That is where new media creators need to up their game.

The goal is not just to publish an audio
The goal is not just to post a video version
The goal is not just to be present on another of many platforms
The real opportunity is to become a trusted media personality brand
That means your show is no longer just an RSS feed. It is a relationship. It has a recognizable point of view or change mission that matters to humans. It is also a repeatable format. It is a body of communications people can follow across audio, video, clips, livestreams, newsletters, search, and community.

And now there is another layer that matters more every month: AI algorithmic content scoring and sharing discovery in LLM’s.

The next phase of creator growth is not only about ranking in traditional search or getting picked up by AI platform algorithms.

To be discoverable inside AI answers, conversational search, and recommendation systems.

“If your content is clear, trusted, well-structured, and consistently published, it has a much better chance of being found, surfaced, and revisited across this new landscape.”

That is also why owned audience relationships are becoming so important.

The next strategic layer for creators is not just public content. It is building private, premium, interactive communities that they control.

Not just followers on rented platforms.
Not just subscribers inside someone else’s ecosystem.
Not just passive audience reach.

“Building spaces where creators own the direct relationship with their audience. Membership communities. Premium groups. Mastermind environments. Private creator circles. Direct audience ecosystems are built around trust, participation, and recurring value.”

Because when a creator builds that kind of community, they are not just publishing content anymore. They are creating a meeting place for direct connections. That is an ongoing experience. The creator is building loyalty, feedback loops, and a deeper business relationship that is far more durable than a view count or a download-and-view number on a large consumption platform the creator does not control the access pathways to.

That changes the economics, too.

Public content can drive awareness
Video can drive discovery
Audio can deepen a habit.

A private community can drive retention, monetization, and direct audience relationships.

That is a much stronger model than relying entirely on platforms you do not control.

And now we need to talk about what comes next.
I believe hybrid human-and-AI creator brands will become a real part of this landscape. Not fake creators replacing people. Not synthetic noise with no soul. I mean human creators extending their voice, expertise, archives, and availability through AI clones that are built the right way.

Done badly, that becomes creepy, misleading, and disposable.
Done well, it becomes powerful.

“A trust-first AI clone should not pretend to be a human when it is not. It should be clearly disclosed. It should reflect the creator’s actual values, body of work, and knowledge. It should be built from authentic source material. It should help audiences access ideas, archives, recommendations, and next steps in ways that extend the human-creator brand rather than diluting it.”

A creator’s human voice remains the center. The human relationship remains the anchor.

But AI can extend availability, responsiveness, discovery, education, and continuity.

In other words, the future is not human or AI, but both. It is trusted human brands with carefully built AI extensions.

Only works if trust comes first. If audiences feel tricked, manipulated, or confused, the brand loses value. But if the AI layer is transparent, useful, aligned, and grounded in the creator’s real voice and expertise, it can become an extension of the relationship rather than a replacement for it.

That is why I think the creators who win in the next chapter will be the ones who know how to build trust across multiple surfaces:

Public platforms
Audio feeds
Video channels
AI discovery layers
Private premium communities and eventually, trust-first AI versions of their own brand.

That is the shift.

We are moving from content creators to trust builders
From podcasters to media brands
From single-format publishing to format flexibility
From a rented reach to an owned relationship
From static content libraries to intelligent, discoverable creator ecosystems
That is not the end of podcasting
That is, podcasting is becoming bigger than its original container.

And from my perspective, that is the real opportunity for creators, experts, and brands right now. In a world where more content will be created by more people and more machines than ever before, trust becomes the filter. Trust becomes the signal.

Trust becomes the value. The question now is not whether you are only a podcaster.

“The question now is whether you are building something people trust enough to follow, join more deeply in a community, and eventually interact with you and your brand.”

“The path is built on a trust-first approach: clear disclosure, authentic source material, useful value for the audience, and strong alignment with the human creator’s real voice and expertise.”

What opportunity is there now for creators?

To become trusted media brands that use public platforms for reach, video for discovery, audio for habit, private communities for ownership, and trust-first AI extensions for scalable audience support.

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.