The situation could be better for the people who create podcasts.
The open podcast directory is an idea: The idea is to create a distributed directory which no one controls—no person, no company, no country. We do this by each adding our podcast information to our domain name’s information.
Remember when you set up your podcast the first time? Remember having to submit it to all those services separately? Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio — on and on. And what if you missed one? What if a new one comes along and you don’t know about it?
The open podcast directory eliminates all that. Wouldn’t that be great?
What you need
Your own domain name — Something like openpodcastdirectory.org What if you don’t yet have your own? We suggest using Hover.com to get one.
A podcast with an RSS feed — If your podcast is out in the world, then you already have this. It’s how podcasts get published. Copy the URL of your feed. It might look something like this: https://feeds.example.com/iAmANexamPLE
What you do
Find the DNS record controls — It’s an easily available setting in your registrar or hosting service’s administration panel. In Hover, the screen looks like this…
- Add a TXT type record
- Leave the hostname field empty
- Copy the following line but replace rss_url with the full URL of your podcast’s RSS feed…
v=opd1 url=rss_url
Boom! You’re done
As support for using this idea spreads, more and more people will be able to find your podcast automatically, (without you having to even know about whatever app or directory they are using to listen.) Eventually, every podcast show would be immediately available to everyone, everywhere.
Care to check your work?
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More information
Still curious? Tell me more…
Please steal this idea and use it everywhere. Please tell everyone. Down with centrally controlled directories. Long live the open Internet.
Who am I? Craig Constantine
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