How Different Podcast Platforms Are Changing The Medium

The Q'd Up Podcast on Podcasting

What started out as a simple RSS feed shared around, podcasting has changed dramatically in recent years as podcast platforms now rule the landscape. On this episode of the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting, Jay (PodVader) and John talk to Dr. John Sullivan, a professor of Media and Communications at Muhlenberg College, about his research and insights on how platforms have changed podcasting and what it might mean for the future of the medium.

Whether it’s the fact there are so very few major podcast indexes to the social media platforms podcasters use to promote their shows, Dr. Sullivan talks about the history of platformization in podcasting as well as the benefits and potential pitfalls for independent podcasters.

Show highlights:

Introduction

Dr. John Sullivan’s background (1:15)

This week’s guest is Dr. John Sullivan, a professor and department chair of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College. He explains a little bit about his experience with podcasting.

Platformization (2:25)

Dr. Sullivan wrote a paper about platformization. He explains to John and Jay what the term means, how platforms have changed over the years, and the pros and cons of using platforms online.

Podcast platforms (11:48)

As Jay notes, podcasters do their show with the intention of being platform agnostic. But with an ever-increasing set of rules from these platforms, users have to now alter their podcasts with the different major platforms in mind. Dr. Sullivan discusses where he believes podcast platforms could eventually go.

Podcast Index and Podcasting 2.0 (15:57)

With the potential pitfalls of people becoming so reliant on podcast platforms, Adam Curry and Dave Jones are working together to keep podcasting open through a separate index that isn’t reliant on separate platforms. Dr. Sullivan talks about what the podcast index does for podcasters and how it’s pushing the medium forward.

Google’s future in podcasting (21:15)

Dr. Sullivan discusses some of the things Google is doing to improve podcasts, including transcribing episodes automatically in order to find relevant keywords for search. John and Dr. Sullivan point out a few things you can do to improve your podcast SEO.

Predictions (28:00)

Dr. Sullivan gives some of his predictions for the future of podcasting, including the continuation of mergers and acquisitions of podcast platforms until there are only a few major platforms remaining.

Links:

Q’d Up

Pod Vader - Twitter

Pod Vader - Email

Pod Vader - Linked In

John - Email

John - Linked In

Dr. John Sullivan - Muhlenberg College website

Dr. John Sullivan - Twitter