Last week’s article prompted considerable feedback from folks in the trenches of making podcasting better. Most understood what I was trying to do, though some framed it as a critique of Podcasting 2.0, mainly due to the title. Fair play. But I want to focus on the state of podcast apps, and why I think the industry needs to collaborate on how we present our art to the world.

Podcasting 2.0 is a volunteer effort, making this conversation uncomfortable. There have been positives from the community’s work. The transcripts feature was a huge win, and I was complimentary about the socialInteract tag. Critiquing a labor of love triggers responses, both rational and irrational. But these things are true:

– Podcasting 2.0 has brought useful new features to Open RSS podcasting

– The community working on it is wonderful

– It isn’t getting here quickly enough, or widely distributed enough

– Open podcasting loses share yearly to closed systems

Consider this: one reader responded to my piece via YouTube video. I’m not linking it because I’m not trying to pick on him, but let’s examine that action. He read my piece, had a reaction, then took the shortest path from idea to audience. He turned on his camera and posted to a closed system. He did nothing wrong – but if we don’t see this as an indictment of open podcasting’s current state, I don’t know what else to say.

YouTube has made every part of this process easier for both creator AND audience. For anyone who watched that video without reading my original article or listening to the RSS-delivered podcast version, congratulations – you’re proving my point. Podcasting might be on 2.0, but YouTube is on version 20.10.36, and we can’t lay this at Podcasting 2.0’s feet.

Open podcasting is getting lapped by closed systems. I don’t think we appreciate the urgency. If someone new wants to consume a podcast today, they NEVER need to download a podcast client. EVER. And increasingly, they aren’t. Nothing Podcasting 2.0 is working on will see daylight if no one uses podcast clients. I’m not merely worried – I’m petrified. I want our community of audio creators to have their work showcased with the same polish and engagement as video creators.

I am increasingly starting to think about podcasting as the Saab of media channels. Do you remember Saabs? As a native New Englander, I grew up seeing lots of Saab 900s in Maine and Massachusetts, barreling through the snow and ice that 8-year old me recalls being well over my head. They had a certain mystique – the cars were manufactured in Trollhättan, Sweden, which sounds like a place where Frost Giants make cars for Odin, father of the Aesir. My father, an absolute ace car mechanic, would never have bought one or allowed me to have one, because (he maintained) they were a NIGHTMARE to work on. Swiss watches that required constant tuning.

In the mid-90s, my co-worker Glenn used his first big raise on a Saab 900. Through him I learned the true measure of brand loyalty: when customers will suffer inconvenience just to keep using a brand. Glenn dreaded regular tune-ups because they weren’t $29.99 Jiffy Lube specials. The entire Rube Goldbergian apparatus had to be reset. A simple oil leak meant nearly dismantling the engine. The fuel sensor would jump from full to zero while driving. What would drive my father insane was a “quirk” to the Saab loyalist: “I know the tank is mostly full, so the gauge doesn’t really bother me.” REALLY?

From the center console mounting of the ignition key, to the “welcome” lack of information night drivers had access to thanks to Saab’s “night panel” feature, these cars were the ultimate test of brand loyalty. Devotees would tell you that if you followed Saab’s scheduled maintenance without deviation, the result was a magnificent, sure-footed beast (and the proof could be seen in the parking lot of many New England ski resorts). But those “maintenance” appointments over time rendered the Saab a veritable Ship of Theseus – with every part replaced over five years, is it still the same car?

Podcasting used to be exactly like this. When I started 20 years ago, I had a Mac Powerbook, iTunes, and a Diamond Rio before buying a Zune and finally an iPod. Finding, downloading, and syncing content involved Saab-esque “quirks.” But we were fans of the medium itself. We loved podcasting, not just podcasts, and suffered gladly.

Over the last eight years, podcasting has grown beyond medium fans to include show fans – however they get the show. Smartphones and cheap wireless broadband eliminated much of the friction, but YouTube and Spotify refined the process further, helping reach larger audiences. Both platforms are enormously important to podcasting’s present and future, but neither has podcasting as their main focus. YouTube is video. Spotify is music. And Apple, the largest pure “podcast player,” isn’t yet implementing the kinds of features I suggested last week, though their adoption of podcasting 2.0’s transcripts feature was a real win for the medium

At the risk of being a little too on the nose with this, I want to close the loop on the Saab story (pun intended). General Motors took a 50% ownership stake in Saab in 1989, gradually increasing that to 100% by 2000. In an effort to improve the efficiency of Saab production and to iron out some of the “nuisance” maintenance they required, GM removed the Saab guts from their vehicles and replaced them with rebadged Chevy Trailblazers and Subaru Imprezas. Well, as my native Mainer father would say, “if a cat had kittens in the oven, that doesn’t make ’em biscuits.” By slapping a Saab logo on the hood of a Trailblazer, GM made a more reliable car, a car with lower maintenance costs, and a less expensive car. It also made a car devoid of anything special.

The quirks were the point.

Saab disappeared by 2011, and all the Frost Giants in Trollhättan were laid off. If you recall from the first Thor movie, unemployed Frost Giants really get up to no good.

So, what am I really asking for, here? I guess I am trying to manifest to the universe how important it is for the business side of podcasting AND the open source community to collaborate, build, and put some muscle behind a consolidated, universally great experience for podcasting that showcases podcasting. This requires mutual respect and acknowledgement of what both sides can contribute to the effort, but I think it’s a really important initiative for the future of spoken word audio, period, which is my ultimate concern.

With commercial radio declining and spoken word audio content increasingly in the hands of video and music platforms, I worry about people developing the audio habit. We can’t assume they’ll “pick it up” without exposure. Over my 20 years in podcasting, I’ve tried to bridge independent and “big” podcasting, and this is when both factions need to pay attention to the quirks that make podcasting special while still acknowledging that we just aren’t there with the full listener experience yet. I certainly want to help.

Otherwise, we risk turning podcasts into rebadged GMC trucks: just “content,” instead of premium content.