Amazon Music Now Has Podcasts (theverge.com) 15
Amazon Music now offers podcasts. The company issued an update today that brings more than 70,000 shows to the platform, including some major titles, like Serial and Pod Save America, as well as new exclusive deals like a show with DJ Khaled called The First One, where he'll interview artists about their breakthrough hits and the stories behind them. Disgraceland, a popular show from iHeartMedia, will also become exclusive to the platform starting in February 2021. From a report: Podcasts can be listened to through the updated Amazon Music app, on the web, or on Amazon Echo devices. Echo devices will search Amazon Music by default and will remember where listeners left off, regardless of what platform they use to listen. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon will be selling ads for its shows, although it's unclear if that means DJ Khaled and other hosts will be reading ads and if paid subscribers will hear these ads, similarly to Spotify.
RSS (Score:3)
If there is no RSS feed they can fuck off. Apologies for the strong language.
Notice RSS for podcasts has disappeared... (Score:5, Informative)
Notice that the podcast publishers have deleted their "Subscribe with RSS" or ability to download directly... you have to go through YouTube, iTunes, Amazon's app or other program that doesn't let you keep the program long, nor share it with others without them downloading from the publisher.
Seems like open-source has been substituted with closed gardens... so today's news is that Amazon is opening a new closed garden and starting to pick up some shows from other providers.
Re: (Score:2)
it tracks all your subscriptions, you can download, and more important it tracks what you have listened to across multiple platforms.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends.
Everyone and their dog has a podcast, so chances are, Amazon is only skimming off the ones you weren't listening to anyways because they demanded payment. The free ones are still plenty free - I would be surprised if many went to Amazon to be free just for the free hosting.
The payment requiring ones are likely to also be non-exclusive, so they will be available at all your favorite paid subscription podcast apps.
Oh, thank God (Score:2)
Signed, a loyal Amazonian
Boeing fails and kills people (Score:1)
Podcasts are the future! (Score:2)
I know this because every time I switch on the radio these days, at least half of the ads tell me that I should download the station's corporate overlord's app and listen to their podcasts instead.
I get the idea that they're planning to eventually shut down their transmitters and sell all of their bandwidth back to the FCC. That way, more people can stream podcasts, and they can pad their profit margins for at least one quarter.
Re: (Score:2)
You seem to miss the point of broadcasting.. there's many shows that many people want, and I don't think the 'net can take that many downloads. Webstreams are for where TV doesn't reach, or YouTube-level shows that if they get popular, move to broadcast.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think the 'net can take that many downloads.
It sure seems to be able to handle all of the recent cable substitutes, like Netflix, Roku, etc. These are mainly streaming shows that were originally intended for broadcast, not YouTube snippets.
At any rate, we're talking about *podcasts* here. Bandwidth isn't really an issue, except for mobile, and that can be addressed by selling back more broadcast spectrum.
That's why I get the idea that these radio station owners want to get out of the broadcast business with its expensive overhead. They want to have t
DJ Kahled? Seriously? (Score:2)
They went with DJ Khaled for their premier podcast? Why? I lost all respect for that guy when he went on Hot Ones and couldn't even finish the mild hot sauces. Sissy.
Re: (Score:1)
No RSS == Not a PodCast (Score:3)