The RSS standard has kept podcasts “mostly stagnant” since its inception, according to former Spotify head and Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano. His piece “The Standards Innovation Paradox” champions companies that ‘break the curse’ with proprietary solutions, as Spotify has done with podcasts on Anchor.
Mignano’s reasoning has been widely discussed, to say the least. In a chat on this morning’s Podland, Podnews editor James Cridland prompted his guest to elaborate on the idea: “I wonder if the essay that you wrote is essentially trying to build in product lock-in, rather than a conversation about standards.”
It’s both, Mignano says. The ‘best teams’ find a way to achieve product lock-in while maintaining interoperability with existing standards. In this case, RSS would have made competition too hard due to slow market adoption. Cridland then asked for his take on the Podcast Index, where RSS is being innovated at breakneck speed.
“I haven’t spent too much time checking out the Podcast Index,” Mignano replied. I’ve read a little bit about it and I was tweeting back and forth with them today. I’m supportive of what they’re doing, and I hope it gains traction. It sounds like it is.” At this level of RSS awareness, there’s a certain bravery in faulting its limitations.
We won’t get too far into the weeds here. But say RSS is preventing podcasting from reaching its potential. If Spotify had five years to ‘innovate’ unhindered, what would the industry look like? Here’s RSS.com co-founder Alberto Betella: “Using innovation as an excuse to justify corporate strategy is never a good choice.”
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