Audiocube

Stephen Hallgren

5.0 (4)
TECHNOLOGY

RSS feeds, the core of the open podcasting ecosystem, have served audiophiles since the dawn of podcasting. Unfortunately, meaningful innovation around feeds has stagnated as the industry doubles down on its outdated technology. Long-term solutions to core problems need to be created and discussed. Audiocube seeks to explore alternatives to the RSS feed, while maintaining the ethos of creator ownership and the open ecosystem of podcasting. This show will challenge everything you know about the future of the podcasting ecosystem and might create more questions than answers.

SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

Worlds Beyond the RSS Feed

Welcome! My name's Teevio, and you're listening to Audiocube. Audiocube is the first podcast on the decentralized web that you can listen to on all modern podcast apps. What that means, and my journey building the next generation of podcast technology, is what this show is all about. For well over 20 years, I've been working in the world of startups. I've been creating simple tools for creators — tools to help them succeed at what they love doing. Those tools have ranged from music discovery to website creation, and most recently podcast distribution and analytics. If you've heard of PureVolume, Virb, or Simplecast, you'll have an idea of some of the things I've been a part of over the years. About five years ago, when I first started rebuilding Simplecast, I was struck by the pureness of the podcast medium. Podcasting had not been taken over by any of the tech giants. RSS feeds were critical to the openness of the ecosystem. They're arguably the main reason that podcasting is still as open today as the day it was born. Recent acquisitions have shown that the big players are wanting to own a piece of the pie. Despite those acquisitions, the RSS feed still remains podcasting's greatest technological success. But even though the feed has been critical to ushering in the future of podcasting, it has also become its biggest weakness. The tech community has been rallying around finding solutions and improvements to existing technology — but new ideas are inevitably limited by what I call the Adoption Implementation Conundrum. It goes something like this: new ideas cannot be adopted unless the industry as a whole adopts the idea, and the industry won't adopt the idea unless they have incentive to implement it. To apply that to podcasting: for a podcast app to source data from something other than an RSS feed, the entire industry needs to implement a new way to surface that data. And right now, there's zero incentive for either party to do so. On the surface it appears like we're stuck with RSS feeds forever. That's why the tech community has been working under the banner of Podcasting 2.0 — doing a lot of great work to unlock innovative features that podcast apps can use to improve the experience for listeners. But unfortunately, we're still stuck with both the positives and the negatives of the RSS feed. Despite all of that, I'm not satisfied with just keeping the status quo afloat. I want to explore a new era of podcasting. One that embodies the ethos of the RSS feed, while unlocking new potential with cutting edge technology. That's why I'm embarking on a quest for something new. I've spent my free time over the past year building a prototype for moving forward — something I personally think is the solution, or at least a stepping stone toward the solution, for the future of podcasting. You might disagree. You might think I'm crazy. But stick around — in the episodes ahead, I'll be digging into the project I call Amplicube.

3 min

TRAILER

Worlds Beyond the RSS Feed

Welcome! My name's Teevio, and you're listening to Audiocube. Audiocube is the first podcast on the decentralized web that you can listen to on all modern podcast apps. What that means, and my journey building the next generation of podcast technology, is what this show is all about. For well over 20 years, I've been working in the world of startups. I've been creating simple tools for creators — tools to help them succeed at what they love doing. Those tools have ranged from music discovery to website creation, and most recently podcast distribution and analytics. If you've heard of PureVolume, Virb, or Simplecast, you'll have an idea of some of the things I've been a part of over the years. About five years ago, when I first started rebuilding Simplecast, I was struck by the pureness of the podcast medium. Podcasting had not been taken over by any of the tech giants. RSS feeds were critical to the openness of the ecosystem. They're arguably the main reason that podcasting is still as open today as the day it was born. Recent acquisitions have shown that the big players are wanting to own a piece of the pie. Despite those acquisitions, the RSS feed still remains podcasting's greatest technological success. But even though the feed has been critical to ushering in the future of podcasting, it has also become its biggest weakness. The tech community has been rallying around finding solutions and improvements to existing technology — but new ideas are inevitably limited by what I call the Adoption Implementation Conundrum. It goes something like this: new ideas cannot be adopted unless the industry as a whole adopts the idea, and the industry won't adopt the idea unless they have incentive to implement it. To apply that to podcasting: for a podcast app to source data from something other than an RSS feed, the entire industry needs to implement a new way to surface that data. And right now, there's zero incentive for either party to do so. On the surface it appears like we're stuck with RSS feeds forever. That's why the tech community has been working under the banner of Podcasting 2.0 — doing a lot of great work to unlock innovative features that podcast apps can use to improve the experience for listeners. But unfortunately, we're still stuck with both the positives and the negatives of the RSS feed. Despite all of that, I'm not satisfied with just keeping the status quo afloat. I want to explore a new era of podcasting. One that embodies the ethos of the RSS feed, while unlocking new potential with cutting edge technology. That's why I'm embarking on a quest for something new. I've spent my free time over the past year building a prototype for moving forward — something I personally think is the solution, or at least a stepping stone toward the solution, for the future of podcasting. You might disagree. You might think I'm crazy. But stick around — in the episodes ahead, I'll be digging into the project I call Amplicube.

S1, E1

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3 min

5

out of 5

4 Ratings

RSS feeds, the core of the open podcasting ecosystem, have served audiophiles since the dawn of podcasting. Unfortunately, meaningful innovation around feeds has stagnated as the industry doubles down on its outdated technology. Long-term solutions to core problems need to be created and discussed. Audiocube seeks to explore alternatives to the RSS feed, while maintaining the ethos of creator ownership and the open ecosystem of podcasting. This show will challenge everything you know about the future of the podcasting ecosystem and might create more questions than answers.

Creator

Stephen Hallgren
Years Active

2023 - 2026
Episodes

1
Rating

Clean
Show Website

Audiocube

Audiocube

Episodes

Worlds Beyond the RSS Feed

Trailer

Worlds Beyond the RSS Feed

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