Anyone who knows me will know that I like two things. The first is listening to all kinds of metal on Spotify while I work, and the second is listening to podcasts while I walk the dog, do housework, cook, or just walk down the street. It’s not that I’m one of those people who grew up with radio shows and find in this content a longing for the past, quite the opposite. I’m so simple that I only listen to podcasts about video games, humor, and interviews. But that’s why I want to launch this criticism.
Nowadays, it is very convenient to listen to podcasts. Thanks to 5G networks, and the plans with dozens of data that we all have, we can go out listening to this content without fear of running out of data on our mobile. In addition, there are a large number of platforms where we can listen. Before, I used Google Podcast, since it offered everything you could need to listen to this content. I have also been using Spotify (since that is what I pay for Premium for), but I already criticized the fact that they forcefully put ads into the content, and that is something I do not intend to allow. Right now I use AntennaPod, the best app for this purpose, but there are also many other platforms to choose from, such as Apple Podcast, iVoox, etc.
I can’t deny that the more platforms there are to listen to content, the better. The problem comes when these platforms start to become a kind of Netflix or Disney+, where they ask you to pay a fee to access their content, something that, a few years ago, would have been unthinkable.
Spotify, Ivoox, Podimo and Podium are killing podcasts
Podcasts are part of the legacy of radio. That is, you can tune into the station you want (in this case, it would be the XML file), and listen to all the content as you like. It is true that there are more differences (for example, access to on-demand content), but in radio nobody asked for an extra subscription to be able to decode the signal.
The same thing happened in the podcast world until these platforms came along. You can take the XML of any broadcast and add it to your favorite aggregator (AntennaPod right now) to listen to the content on demand. However, for a few years now, some platforms have been trying to end the freedom of podcasts. The first of them was iVoox. It is true that this platform does a lot for podcasts and gives visibility to many contents. It has ads, something that doesn’t bother me either (as long as the money goes to the content creators). But the problem comes when it literally buys certain podcasters so that they can only broadcast on its platform. And it is much worse when you can only listen to them if you pay.
Spotify has tried to do something similar, but it hasn’t worked out well. The music giant has tried to focus on its own podcast content and, in addition to paying certain content creators to broadcast mainly on its platform (something that seems fine to me, as long as they provide XML or are free to upload to other platforms), it also wanted to buy creators to create exclusive content. Of course, the content it opted for, woke and of very low quality, has been embarrassing. And that has forced the platform to rethink its future.
But, let’s say, Spotify and iVoox are the least bad. They allow access to free content, even if you have ads and quality and feature limitations. But there are two much worse platforms: Podium and Podimo. These two are turning podcasts into a kind of Netflix or Disney+, where users who want to listen to their content will have to pay, no matter what, and pay a monthly fee (not cheap considering what they offer) to be able to access their podcasts. And this paywall is like the Soviet iron curtain, since it does not allow their podcasts to leave there, nor anyone to enter without paying the amount they deem appropriate.
I had already put crosses on various podcast channels for similar movements, all of them born out of greed. And the straw that broke the camel’s back, and which, honestly, hurt me the most, was Jordi Wild’s.
Farewell, Jordi Wild
One of the interview podcasts I listened to frequently was Jordi Wild’s. While the discussions seemed very tacky, and even too stupid for me, the interviews seemed to me to be valuable content. I have listened to him on Spotify, Google Podcasts and AntennaPod. However, this has come to an end.
A few days ago, the content creator published a new audio, about 4 minutes long, in which he explained that he has sold himself to Podimo. Starting this new season, his audios will be exclusively within the paywall of this platform. It will not be possible to listen to them (only listen to them) outside of it. Spotify, with whom he had a contract until now, has lost its main content creator in Spain, and that will take its toll on the music giant.
Do I have it on YouTube if I want to watch it? Sure, but I don’t want to watch this guy (and even less so after this stab at all podcast consumers), what I wanted was to listen to him. And, from today, I won’t do it again. Whoever wants to, can add another 50 euros a year to the subscriptions for Netflix, Disney, Amazon, HBO, Spotify and other platforms that, little by little, are burning a hole in their pocket. As for me, I will continue listening to all that content, as I have been doing for several years now, but without paying a single euro.
