Replies: 4 comments 11 replies
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Only Spotify does this. You can stop it from doing it if you go into Spotify for Podcasters for your podcast, and change the "hosting provider" to a company that has pass-through (i.e. that doesn't cache your podcast in its system). They don't check the RSS feed is actually hosted there; but it stops Spotify from caching audio files. Here's a screenshot of the bit I mean.
Change the filename and it'll fetch the new episode audio automatically. That even works if you just change a GET value - Hope that helps. |
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Thanks, I'll have to give that a go. |
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This still might not be a bad idea to generally signal a “nocache” desire. |
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It won't be enforced by Spotify. Pass-through or not depends on hosting
provider selection because hosting provider make special agreements and
comply with specific guidelines for security and such between Spotify and
the hosting provider.
I really doubt Spotify will some day follow such a tag if it exists, as
it's more a "contractual" concern than a technical concern.
Also if you switch the hosting provider on Spotify dashboard you most
likely break the link between Spotify and your hosting provider if you have
one. That means they would not be able to import and include Spotify plays
into your statistics.
The timestamp or checksum in the url is the way to go, usually it's a
checksum of the file or its modification time. But do not try to make it
different at each request, as this would probably break the podcast itself
on many platforms (unstable urls might make your show blacklisted or at
least "frozen")
… This still might not be a bad idea to generally signal a “nocache” desire.
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@redimongo Quite a collection of accusations here.
Spotify only lists a podcast if you, the podcast owner, allows them to. If you don't want to be on Spotify, don't submit your show to Spotify.
I've written about this space since 2017, and nobody has ever made this claim before. Please could you supply any detail?
That's certainly an argument. I'd suggest, though, that Spotify gives podcasts free carriage on their platform, and free stats. They don't interfere with the audio in any way, and don't ask for a revenue share from the ads in the podcasts it carries. And, as stated above, you're entirely free not to be in Spotify if you don't want to be. |
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Hi @jamescridland https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/spotify-for-podcasters-platform-terms/ The keyword there is modify. As for ads around podcasts I link to this article from TechCrunch. We don't get paid for these adverts.
While you might be right, the issue is if Spotify wanted to they could/can modify a podcast to remove paid commercial agreements as inline with their terms of service and the license agreement that we as creators agree too. I am a firm believer that if a site or service is making money by playing an ad before or during your podcast you as a creator should be paid a percentage. |
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We'll probably not agree on this, but a licence saying they can "modify" doesn't mean that they can strip out the ads, nor does it even say it has any technology to do so. Indeed, the licence goes on to say it specifically won't do that - since the licence is "not including the development and production of derivative audio or video works". The part of that licence is specifically around transcriptions and topic tagging, not making different versions - far less, stripping the ads out. Your allegation was: "Spotify has technology that also removes audio advertising from podcasts. This can and does end up hurting the podcaster." - but it's clear that no, it doesn't have technology that removes audio advertising - there's no evidence of that - and the allegation that this "can and does end up hurting the podcaster" is nonsense, since it isn't doing it. Let's have a sensible, grown-up conversation here, not a conspiracy theory fuelled fantasy.
Excellent. So, don't submit your show to Spotify, and they can't "earn from it". On the other hand, you lose free carriage on one of the largest podcast platforms on the planet. 🤷 |
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If you're asking is it possible to block ads in podcasts yes - https://www.adblockpodcast.com |
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I'm not. I'm asking "Is Spotify doing this, as you allege they are?"
I remember reading somewhere that trolls exist even in Github. |
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My suggestion on how to achieve this is as an optional value to the enclosure tag. As a creator, I'm happy for this file to be cached at a podcast platform: <enclosure url="https://example.com/audio.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" length="1994643" cacheable="yes" />As a creator, I'm signalling that I am not happy for this file to be cached at a podcast platform: <enclosure url="https://example.com/audio.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" length="1994643" cacheable="no" />There are many benefits for podcast audio to be cached by a podcast platform: the platform pays for the bandwidth, not you, as one example. Something that allows creators to have control is the important thing. However, as @PofMagicfingers points out, the only people currently caching audio is Spotify, and they only cache audio in a few cases. Without Spotify respecting this tag, then there's little point in working on this. (One note on Spotify's caching: they take a copy of every single show as a backup anyway, and on some devices will play their cached version irrespective of whether they have a passthrough agreement. That's particularly the case with playback on some of the surfaces that Spotify is available on, like seat-back screens in airlines or Spotify Connect hifi units.) |
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Yes you could do it on an episode level, but would also be good to have it on a podcast wide level if the podcaster wants to. While you're correct we can't stop them from doing this, it would be nice to have the community support the podcasters and not be corporate. If we could get Spotify or others to agree to implement this then at the end of the day the TOS that Spotify has becomes more in the control of the publisher and not Spotify. This would not stop Spotify or others from delisting a podcast or an episode from a podcast for breaching Spotify content guidelines. |
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...then it's worthwhile working up an example of how it would work. Until that point, I'm not very sure it is. There's no real issue here - if you want stats, Spotify will give them to you; if you want dynamic ads, you'll probably be hosting with a company that uses passthrough anyway. I don't see the use-case. |
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So this at the heart of it, goes to Spotify and their practice of storing our podcasts on their servers - they claim it is for faster service and for "better listening experience", which it might be. However unless you're hosting with a "supported provider" Spotify and some other players will clone your media files to their servers. This hinders the ability for creators to insert ads from other ad serving companies or even replace a section of audio in a file due to error or something.
We have had times where we have had to send Spotify support an email saying please fetch new file for X episode. This not only hurts our listeners, but also makes us have to do more support ticket filing than we should.
I would then suggest that a new tag be developed and supported that stats cloning allowed or not.
I understand that for most people this won't affect you. But for media companies that host podcasts on their own platform and offer it on Spotify it is something that bugs us.
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