Steve Jobs is the new “The Man” for Indie Music (Apple, iTunes and Music Podcasting)
Cameron asks, over at The Podcast Network, why iTunes aren’t listing the TPN music shows, including my music show, TPN Rock? It’s a simple question I have no answer for. The Edinburgh Fringe Podcast started on August 1st, was in ITMS world-wide in about 24 hours, and even hit the Top 100 (it peaked at #23) last weekend. Other TPN Shows are there, just not the music ones.
It’s time to put on the Black Hat. Firstly, is it just the TPN Music shows? Nope. Amble over to the Association of Music Podcasting (disclaimer: I am a member of AMP) and you’ll find a massive number of issues with people getting their music podcasts listed into iTunes. Even though they were all present in the iPodder.org directory at the time Apple used that to seed their directory, they were mysteriously left out. And because they had already “been submitted” it was impossible to apply again.
Other podcasters who have music and regular shows are seeing the same thing. Regular shows are accepted in 24-48 hours, while the music shows disappear into an rss/xml void never to be seen again, never listed, and unable to be re-submitted. If those people want to make themselves publicly known, I’m sure they will. My place isn’t to name them here, just to spot a pattern. And there is one.
So why? It’s not as if Apple are ignoring new podcasts – more are being added every day. And they’re not being so obvious as to block every single music show. But of the ones that are there, there seems to be a rather large number of them that are coming under Adam Curry’s PodShow banner, or using that self same Adam Curry’s Podsafe Music Network catalogue (with its rather interesting terms and conditions for both the artist and the podcaster). And before you ask, Coverville is already paying it’s dues to the big boys, licensed as it is through ASCAP and the BMI.
So what are Apple pushing in the iTunes for entertainment? The music category has 456 entries from around the world, but I’ve yet to see Music ever listed on the front-page strips. The closest you get is Arts and Entertainment. Which was three music shows, two from traditional media and one from the Podshow stable:
Mainstream Media Talk Radio:
BBC Radio 5 Live (Sports) , KCRW Business, Z Morning Interviews, Battlestar Galactica’s Ron Moore.
Mainstream Media Music:
KEXP Music, Classic Rock Minute.
Podshow Music:
Accident Hash.
Others:
Cinecast, Soapnet One, KCRW Treatment , KCRW Morning Eclectic, Movies.com.Arts and Entertainment Shows on ITMS UK Front Page, 26th Aug, 2005.
So why are Apple hiding away the majority of the ‘free’ music shows, promoting only those that are either part of the Curry stable, or those that are already established radio stations playing the same old music time and time again? I know that revenue from ITMS music sales is a big business for Apple, but if they’re going to appoint themselves the gatekeepers of podcasting, then they’d better ensure a level playing field or they could loose a lot of goodwill they’ve built up. And if they think it is a level field, then that’s not good enough. They need to make everyone else think it’s a level playing field as well.
I find it hard to believe that Apple are censoring podcasts or forcing music podcasters down a specific iTunes friendly route, but I’ve yet to come up with another conclusion that fits what I see. People always wondered what Apple would do with the number of music podcasts when they launched iTunes 4.9 (with Podcasting support). Is this their answer?
Two things I would like to see (1) TPN Rock listed in iTunes (2) Clarify the process of accepting or rejecting podcasts. Or do I need to quote Auric Goldfinger from Ian Flemings’s novel of the same name? “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” There are a lot more than three music podcasts missing from iTunes.
you make a good point about the missing music podcasts. I don’t think, though, that’s there’s any conspiracy between the podsafe music network and itunes/apple. At least one of the podshow music podcasts has never ever appeared on itunes.
As far as I know there’s a method to use on itunes that checks your feed to see whether it’s properly itunes compatible.
That being said, with the news that the “top podcasts” can get their status in the “top 100” by the number of clicks on the subscribe button, who puts any stock in itunes anymore?
Great post Ewan. Love your show BTW and want you back on the Movie Show.
Now having said that I ended up giving up on Itunes aftr using it as my podcatcher for 2-3 weeks. I was originaly using Ipodder lemon on a windows machine but now that I have a mac Mini I am using IpodderX and it is fantastic and so much better than Itunes for podcatching.
I can understand why people want to be listed in Itunes as it probably the simplest method for “non-techie” people to access shows but as a podcatcher it isn’t all that great in itself.
I hope Itunes sorts this out but I wouldn’t be surprised if the RIAA has something to do with it. I would hate to think Adam Curry has made an arrangement with Apple to only have podshow podcasts on Itunes as that in my belief goes against what podcasting is all about.
Love your shows Ewan and keep up the good work.
Mark.
I don’t logically see a conspiracy between the two parties (but then get me a few drinks late at night and I might be different) but if that’s the case, my only other thought is that Apple’s ITMS staff are incompetent ain their intial population, can;t read their emails, or have been told not to add certain podcasts. If none of my casts were going in, I’d agree with the idea of faulty tags, but as I said, the Edinburgh Fringe Podcast went in straight away with no fuss after a nudge by email.
Tony,
While iTunes may not be the best podcatcher, it is the most easily accessible one for non-techy people who jsut want to grab a few shows. It’s not a big hit on audience numbers (looking at other shows) but it’s still a nice percentage – it galls me I have no idea how many are being downloaded from their cache, but that’s another post I suspect.
If ITMS are worried about the RIAA and that lot ganging up onthem, why not a podcaster making racist comments on their talk show? Or promoting dubious sexual practices. There are rules covering all of these but copyright is the easiest as it is already defined, and if that’s the case, there’s no way TPN Rock breaks copyright. Or do I need to sign up somewhere else to “prove” this?
Thanks for the Movie show thoughts – when my head is back in that place after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe mammoth session, I’ll be back.
That was my point!
Molly
Ewan –
No conspiracy theories needed here, the direction is clear. I submitted Eclectic Mix over two months ago and am still waiting to be listed. There are no concerns over copyright issues, as the beginning of every show begins with a statement that the feed is covered by the Creative Commons license.
I have tried everything I know to contact a human at Apple, but that appears to be a rather silly exercise. The only positive was that someone passed to me an email address where I finally received a response. Of course, the response was simply a form letter telling me what the error message I received meant and how it could be corrected (I never received an error message and never mentioned any such thing).
I can only shake my head at a company that impressed me greatly during the Super Bowl in 1984 when they offered one of the most famous commercials – fighting against Big Brother. Alas, Steve Jobs is the new Big Brother.
Cheers –
george
Nicely carried out. I adore your articles.