Exploring Podlink: The Journey of a Podcasting Service

Welcome to Swing that Cake. I am Martin Lindeskog and today I will do a pretty geeky episode talking about the service podcast service called Pod Link and before previous also called Episodes fm. So podcast Episode FM. And the guy who developed this created this is his name is Nathan and I got to know him a little bit on Mastodon on Podcast Index Social and he has if I remember it right worked at Spotify at one time. And then so I will include in the show notes linked the link there about

his blog. He created the service in to. Yeah, when it was here. I will check there will new foundation for Pod Link. I will read his first there Pod Links next chapter. See he wrote here that in 2018 he created this service Podlink and then it got acquired by Pod Sites then Spotify and now it's when he started a new one in 20242024 episodes FM and now recently pretty recently got handed back from Spotify to Nathan. So now he has redirected all the Episodes FM service service is there to Podlink

Pod Link. So it's lots of podcasts out there using this service. So now it's working again. And he writes also in his latest post here new foundation for Podlink his plans for the future. For example that you could have like a special URL like have a

customised in different way that could be interesting. What I like that he write about it that he's using a service called op free and if you go to opfree.dev you could search for this and it's an opinion statistics service statistics for podcasters that you could show your statistics where your downloads and visitors and listeners and whatnot. And he's planning to have that when you go to this link to

explain it. It's like you go to this link. So I have for swing that yes I have a following POD link and then it's 1-830-601-1945 I think it is. So with that link you come and you have now completion of I think over 30 services out there. And now new many

new modern podcast applications. So that you could give to your listeners having in show notes and yeah dispute and share and say pick a service that you like and what is doing Also it's some kind of algorithm so called in a positive way with the list you could have so called sort by popularity, sort by letters an Alphabet. And then you could copy link share it and copy RSS feed. That's going then in my case here to all the twos service.

So when it Looks what's popular depending on if you have this OPL op3.dev and then it could and then the listen could say oh maybe this service I could test. So I want in the future in the long run that like truefence will come on the top and other services new modern podcast applications. So I will do this again. It's very geeky, a bit nerdy service and maybe it's only Nathan would listen to it to joke, but maybe some others will be interested

to use it. And I'm using this also to find my next gig to explain the portraits of RSS feed and that they have plenty of options out there. Adam Curry and Dave Jones talked about that in the latest episode of podcasting 2.0 and I will include that in the show notes. Also link to that the importance of RSS and why certain players out there are trying to divide from it or going away from it and get the user into their platform, their service and get locked in. And that I think was nice yesterday

by Spotify. But I will have a certain specific episode about my views about that. I know it's a popular service, but I wonder what the agenda is about there regarding RSS and that will show for the future what will happen. So I think it was very good that they handed it back to Nathan and listened to the latest episode of podcasting

2.0 and how they joke about it. That's a great service to create something, build something, getting acquired and then starting a new project and then hand it back to you. That's a good deal. So congratulations Nathan and keep up the good work here. So I like this service and then we could be a little bit like reporting bugs and whatnot because it's several things pieces that could be together here. So so I will do a test and we'll see if this will work as a podcast episode.

Otherwise you have to tune out or put up the speed or jump to the section. So I will not link to every service. I will link to pod link, I will link to the episode podcasting 2.0 episode and the blog there. If I find something else that I think is relevant and I think I would maybe make a clip. Also when they joke about this business and the deal and also think about this is a bit meta but every link it's important in the

blogosphere and there you have the rss. Also you have this orange symbol with a dot and a wave to wave symbols you could say so it looks like this RSS and that's standing for really simple Syndication. So it's syndicating how you could dispute different services. And then with this podcasting 2.0 features, you could enhance and advance and add new features to the rss. It's pretty old technology, but it's working. It's like the motor of updating a new blog post, a new podcast

episode, et cetera. And I am not getting into the code and change that. I want it to work, but you could do lots of interesting stuff here and I will take a sip of tea here. So it's very important that it's working. Otherwise if the RSS feed is broken, then you can't get the notification that you have a new episode or new blog post. But the user or listener don't think so much about it because it's working. You don't see it under

the hood, so to speak. So it's something to think about and what you could do with it and applications for the future. And it's not so called controllable, you could say. So that's why like Google, why did they almost kill the RSS feed reader that they had? What was that called? Was it Feedburner, I think. And they didn't develop it and so on because they maybe saw that now you can't hook them into as they call it now,

Google Podcast. That's not Google Podcast anymore. It's Google YouTube Music something that you will go there and then you could set up some kind of RSS and you if you are out there and you could correct me if I'm wrong here, but there you have a. You could have a playlist of your podcast, but I wonder if you could subscribe to it. But we will go through the list here now and see what's on the. On this compilation that Nathan has done. So I will start here. So on the top of the list

is Spotify and again I'm divid dividing and discussing with myself should I add Spotify or not? Should I try to log into the dashboard there or let it be. You could decide there. Also give me feedback. As I said, I have one podcast called Pluck. The day that I have decided not to add to legacy applications like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and also when it was Google Podcast so only new modern podcast applications. As again, as a new media advisor I would

give you this piece of advice. Try to distribute wherever you could find your podcast. That's good to have it then it's different rules and regulations. It could be in different markets, different countries and so on. But yeah, I think it's great that you have plenty of to choose from.

Again it is this that the small new modern podcast application could be more popular and you could find your style and what you like and maybe new podcast developers will find a new niche and a new service, a new feature and that's also as a gig worker, how could you make this work? If you use value for value model. But if you value service then you pay back. If you could integrate that in your app then you don't have to have advertising in the app or sell it for like

$9 or $10 or whatever. And try to when you have to sell plenty of apps and get it downloaded in order to get it as a full time gig. But if you incorporate that that if you value it, you could give back every time you stream or use the service for podcasting or also for music and sending back some satoshi bits of Bitcoin or using a funding button to say I will want to support the

developer here. Back in the day, do you remember that when you had like this what is called interrelate chat and some service in order to hook up to the different rooms where it's. I think the hashtag is coming from. And then you had freemium. But then it was often so complicated to go to the bank and send a check to Switzerland or Germany or whatnot. But. And still you could use it even for free. But they gave you that option. Now you could do it in a simpler way.

So anyway I'm babbling along now. Maybe standing on the soapbox here. The joke. And again. Hi Nathan. Hope you like this episode and others maybe so Spotify. I'm not there yet. Let's stop. So I will test the different Apple podcasts. When I click on that and then it works perfectly and then I will go back. We serve it sometimes it have some cashier. So you have

to open it in different ways here. So when it's down cost and then I click down cost and open that nothing is happening there and then have true fans I click on that and that's worked perfectly. And then Cast Box. See let's open a new tab here. And that's worked on Cast Box. I think that's on some of my podcasts. That's pretty popular application. And the next one when I go tab back here and iheartradio that should. Shouldn't work as you know because it's outside.

Yeah it's. It's suggesting some other podcast instead. So I talked about that in a previous episode. Audible that's owned by Amazon is that working? It's coming. I think you have to log in so I can't see it directly. So maybe that's not working. Maybe I have to on on some of these services as Spotify you have to go over and register and log in and claim your podcast. It's nice if it's one click and and also that many of these applications are using

Apple Podcast Connect in order to see if it's wet. And now if I could also go to Podcast Index that index and see if it's. If it's there. So when it's overcast that I have a premium version of and there you have to log in or use the QR code there. So to see if it's working there. I think so. But it's nice when you use Podlink that it will work directly in the browser also. And then it's Deezer that I talked about in the previous episode that it's worked. Yeah it's worked fine there.

And then it's Ellen Beats that's also a new modern podcast application mainly for music I think so check out that I like that vibe on the Ellen Beats. So there it's coming like a playlist similar to like music songs and tunes. So but you could use Ellen Beats and then you could find some new music also to listen to and so beer me. This will take some time. So again I wonder you will listen to it. But it's I have fun Podcast

addict. Loading. Swing that gig. It's. It's working. I see on their site it's also like a so called hobby project or side gig or hustle for this guy. Lots of ads there. But again I mean he in order to run this service and it's Google Play so I think it's mainly for Android. You have to find different ways of getting the do there. So cheers. So that's a service that could give a suggestion to the Android robot. Use the software to

joke Player fm. I think that's more for regular radio where it says please signing. Please sign up first at feeds.olitu.com forward/77726397 to play RFM. So that's the RSS feed that generated by my host Ollie2.

I know also that you have a special URL link in Apple Podcast Connect that you could use like a mirror URL if something is happening. I haven't played around with it. I wonder how that's working. If you should use that or not or if it's like a backup plan then it's something called Iwox I think it's popular in South America. I remember that one of our podcasts the Secular Voxhole where Ivox that it got listed there but now I only see ads and no podcasts there.

So again it will take some time. But here's one that I have on my screen on my phone goodpods.com I heard on Pod News yeah with James Gridland he talked about that as a new version of GoodPods I see there you could have is that you other users could suggest podcast and here you have an F RQ F A Q Frequently asked questions how many episodes does swing that gig have? 8 episodes and what

topics and whatnot. It's pretty nice interface here so that's something that you could check out good Pods I will see could become a bit more active there and then it's one of my also favourites here that I use often when I'm on the run and walking. It's Fountain FM and that's working fine also. And there you could earn some satoshis when you use this service. It's often per day or sometimes it's one, you know one sets per for 10 minutes or something like that. So it's small amount but it's

everything is adding up. And then you could send it to fellow podcasters out there Curecaster that's mainly I think web browser and I have supported them and I think of Secular Fox also we got on the board there for supporters so that's working. Also so many applications out there. So find your favourite and not only the legacy apps of course if you prefer Apple Podcast Connect or Apple Podcast the purple one or Spotify for that matter or some other use it but check out new alternatives.

That's good. Also Pandora that we talked about previous episode. Pandora is unavailable in this country or region. You keep the music going wherever you are listening for free online with SoundCloud or the SoundCloud app. So I wonder currently travelling outside the US then they can contact the support. I wonder why they are only in US could that have hit the licence

and music for some reason. And again what's up with SoundCloud where the German Swedish startup that's now been running for some time having challenges regarding podcasting and the standard IAB

standard for example. But I I mean I was a premium user also for the music partner and also uploaded some episodes and now I see that when you have a basic account then they could cut down on how many episodes you could have or the time you could have aerospace and I think I babbled now for 15 minutes or something like that. So yeah tune in here is a big one that's owned by Automattic, that's the parent company organisation for

WordPress and that's working fine. And there you could see the different category or reviews and so on and link to Teapoty Media because that's. I added that somewhere on Ollito. So that's. That's nice also that you could get a link back Talking about links. You get the link back from a popular service that's good for the currency. You call it every link. The links are currencies of the web I think. So as a side note coming back to that we do AI result search results. When you search for

something on Google now you get this AI on the top. Not a blog post, not an article, not a news site. And what will that have effect and impact in the future? That's something to think about. If the links are the currencies of the web now you don't have to leave the search engine when you get results directly on the page on the Google search it is some link somewhere. But yeah that's something to think about. And then tune in

radio. I don't know how active it is now they have been not updating or so you couldn't submit to this service for a long time. So I don't see my site there or my podcast there. And then you have this with the so called unfortunate name. Of course not everyone that was named or have a name Castro or Cuba supporting the Cuba dictatorship. But cast like podcast it could play with words but Castro. Yeah I sent them a tweet or post sometime but I didn't get any results. But I know that it's popular

with. With some people there and there you could or listen elsewhere. I think that's a nice thing to say it And Apple App Store you could get their app and Apple podcast or podcast and Overcast and take the RSS feed and also they link to Teapoty

Media. So I thank you them for that. And then Podbean that's both a podcast hosting company and also I think they have some kind of is it live stream also so there it's working also so and there you see some suggestion of other you also you may also like. So that's something good that you could be found that way. And then YouTube Music how that's working. That's so called their podcast. And then I have been to submit or post your web address to RSS Stream Add.

So this I don't know, you probably have to log in then in order to do that and add that manually or to YouTube Music. And that's also a question if I would do that or not. I have to think about that. And then antennapod there you have to subscribe in Antenna Pod. So I don't know if it's listed there. Podverse, that's also a new modern podcast application. I have had developer there of podverse on my podcast Tea Party Media. So that's working. That's nice. I like that.

For example they had their clip service that I enjoyed and it's cool layout podcast Republic and there you have list of episodes reviews. Yeah. So that could be one service to use also. And then another. Yeah. So then you have Podcast Guru. That's also a modern podcast application that I. I like. It's very sleek and it's running smooth and on your. On your phone. So Podcast Guru, I think it's a great. It's working here like that. And then a podcast app, I think it's a new service.

I haven't. Yeah, it's working also. So there you see the categories so society and culture, business education, self improvement, personal journals and marketing. And yeah so it's different. I mean it's a matter of taste what you like and Customatic, it's a great service. But here saying this connection is not private but it says HTTPs. So Customatic, I will try to remember and do a shout out on Twitter or X or sending

on Mastodon on podcast Index Social. If it's something with Podlink there or is it something that I have done or is something on your side customatic because there you could be a premium user also I think yeah I have to think about if I'm a premium user but I want to support as many new modern podcast applications and developers as possible in different ways. Like premium like over cost that I'm doing paying per month per once a

year for some services that I like. For example that you could upload your file and listen how it will listen on your as a podcast episode. But also the feature that you could support them by streaming and sending. When you're sending booster grammes they take a certain percentage there so you support them and give back. So that's a good model. And then G Podder, what kind of service is that? And then you have to log in and RSS radio and it's totally

blank on that. I don't see anything there. Anytime podcast player follow it, follow in anytime players. Then you have to log in there also Getting end of the list here. Pod Duoma

I think that's pretty new one also Pod Duoma. So if you have any information about this service you could please tell me. So that's working. And then Moon FM and I think don't they have a payment option also when it comes to bitcoin and satoshis and there I can't see anything. Some of them you have to then use the app and search on the app on your phone. But it's nice if it's working. I don't know how much it's working on on your phone. This service I use is now in a web browser on my laptop.

And then you have big podcast player here called Global and they're big in England, United Kingdom and their own podcast hosting service Captivate and I can't see it here under the section podcast they have lots of radio station live radio. So to check out that. And now it's only a few more Breeze is one of this new modern podcast application and there you have to please open the podcast link from a mobile device with Breeze installed. So you have to do that and they also into this Bitcoin

and Satoshi. So you could also do these financial transactions on Breeze. And then the last one is Pod Station also a new modern podcast application, a web browser subscribe to this podcast in Pod Station install here.

So that's the list. So the call to action here is what's your favourite podcast application at the moment and are you curious about any of the podcast applications that I listed here now and went through and hopefully you'd like this so called review or real time testing of Podlink Pod Link. So again thanks Nathan for your work and talk to you soon again and bye for now and cheerio Sam.