How iTunes can better serve Podcasters
Posted by Ajit on September 4, 2006. 4 Comments
Previously, I had covered what I’d like to see improved in iTunes on the user side. This time, as the title suggests, I look into how iTunes can better serve podcasters and vloggers like myself better. Why is this important for Apple? Because Apple needs to keep iTunes the dominant platform for podcasters. At Squigglebooth, iTunes is a vital part of distribution as most of my subscribers are on iTunes. But this could change very quickly, it will be only a matter of time other subscribing tools, both web services and applications, will start to make inroads into the iTunes advantage. Apple can solidify its position by providing more for podcasters. Here is what Apple can do:
- Create an iTunes home for podcasters where they can configure the blog & podcast info, categories, tags, the appearance of their programming without messing with the feeds.
- The podcaster service home should be accessible from any web browser.
- Any changes within this podcaster services page should overwrite that aspect of the podcast feed.
- Currently, appearance is limited to a square picture against a purple background. Within the podcaster services page, you should be able to alter every element of the podcast’s page. A live preview of what it looks like in iTunes would be very nice.
- Another service that is much needed is web statistics. Important because most web stat tools (like Google Analytics) don’t provide info on direct downloads. Most servers come with web stat tools like Awstats or Weblizer but these apps are only capable of delivering raw data. Podcasters work around this problem by using tools like Feedburner, a little better than raw stats but not enough. The iTunes web stat tool doesn’t have to be fancy but something that gives information on the number of subscribers, time of visit and user location would be sufficient. Providing a tool like this will push podcasters to use iTunes as their main distribution platform.
- If Apple wants to get fancy with the web stat tool, they can also provide information on what episodes subscribers downloaded or ignored, what they keep and what they discard. Or even how many times the episode is played. Of course, this goes without saying, such information should only be passed with the users consent.
- Video podcasting needs a page of its own, with categories different from audio podcasts.
- Currently, the preferred video podcast size is 320×240. This will inevitably change as iPods sport bigger screens. What then? Wouldn’t it better if podcaster distributed it in one size but the iTunes app converts it to the user’s needs and their iPod screen size?
- A comment system within iTunes. So after you are done watching a podcast, you can just click on comment button and type away. These comments and ratings appear on the podcasters page within iTunes. It also would be very cool if the comments also appeared on the web page but I guess I am just being greedy.
- A tagging tool on the user side so it would be easier for other to find what they are looking for.
- I think Apple dogma of simplicity blinds them from seeing how iTunes could become a social networking application. Who needs YouTube or Myspace when the majority of people are using iTunes as the main media player?
- The podcast user-interface in iTunes needs improvement. Alongside each podcast subscription, it would be useful to indicate how many new episodes are available so I don’t have to manually open each podcast to see if there is a new episode (aarrghhh!!). Especially important to users like me who have optioned out of automatic downloads.
- There is also a need for folders within the podcast folder, similar to an RSS reader application. I subscribe to podcasts for various purposes — entertainment, technical stuff. It’d be nice to just keep everything organized.
- Hyperlinks should work in episode info.
If you other suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Filed Under Ticklebooth Features
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4 Responses to “How iTunes can better serve Podcasters”
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> Apple needs to keep iTunes the dominant platform for podcasters.
Why? Wouldn’t it be better an open source platform where every user can implement all the features he likes or hack the existing ones, if he had the required knowledge? A DRM free, user friendly, interoperable site?
You are right, it would be best an open source platform was dominant, without DRM.
But the question was “Why is this important for Apple?”
Aye! Sorry, I misunderstood…
Anyway, it would be great to have a scripting tool for podcast applications, like Greasemonkey is for Firefox.
Hi, I understand. I agree, I think iTunes needs a lot more openess to it.