What makes podcasting special is choice - you can listen in any app - and creators can host anywhere or even self-host. Recently we've seen more podcasters recording video - and last week Apple Podcasts announced they will soon add support for video podcasts. But what we don't want to see with video podcasts is more walled gardens with platform lock-in. The good news - there is already an open standard for delivering video versions of episodes - the RSS <podcast:alternateEnclosure> tag. If you host your podcast with Fountain - the video versions of episodes use this tag meaning any app can ingest the video and offer listeners the option to switch to video right from the player. Apple have historically been good stewards of open podcasting - and I hope that they will adopt the alternate enclosure tag with their video implementation. In the meantime Fountain will keep building on open standards and demonstrate how video podcasts and other new Podcasting 2.0 features can be built in an open way -

It’s Time to Make Video Podcasting Open

A handful of platforms have shaped how we watch podcasts, but open, community-built standards finally offer a real alternative.

We're committed to making the Fountain app the best listening experience for podcasts - please tag me anytime if you have feedback on how we can improve! View quoted note →