Podcast Standards meeting in Chicago

April 2, 2025 – Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Chicago

PSP Members, plus other interested attendees from Podcast Movement Evolutions, met to talk about how we can add innovative new features to the open podcast standard.

We focused on these themes:

  • Our collective desire is to bring new features to the open podcast ecosystem that matter to listeners and creators. Notably, we want to offer features that creators are “pulling” for (not features we need to “push” and convince them to adopt). Whatever we implement should genuinely serve podcast fans and creators.
  • Multiple people highlighted the significance of having industry competitors cooperating toward this shared mission. “Just having this group together, talking, collaborating, and trying to make progress is a win.”
  • Finding and implementing valuable new features across multiple companies is challenging. Adoption takes time, especially for established companies. The critical work happens behind the scenes: communicating with hosting companies and apps, and advocating for new features added to our supported tags/features list.

Attendees

Agenda Items & Discussion

1. Welcome and Introduction

Justin opened by reiterating the PSP mission: “a grassroots industry coalition dedicated to creating new features that improve the open podcasting ecosystem for both listeners and creators.”

In discussion, we agreed our focus should remain on what creators and listeners care about, not just what’s technically interesting or easy to implement.

2. PSP Impact Report Highlights

Justin also shared that PSP members have now brought Podcasting 2.0 features to over 427,000 RSS feeds. This represents significant progress in our mission to improve the open podcasting ecosystem. The contrast between PSP member adoption rates (100% for core features) versus non-members continues to demonstrate the value of our collaborative approach.

3. Project Infrastructure Changes

The group discussed how GitHub discussions and application submissions hadn’t been effective. We voted to move the project off GitHub officially.

Moving forward, discussions will take place during PSP meetings and on Slack (which has seen much higher engagement).

Justin has already published:

4. Which feature could we implement next?

tl;dr – We’ve committed to adding the Location tag to our list of supported features in the PSP Certified spec.

The group considered a number of candidates for which feature we could commit to implementing as a group:

Social Interact Tag

Justin demonstrated how Transistor has implemented the Social Interact tag to integrate Bluesky comments with podcast websites. When a podcast is auto-posted to Bluesky, the URL of the root post is added to the RSS feed via the socialInteract tag, creating a canonical location for episode discussions.

Status: While the group agreed this was a good example for how socialInteract might be used, there wasn’t significant appetite to add it to the PSP list of supported features at this time.

Chapters Tag

Most PSP members confirmed they’ve already implemented the Chapters tag, which links to an external file containing episode chapter data.

Status: Some attendees didn’t feel there was enough “pull” to make this an officially supported tag at this moment. We’ve decided to categorize it as “optional, but recommended.”

Location Tag

This feature generated the most excitement from attendees.

Alberto from RSS.com presented the Location tag, which describes the editorial focus location for a podcast’s content. The group discussed various use cases, including:

  • Improved discovery for location-specific content
  • Enhanced metadata for local interest shows
  • Better search capabilities for location-based podcast apps

Status: There was agreement to add this to the standard, with Alberto volunteering to champion its adoption. This is a win!

Follow Tag

Nathan Gathright explained how the Follow tag would help verify podcast presence across platforms by providing an array of URLs in a linked JSON file. This would solve the problem of matching feeds to their corresponding URLs in third-party podcast apps.

Status: Jason Pearl (Transistor.fm) and Alberto (RSS.com) committed to following up with Tom Rossy (Buzzsprout) about implementation details. The group recognized this would be particularly valuable for universal link services like episodes.fm.

5. Feature Champions Program

The group formalized the “Feature Champions” concept, where a specific individual takes responsibility for each feature we adopt. Champions will:

  • Reach out to hosting companies and apps
  • Advocate for feature adoption
  • Provide implementation support
  • Create documentation and examples

6. Big Feature Ideas – Future Tags

Video and HLS Support

At every PSP meeting, we’ve discussed video (and YouTube). This meeting featured our most substantive discussion around video, specifically implementing HLS.

Overall, there was considerable excitement about the possibilities.

Ellie Rubinstein from Pocket Casts presented their implementation of video podcasts, leading to a broader discussion about HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) and how it might be incorporated into the podcasting ecosystem.

Key points raised:

  • Bandwidth costs remain a significant concern for hosting providers, but HLS could reduce bandwidth usage
  • Spotify and YouTube would likely not adopt the standard, but hosting providers could distribute video to them via API
  • A pathway exists for apps like Apple Podcasts to adopt an HLS standard in RSS feeds (especially if connected with delegated delivery and premium podcast subscriptions)

Status: The group agreed to continue exploring technical options and cost models for HLS implementation. Justin, Jason, John Spurlock, Nathan Gathright, Ellie Rubinstein and others were particularly keen on exploring HLS further.

Open Consumption Analytics

Due to time constraints, John Spurlock has his proposal for open consumption analytics here:

https://livewire.io/spc

https://github.com/skymethod/spc

7. Collaborative Marketing

The group discussed potential collaborative marketing efforts to promote PSP-supported features. There was consensus that any marketing campaign should be tied to concrete features that deliver tangible benefits to creators or listeners.

Key points discussed:

  • Marketing generic concepts like “podcast standards” or “the benefits of RSS” would likely not resonate with the target audience
  • Creators primarily want help with distribution and monetization
  • Listeners want improved discovery and listening experiences
  • Any marketing should focus on specific benefits: “Want [X]? Use an app/host that supports it!”

Status: The group decided to postpone collaborative marketing efforts until we have implemented features with clear, meaningful benefits that we can promote. This approach ensures we deliver value before asking for adoption.

Key Action Items

Location Tag Implementation

  • All existing members to implement the location tag
  • Alberto designated as feature champion

New Member Certification

  • Non-certified attendees to review existing specifications
  • Submit PSP certification applications

Follow Tag Development

  • Jason and Alberto to coordinate with Tom on implementation details

Analytics Development

  • John to distribute technical specifications for open consumption analytics

Video/HLS Investigation

  • Continue exploration of video implementation options
  • Further research into HLS cost models and technical requirements

Marketing Planning

  • Identify specific features with clear benefits for potential marketing campaigns
  • Develop messaging that focuses on tangible outcomes for creators and listeners

Closing Thoughts

This meeting felt particularly productive. We’ve seen an influx of new interest in PSP, both in meeting attendance and Slack engagement. The behind-the-scenes advocacy is working: more hosting platforms and apps are being engaged. The meeting’s outcomes reflect our approach: committing to tangible features to implement while exploring “bigger swings” for the future. We’re building momentum toward meaningful improvements in the open podcasting ecosystem.

This post was written by Justin Jackson (Co-founder at Transistor).