PSP Members meeting – London Podcast Show

Date: May 21, 2025
Location: Flight Club Restaurant, London, UK
Event: The Podcast Show London
Meeting Organizer: Justin Jackson

PSP members meeting in London for the London Podcast Show 2025

“Really delighted with the progress we made with the Podcast Standards Project at this year’s London Podcast Show. We were able to organize two separate events, and connect with many new listening apps, hosting providers, and creators… It feels like this movement is really solidifying.” – Justin Jackson

Key Discussion Topics

1. Strategic Direction: Open Podcast Ecosystem

Justin opened with the central question: “What is a workable strategy for us to pursue as an open podcast ecosystem?”

Key points discussed:

  • YouTube’s increasingly dominant position: adoption by consumers and creators is increasing
  • The unique value proposition of audio-first podcasting
  • Michael Osbourne’s insight: “Podcasting is where I go to get away from the internet”
  • Need for open standards to compete with closed platforms

2. Location Tag Update

Feature Champion: Alberto (RSS.com)

Alberto provided an update on the Location Tag development:

  • Following the Chicago meeting, the Location Tag was selected as the next feature to support
  • James Cridland refined the definition and specifications, making it more precise
  • Implementation now uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) with clear distinction between subject and creator locations
  • Internal PSP document prepared with implementation guidelines

Creator Feedback: Jordan Harbinger and the $100 MBA hosts noted that it might be difficult to get creators to fill out location information for each episode you publish (“there’s already a lot to do to publish an episode, this is one more thing”), but they admitted it could be cool for certain shows (walking tour podcasts for example).

3. Apple Podcasts Requests

Justin shared feedback from Apple Podcasts regarding RSS feed formatting standards (see GitHub discussion here). Key requirements include:

Episode Descriptions:

  • Avoid deprecated iTunes summary tags
  • Use <description> instead of <content:encoded>
  • Limit descriptions to 10,000 characters maximum

Deprecated Tags to Remove:

  • <itunes:owner>
  • <itunes:keywords>
  • <itunes:order>

Required Tags:

  • <guid> on every <item>
  • <generator> tag

Artwork Specifications:

  • Size: 1400×1400 to 3000×3000 pixels
  • Format: JPEG or PNG, RGB color space
  • File size: Under 500KB
  • Aspect ratio: Square (1:1) – critical requirement

Technical Improvements:

  • Standardize boolean values to True/False or true/false
  • Avoid defaulting language to English
  • Implement HTTP ETag for efficient feed crawling

Uptime Monitoring: Apple requested uptime URLs for each hosting provider to troubleshoot playback issues.

4. Uptime Monitoring Solution

Presenter: Emanuele Rampichini (Spreaker)

Emanuele presented his uptime monitoring tool:

5. HLS Video Support – Major Discussion

More detailed notes on this discussion were published here

Key Points:

  • Growing creator demand for video podcast distribution beyond YouTube
  • Helen Ryles emphasized: “Creators don’t just want to distribute their video episodes to YouTube, they want to distribute it everywhere”
  • Proposal for single RSS feed that is “audio-first” with alternate HLS video enclosure
  • This would eliminate the need for separate audio/video feeds (current iTunes paradigm)
    • Leo Laporte’s TWiT network cited as example of current split-feed challenges

Technical Considerations:

  • Apps like TrueFans and Fountain now support HLS streaming
    • Pocket Casts and Snipd also support it (but not in the alternateEnclosure yet)
  • Bandwidth cost concerns for hosting platforms remain unresolved
  • Potential solutions include caching by larger platforms like Apple Podcasts
  • Members like Rockie (Soundstack) and Kevin (Snipd) have existing infrastructure experience

Strategic Importance: Without this feature, podcasters’ only viable video options remain YouTube and Spotify.

6. Creator Participation and Feedback

Guest Creators Present:

  • Jordan Harbinger (Jordan Harbinger Show)
  • Omar and Nicole Zenhom ($100 MBA)

Value of Creator Input:

  • Provided practical perspective on proposed features
  • Provided feedback for Location Tag: “would we use this?”
  • Expressed enthusiasm for expanded video distribution options
  • Demonstrated importance of including creator voices in standards development

7. SecureRSS Demonstration

Presenter: Sam Sethi (TrueFans)

At the end of the meeting, Sam Sethi demoed SecureRSS (also known as L.402), a new secure payment protocol extension for RSS feeds.

Demo of SecureRSS on TrueFans where people can purchase or rent an audio book

Key Features:

  • Single RSS feed for both freemium and premium content
  • Eliminates need for separate “Open” and “Private” paywall feeds
  • Works with existing podcast apps that support the protocol
  • Content encryption until payment is confirmed

8. Future meetings at conferences

Meeting Logistics and Lessons Learned

Without a defined meeting space, we often end up at restaurants for PSP meetings which results in:

  • Loud environment made discussion difficult
  • Lunch service interrupted meeting flow
  • Suboptimal setup for productive technical discussions

There is a clear demand for PSP presence at industry events:

  • Strong attendance when given dedicated time and space
  • Need for bigger presence at The Podcast Show and Podcast Movement
  • Requirement for official schedule presence, meeting space, and exhibitor hall participation
  • Justin Jackson, Sam Sethi and Colin (Alitu) offered to help write pitch for The Podcast Show
  • Justin Jackson, Rockie Thomas to help connect with Podcast Movement organizers
  • Who would fund conference space? Perhaps larger member companies (Buzzsprout, Transistor, RSS.com, Captivate, etc.)

Next Steps

  1. RSS Feed Formatting Project: Initiate project to ensure all PSP-certified members have properly formatted RSS feeds based on Apple’s feedback
  2. Conference Presence: Develop strategy for official presence at major industry events
  3. HLS Video Specification: Continue development of video streaming standards
  4. Location Tag Implementation: Proceed with Location Tag rollout per Alberto’s guidelines
  5. Uptime Monitoring: Implement standardized uptime monitoring across hosting providers

Attendees

We had over 20 people in total attend (I wasn’t able to grab everyone’s name):