What is a podcast subscription/listening list? Well, let’s start with talking about subscription lists. For most, if not all podcast clients, OPML files containing a list of the podcast feeds being monitored have been the defacto standard for import/export of podcast feed lists. Prior to use in podcast clients, OPML files have been used as a defacto standard for import/export of feed lists for feed aggregator apps.
As far back as 2012, Dave Winer was pushing for the use of OPML subscription lists within podcast apps. In this context, he wanted podcast apps to be able to subscribe to an OPML file with a URL, so that people could automatically get any updates to the OPML, and subsequently, anything new would be added to their podcast app.
In the fall of 2024, Dave Winer brought up this idea several times and later created a page describing this idea in more detail, and calling it “listening lists”. Dave Winer created a Github issue to collect feedback on this idea, and Dom Christie suggested the following:
I have been wondering if the episodes from curated lists could be published in their own RSS feed? That way, users (and not just podcasters) could created their own feeds, listenable in any app.
That same day, Dave Winer linked to a page describing a RSS feed made up of first episodes of fiction podcasts. An overview page lists the podcast episodes and also provides audio players for them – neat! From the looks of it, this is a made-by-hand page, although there could be some tool or tooling involved.
This suggests several ideas to me:
- App to create a podcast feed which merges a list of other podcast feeds
- App to allow users to create a podcast feed of podcast episodes that they select (it could include the ability to host the created feed)
I did some experiments over the holidays with Dave Winer’s RSS NPM module to create a podcast feed of some audio files that were not organized as a podcast. However, the experiment shows how this type of feed can be created. I am going to start working on this concept. If anyone reading this is interested in collaborating, let me know!
@AndySylvester the ideas around lists to share is quite exciting.
I wonder have you seen huffduffer?
@johnjohnston I have not, I will take a look
@johnjohnston amazing – I already have an account! I will look into it further along with some similar services that seem to exist – maybe I don’t need to spend time on this – Dave Winer should take note…
@AndySylvester I love Huffduffer. I wonder if it could be incorporated into a Feedland type of setup for podcasts. I could then browser your feed and the items in it and use Huffduffer to dip my toe into an interesting podcast without having to subscribe.