[criddell]

The arms race is inevitable. Podcast companies haven't been receiving investments because of that sweet SquareSpace money. They want to track everything there is about how a podcast is listened to and by whom and then monetize that every way they can.

[mumblemumble]

Right now, they're a long way from doing sophisiticated tracking. My podcast app just downloads an mp3 file from a feed; it's not executing any JavaScript, or otherwise doing anything they can use to do the kind of tracking that happens on the Web.

That regime has been stable for decades, and I can't imagine it will change unless something changes to make it stop working for podcasters. Because moving their distribution channel from RSS to some sort of closed app risks alienating their audience.

[criddell]

Some of the big podcast apps have recently been sold and it only makes sense that they plan on adding telemetry.

The MP3 file might not change, but there's a chance that they are going to start watching you play it.

A lot of investments have been made in the podcast world recently and VCs usually don't make things better.