[crazygringo]

Why would there be any expectation that a podcast distribution service should also serve as a private file archive? And why would podcast hosts even need to retrieve their own material?

If there are podcast hosts who don't hold onto their original audio files they had before uploading them, then what are they thinking? That's like sending a project to a client and then deleting your own copy of it.

I understand that the author tries to provide an "import from Apple Podcasts" service for convenience, but that's merely a convenience. It really shouldn't be too hard for a podcaster to just re-upload their original audio files and descriptions to a new service. Nobody's "locked in" to anything here as far as I can tell.

[bastawhiz]

> It really shouldn't be too hard for a podcaster to just re-upload their original audio files and descriptions to a new service. Nobody's "locked in" to anything here as far as I can tell.

If you reupload your audio to a new hosting service, there's no way to have your listeners move to the new service. The listeners need to physically unsubscribe and resubscribe with a new feed. This is a feature of _every single podcast hosting service_ with the exception of Apple.

If I bought a bunch of apps on my Samsung phone, and then I wanted to switch to an LG phone, but I couldn't transfer my apps or data—despite the phone running the same OS—that's lock-in. If "having to start over if you want to leave" isn't lock-in, I'm not sure what is. It's an artificial limitation that Apple deliberately put in place and didn't make clear to their customers.

[CharlesW]

> If you reupload your audio to a new hosting service, there's no way to have your listeners move to the new service.

That's incorrect.

https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3965-how-to-change-host...

[bastawhiz]

This doesn't apply to Apple's own hosting, as there is no RSS feed.

[freedomben]

> I understand that the author tries to provide an "import from Apple Podcasts" service for convenience, but that's merely a convenience.

When you run a podcast with thousands or tens of thousands of episodes, each with titles, descriptions, tags, and all other sorts of metadata on top of the mp3, it's not "merely a convenience."

[crazygringo]

There are no podcasts with tens of thousands of episodes.

And there are very few with thousands. And if you're at that level of professionalism and popularity then you know what you're doing and this article doesn't apply.

[lmm]

> Why would there be any expectation that a podcast distribution service should also serve as a private file archive? And why would podcast hosts even need to retrieve their own material?

If it's a podcast distribution service it should be distributing the rss and mp3s. That's what "podcast" means!

[dabernathy89]

What a weird attitude. "Why would you ever expect [Business X] to offer [Feature Y] that you, as a potential customer, would like to see?"

edit: especially since they are an outlier in the podcast hosting space in this regard!