Podcasting ... Kinda Sucks Now?

RIP Stitcher and Dynamic Ad Insertions for Smaller Podcast Creators

Overcast.fm is my podcast app of choice, but I also use Apple Podcasts and other platforms. In fact, I even stream MP3s from the browser for a nostalgic ‘Days of LimeWire' experience. Unfortunately, I was saddened to hear that our rather small audience will no longer have the option to use Stitcher.

Dear Stitcher Content Creators,

We have decided to discontinue operation of the Stitcher app and website effective August 29, 2023. This includes our Stitcher Premium service.

We thank you for giving us the opportunity over the last decade to offer the best possible podcast listening experience. Stitcher, and the podcast ecosystem as a whole, would not be where it is today without creators and networks like yours. We truly appreciate that you chose to distribute your shows on our platform. 

Stitcher was one of the few companies we enjoyed working with when we first started to get some attention. They reached out to us, allowing us to update our information and gladly accepting our existing RSS feed. Although there wasn't a financial relationship at the time, that wasn't our primary goal. Since podcasts were and still are rated by downloads, having another cross-platform app to showcase our show, particularly in the entertainment and comedy categories, significantly boosted our numbers, at least for a while.

For my daily podcast consumption, I have mostly relied on Overcast instead of Stitcher. However, whenever new episodes are released, I always make sure to open both Stitcher and Apple Podcasts to get that extra download. As an app, Stitcher was well-designed and user-friendly, making it easy to discover new shows. In my day, the algorithm was better, and you had to put in some effort yourself.

An older version of Stitcher

Stitcher is now part of Sirius XM, which will result in the podcast app being shuttered at the end of August for both users and creators.

This isn't the first time such a merger has occurred. Recently, our favorite alternate feed on Anchor.fm and the Anchor app was completely absorbed by Spotify for Podcasters. There is a significant distinction in these cases: Stitcher and other apps will simply direct you to our existing RSS feed, whereas, in the case of Spotify, we now have to upload separate versions of the same show to Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor) as they take our content and "allow" us to publish it on their proprietary app. However, they do offer an incentive by setting up a small share of the ad revenue that comes our way if we perform well. The statistics provided by Anchor weren't generating much revenue for us, but now Spotify for Podcasters has established a minimum threshold for us to be able to earn ANY money.

Check the date, lol!

My issue with this business model is that podcasting was originally built on the foundation of RSS, which allowed for a single feed and a single show. Even with platforms like "Dynamo" by "VOXNEST," I was able to insert some code into our RSS feed to generate some ad revenue for us without any threshold requirements. While it wasn't a significant amount, I appreciated having the choice to select the type of pre-roll ads featured on our show. Additionally, plays from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, our Squarespace site, and other players (excluding Spotify/Anchor) were counted as downloads and streams.

However, in October 2020, during the peak of our podcasting streak amid the pandemic, iHeart acquired VOXNEST, resulting in the disappearance of that code. As a result, we no longer receive any income from our RSS feed, even if it's just a few pennies.

Now, we are faced with the challenge of reaching the threshold and convincing people to switch their listening habits to our Spotify version of the show. And... well, it's fine. Personally, I use Apple Music for streaming, so I don't want to pay for another Spotify account. I also have reservations about supporting Spotify financially, as they have been criticized for not fairly compensating artists. Now, we find ourselves in the same ecosystem as artists who reluctantly stream on Spotify, or at least that's how I perceive it. Commander Dursin loves Spotify, and so do most people who use the service. It is a good platform, and I can find it within myself to encourage people to listen to us there!

In fact, I have been rebranding some of the show artwork with the Spotify For Podcasters logo, and I even found a way to embed the Spotify version on our LeaguePodcast.com/podcasts show page without "breaking" our existing RSS feed, similar to how we would include a video version. Trust me, I have no problem putting in the extra work, but something doesn't feel fair.

If Spotify were to utilize our existing RSS feed, they would gain the advantage of the download numbers from all the other clients that currently use our RSS feed. We have been operating this way since 2009. If Spotify were to allow us to perform dynamic ad insertion within our regular RSS feed, we could run pre-roll ads promoting Spotify for Podcasters. However, they choose not to do so.

Our feed and download numbers may be modest, but they should not be overlooked as they do not accurately reflect our audience as a long-established podcast. With Stitcher's disappearance, we will lose those numbers. Fragmenting and further dispersing our audience across different apps is distressing for podcasters like us who have put in significant effort since the early days. I assume that our podcast can also be found on platforms like Amazon Prime and Google Podcasts, based on our original RSS feed. While our internal reporting may show some users on these platforms, they will not be counted towards our audience on the Spotify app. As a result, we now need an arbitrary number of followers and downloads on Spotify to even be considered for earning minuscule amounts of money.

I’ll take it further. I’m now spending ad dollars on Facebook and Twitter to get people to subscribe to our podcast on Spotify. I don’t mind spending the money, but I wish it was a more fair setup. The Dynamo/VOXNEST Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) model has been replaced by other outlets (it is now iHeart’s pay-to-play Spreaker service) that are monthly plans the creator pays for.

We haven’t gotten to that point, but I would like these things:

• A free DAI service for our RSS feed, or one that justifies the spend with other promo tools and ROI

• Spotify should drop this ridiculous minimum listenership threshold

• Spotify For Podcasters should provide ANY promotional tools

• Sirius XM will offer ANY promotional tools or incentives to creators from Stitcher

We (without consulting my fellow podcast hosts, who may disagree, but I have my own podcast too!) want to be:

• accessible

• cross-platform

• on any podcast app that any user wants to use, from Alexa to Zune

• getting paid for what we do

• hashtag #whereveryougetyourpodcasts

A BIG CAVEAT here:
We haven't been producing as many new episodes and are now repackaging old ones for a "new" audience on Spotify. We are approaching 500 episodes, and we're being more selective about our topics. Furthermore, each one of us has had some complicated schedule or life event in 2023. Rest assured, we will be back soon, and when we return, we'll cross-post our shows EVERYWHERE.

For now, can you please follow us on Spotify for Podcasters?

RIP, Stitcher, you were a good dog.

Clay N. Ferno of LeaguePodcast,

VICE COMMANDER

P.S. It does occur to me that pointing our RSS feed to Google and Amazon (and others) has the same kind of destructive/abusive relationship if they are, as I suspect, profiting off of dynamic ads somehow. That’s another reason why everything sucks today, but at least they aren’t forcing us to use their tools for upload. It’s the lesser of some evils, and I am hardly in a position to rank the evils at present.