Rob Greenlee

Liquid Content Era Enables Creators To Become Trusted Media Brands

by Rob Greenlee, CEO/Founder, Trust Factor Lab and Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.com, Host of NewMediaShow.com & Spoken Human

Podcasting’s New Liquid Content Era has growing potential to turn audio and video creators into Trusted Media Brands.

Let’s stop pretending podcasting is still just an audio strategy.

It isn’t.

We are in a major reshuffle right now. The old boundaries around what a podcast is, how it gets discovered, and how creators build momentum are extending fast. What once felt fixed is becoming far more fluid and complicated. That is why I see this as podcasting’s new liquid era, where creators are becoming more than just podcasters.

Many are becoming trusted, personified, or human-centric media brands.

That shift did not happen overnight, but the major platform moves made it impossible to ignore. YouTube pushed podcasting deeper into its video ecosystem. Spotify reinforced video publishing and monetization. Apple pushed even further with a new video podcast experience via HLS streaming inside Apple Podcasts.

“That matters because it signals something bigger than a feature update.“

YouTube changed creator behavior. Spotify and Netflix reinforced the business case.

“Apple Podcasts has now validated that video podcasting via HLS is much closer to the center of gravity in podcasting. None of that means audio stopped mattering. Audio still fits some of the most valuable moments in people’s lives. It still works while driving, walking, working out, commuting, and doing everything else that makes spoken-word media so powerful. Audio still matters deeply.”

Video is not replacing audio in every context, but it is clearly driving much of the momentum, experimentation, audience behavior, and acquisition deals right now. That is why I do not think the smartest framing anymore is audio-first versus video-first.

The smarter framing is to trust first and to focus on content liquidity.
Because in a liquid content era, formats can move. Platforms do change. User behavior does shift. Discovery pathways evolve. But trust is what survives the reshuffle.

That is where new media creators need to up their game.

The goal is not just to publish an audio
The goal is not just to post a video version
The goal is not just to be present on another of many platforms
The real opportunity is to become a trusted media personality brand
That means your show is no longer just an RSS feed. It is a relationship. It has a recognizable point of view or change mission that matters to humans. It is also a repeatable format. It is a body of communications people can follow across audio, video, clips, livestreams, newsletters, search, and community.

And now there is another layer that matters more every month: AI algorithmic content scoring and sharing discovery in LLM’s.

The next phase of creator growth is not only about ranking in traditional search or getting picked up by AI platform algorithms.

To be discoverable inside AI answers, conversational search, and recommendation systems.

“If your content is clear, trusted, well-structured, and consistently published, it has a much better chance of being found, surfaced, and revisited across this new landscape.”

That is also why owned audience relationships are becoming so important.

The next strategic layer for creators is not just public content. It is building private, premium, interactive communities that they control.

Not just followers on rented platforms.
Not just subscribers inside someone else’s ecosystem.
Not just passive audience reach.

“Building spaces where creators own the direct relationship with their audience. Membership communities. Premium groups. Mastermind environments. Private creator circles. Direct audience ecosystems are built around trust, participation, and recurring value.”

Because when a creator builds that kind of community, they are not just publishing content anymore. They are creating a meeting place for direct connections. That is an ongoing experience. The creator is building loyalty, feedback loops, and a deeper business relationship that is far more durable than a view count or a download-and-view number on a large consumption platform the creator does not control the access pathways to.

That changes the economics, too.

Public content can drive awareness
Video can drive discovery
Audio can deepen a habit.

A private community can drive retention, monetization, and direct audience relationships.

That is a much stronger model than relying entirely on platforms you do not control.

And now we need to talk about what comes next.
I believe hybrid human-and-AI creator brands will become a real part of this landscape. Not fake creators replacing people. Not synthetic noise with no soul. I mean human creators extending their voice, expertise, archives, and availability through AI clones that are built the right way.

Done badly, that becomes creepy, misleading, and disposable.
Done well, it becomes powerful.

“A trust-first AI clone should not pretend to be a human when it is not. It should be clearly disclosed. It should reflect the creator’s actual values, body of work, and knowledge. It should be built from authentic source material. It should help audiences access ideas, archives, recommendations, and next steps in ways that extend the human-creator brand rather than diluting it.”

A creator’s human voice remains the center. The human relationship remains the anchor.

But AI can extend availability, responsiveness, discovery, education, and continuity.

In other words, the future is not human or AI, but both. It is trusted human brands with carefully built AI extensions.

Only works if trust comes first. If audiences feel tricked, manipulated, or confused, the brand loses value. But if the AI layer is transparent, useful, aligned, and grounded in the creator’s real voice and expertise, it can become an extension of the relationship rather than a replacement for it.

That is why I think the creators who win in the next chapter will be the ones who know how to build trust across multiple surfaces:

Public platforms
Audio feeds
Video channels
AI discovery layers
Private premium communities and eventually, trust-first AI versions of their own brand.

That is the shift.

We are moving from content creators to trust builders
From podcasters to media brands
From single-format publishing to format flexibility
From a rented reach to an owned relationship
From static content libraries to intelligent, discoverable creator ecosystems
That is not the end of podcasting
That is, podcasting is becoming bigger than its original container.

And from my perspective, that is the real opportunity for creators, experts, and brands right now. In a world where more content will be created by more people and more machines than ever before, trust becomes the filter. Trust becomes the signal.

Trust becomes the value. The question now is not whether you are only a podcaster.

“The question now is whether you are building something people trust enough to follow, join more deeply in a community, and eventually interact with you and your brand.”

“The path is built on a trust-first approach: clear disclosure, authentic source material, useful value for the audience, and strong alignment with the human creator’s real voice and expertise.”

What opportunity is there now for creators?

To become trusted media brands that use public platforms for reach, video for discovery, audio for habit, private communities for ownership, and trust-first AI extensions for scalable audience support.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new-media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots and its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

Personal note: I used AI tools to help organize this article and hand-edited it; the views, clarifications, responsibility, and industry perspective are mine. I have been working in podcasting and platform adoption for more than two decades, and this article reflects my own position. The original word choice was mine, and so is the clarification.

Don’t Fear AI Content and Start Leading with Labeling Standards that Retain Human Trust

by Rob Greenlee, CEO/Founder, Trust Factor Lab and Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.com, Host of NewMediaShow.com & Spoken Human

I have been in this medium long enough to watch it evolve through every major shift, from RSS and portable listening to smartphones, streaming platforms, video, dynamic ad insertion, and now AI-assisted media creation.

Every time real change hits podcasting, some part of the industry reacts as if the medium itself is under attack. That reaction is understandable. But fear is not a strategy. It never has been.

What is happening now with AI-generated podcasts, cloned human voices, and AI-assisted publishing is no longer some fringe experiment. It is becoming part of how media will be created, scaled, distributed, discovered, and monetized. Pretending it is not happening, or trying to shame the entire category out of existence, is not leadership. It is avoidance.

“I understand why many creators feel threatened. There are already irresponsible uses of AI in media and podcasting. We are seeing low-quality synthetic shows, questionable voice cloning, automated content pushed live without real editorial judgment, and content factories producing more noise than value. That deserves criticism. That deserves scrutiny. That deserves standards.”

But condemning all AI-generated podcast content simply because some people use it poorly is short-sighted.

The industry also needs to be honest about something else. Not all human-created content is good either.

“A lot of human-created podcast content has always been weak, repetitive, poorly positioned, or disconnected from what audiences actually want. Low quality did not arrive with AI. Human creators have been making forgettable content for years. So the dividing line is not human versus AI. The real dividing line is between valuable and worthless, trusted and deceptive, and intentional and careless“.

That is the conversation we should be having.

AI-generated podcast show creation is already contributing to new content growth at a time when growth among human-only creators has slowed and, for the past two or so years, flatlined in RSS-based podcasting.

Many human creators are burning out, publishing less, or shifting their energy toward video, social platforms, and private communities. AI-assisted creation is starting to fill part of that gap.

And yes, whether people like it or not, AI will create popular shows. I believe we are already seeing many signs of that.

Audiences do not reward content simply because it was made entirely by a human. They reward content that is useful, compelling, entertaining, emotionally resonant, and worth coming back to. That may make some people uncomfortable, but discomfort does not change the market’s direction.

“This does not mean all AI content is good. It means the industry needs to get much smarter about what good looks like and how trust is maintained as synthetic and human-led media continue to blend together.”

That belief sits at the center of what I am building with Trust Factor Lab.

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The mission of Trust Factor Lab is grounded in a simple truth: building a brand is not about being seen; it is about earning trust. In a media environment increasingly filled with synthetic content, AI-generated voices, and automated publishing, the long-term winners will not be the loudest creators or the fastest content factories. The winners will be the people and companies that know how to turn trust into measurable growth through authentic storytelling, strong production standards, smart distribution, and AI-assisted workflows that protect the human voice rather than eroding its integrity.

That same philosophy drives the Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.

The purpose of that community is to help creators, leaders, and brands build trust-first media businesses in a world where human-made and AI-assisted content increasingly coexist. It is a place to develop the skills, standards, and mindset needed to grow without losing credibility. It is a place to learn how to use AI strategically without losing touch with the audience. Most importantly, it is built around the belief that trust is not a vague or soft concept. It is the foundation of audience growth, loyalty, monetization, and long-term relevance.

This is also why I believe being reflexively anti-AI may be a long-term mistake for podcasting and new media.

The better path is not blind acceptance. It is responsible leadership.

In recent episodes of New Media Show, I have been exploring this issue from several angles. In conversations with Jeanine Wright, we discussed AI-generated hosts, synthetic personalities, disclosure, and whether trust may transfer to AI voices.

In my discussion with Justin Jackson, we examined the growing reality of synthetic creators and cloned human media as part of a broader shift in the creator economy.

In another conversation with Dave Jackson, we touched on why live content may become even more valuable as proof of life in an increasingly synthetic media-filled world.

And in discussions with Arielle Nissenblatt, the focus kept returning to a simple truth that still matters in any era: if a show is not clearly positioned, consistently valuable, and genuinely recommendable, no amount of technology will create lasting trust.

“An important point is that AI may make content creation faster. It may make show generation easier. It may create breakout hits. But none of that removes the need for audience trust, clear positioning, differentiation, and a real reason for people to care”.

Trust still decides what connects and adds lasting value for humans, the second-level consumers of any AI or human-created content.

AI will be the first consumer of any human- or AI-created content, evaluating whether it is worthy of human consumption.

“That is why the podcasting industry needs to move quickly toward AI best practices. We need standards around consent and licensing for cloned voices and likenesses. We need norms around disclosure in show descriptions, metadata, and listening environments. We need stronger editorial standards for AI-assisted episodes, especially in news, education, health, finance, and expert commentary. We need clearer definitions of what qualifies as responsible AI-assisted publishing versus synthetic spam. And we need platforms, advertisers, and creators to have a more honest conversation about how trust should affect monetization”.

Most importantly, we need leaders in podcasting to stop treating this as someone else’s problem. This is our problem. It is also our opportunity.

Podcasting has always been one of the most intimate media formats in the world. It is built on voice, trust, authenticity, and relationship. That gives this medium a unique opportunity to help define how AI-generated spoken content should evolve responsibly. If podcasting does not lead this conversation, others will. And they may care far less about trust, disclosure, creator protection, and audience respect than we should.

I am not arguing for blind acceptance of everything AI brings.

I am arguing for a mature, strategic, trust-centered response to a technology that is already reshaping the media landscape. That means being tough on bad actors, clear about ethical boundaries, and proactive in establishing standards before harmful habits become normalized.

How AI Creators, Agents, and Human Operators Build Trust

If AI-generated creators, cloned human voices, and agent-driven media systems are going to earn public trust, they cannot rely on novelty alone. They need clear rights-based operating and disclosure principles.

First, they need disclosure (ShouldIDisclose.AI).

Audiences should know when a show, segment, voice, or script is AI-assisted or fully AI-generated. Hidden AI is where suspicion grows fastest.

Second, there is a need for consent and ownership of rights (Royall.ai).

No cloned voice or likeness should be used without explicit permission. Human creators should control how their cloned identity is trained, where it appears, and what kinds of content it can be used for.

Third, as of today, they still need human editorial direction and oversight.

Even when AI generates a first draft, human judgment should still approve the final output, especially when the content includes facts, advice, analysis, or sensitive public claims. AI can accelerate production, but accountability still needs to be human-led.

Fourth, they need consistent content value and integrity.

Whether content is human-created or AI-assisted, it still has to be worth the audience’s time. Audiences may tolerate new workflows, but they will not remain loyal to useless, low-integrity content.

Fifth, they need a stable identity and consistent human-like trust behavior.

AI creators and agents need a recognizable point of view, clear standards, and consistency over time. Trust grows when audiences understand what a creator stands for and what to expect.

Sixth, they need an explainable, transparent, human-understandable process.

Audiences do not need a technical white paper, but they should always be provided a path to understand trust-building basics. Is the show human-led and labeled human? Is it a licensed and disclosed clone? Is it built from approved source material? That clarity matters.

Seventh, they need visible correction and accountability.

AI systems will make mistakes, though likely fewer in the future. Trust grows when creators and operators correct those mistakes clearly and quickly, rather than hiding behind the technology.

Eighth, they need respect for emotional boundaries.

Synthetic hosts and cloned creators should never manipulate audiences by making inaccurate claims and trying to scam humans by confusing simulation with a deeper human bond than what really exists. Engagement should not come from emotionally human-like behavior that leads to deception.

Ninth, they need aligned incentives with integrity.

If a synthetic show/host is obviously designed only to flood feeds, maximize ad inventory, or game recommendation systems, audiences will sense that. Trust holds when audience benefit and creator integrity remain central.

Tenth, they need real human feedback loops.

The more AI-driven the content production process becomes, the more important it is to maintain authentic ways for audiences to question, respond to, and influence the content’s direction.

The Standard in New Media and Podcasting That Matters

The podcasting industry should not be known for panicking about AI.

It should be known for shaping the responsible use of AI in a medium where human trust matters more than ever.

The real challenge now is not whether AI-assisted or cloned human content should exist. It will.

The real challenge is whether we will build it in ways that strengthen human connection, preserve creators’ integrity, and create more value for audiences, rather than undermining all three.

That is why we are building the Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.

And that is the larger conversation the podcasting industry needs to have right now. Not a panic-driven conversation. A leadership-driven one.

The Word “Podcast” Is Owned by the Audience Now

By Rob Greenlee

For years, the podcast industry has argued over what a podcast really is.

Is it an RSS feed?
Is it an audio file?
Is it a downloadable media enclosure?
Is it open distribution?
Is it something in Apple Podcasts?

Those definitions still matter, especially to those of us who helped build and protect the open podcasting ecosystem. RSS matters. Creator control matters. Portability matters. Ownership matters.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: The word podcast is no longer owned by the industry. It is now owned by the audience.

The audience does not care nearly as much about the delivery technology as we do. They say they “watched a podcast on YouTube,” “followed a podcast on Spotify,” “saw a podcast clip on TikTok,” or “listened to a podcast in the car.”

They are not thinking about RSS, hosting platforms, download measurement, API delivery, or whether the file was streamed or downloaded.

They are thinking about the show. That is the shift.

To the public, a podcast is increasingly a recurring show with a host, a point of view, a topic, a relationship, and a familiar format. It may be audio. It may be a video. It may be clipped, streamed, summarized, searched, or recommended by an AI system.

This is where the old industry definition starts to break down.

The podcast industry can argue that YouTube shows are not “real podcasts.” But if millions of people call them podcasts, watch them as podcasts, and advertisers buy them as podcasts, then the market is already redefining the word.

That does not mean open podcasting is dead. It means open podcasting has to compete within a much larger media environment.

The danger is obvious. Platforms want to shape the meaning of podcasting around their own business models.

YouTube wants podcasts to look and behave like YouTube.
Spotify wants podcasts inside Spotify.
Apple wants podcasts inside Apple Podcasts.
Social platforms want clips.
AI platforms want structured metadata knowledge and summarized answers.

Each platform pulls the word in its own direction. But the audience is the real force behind the change.

Words follow behavior. Television is no longer just a living room device. Radio is no longer just a local tower.

Podcasting is no longer just an RSS audio file. It is becoming a broader show format.

That means new media creators need to stop building only for the old definition of a podcast and start building for how audiences actually consume media now.

The show is the center.
The RSS feed is infrastructure.
The website is the home base.
YouTube and Spotify are discovery and consumption engines.
Social clips are attention triggers.
Email and community are direct relationships.
AI search is becoming the next discovery layer.

This is the new podcast stack. The biggest mistake would be to fight the audience over the word. The smarter move is to protect the open foundation while accepting the expanded meaning.

Podcasting’s future will not be won by telling people they are using an incorrect term. It will be won by building trusted shows that work across audio, video, social, search, AI, and community.

The word podcast may have started as a technical, open, but narrow standard distribution term. But today, it means something much bigger. It means a trusted show people choose based on what the platform it is consumed on calls it; if a production looks and sounds like a podcast, then that is what they will think it is in their lives.

And that definition now belongs to the audience.

Spotify Supporting Apple’s HLS Video Shift Shows Apple Podcasts Still Moves the Podcasting Market

By Rob Greenlee

Spotify’s decision to support Apple Podcasts’ HLS video streaming approach is a bigger signal than it may first appear.

On the surface, this looks like a practical product update. Spotify for Creators and Megaphone need to support Apple’s new HLS video publishing workflow, so Spotify-hosted creators can publish video podcasts into Apple Podcasts without having to rebuild their whole setup on a different platform to get video into Apple Podcasts. Spotify has said that support for both Spotify for Creators and Megaphone is coming later this year, and that it is working with Apple on the integration.

But underneath that announcement is a much larger industry reality. Apple Podcasts remains the market mover in podcasting. When Apple changes something meaningful in podcasting, the industry aligns around it very quickly. That has been true since the early days of the iTunes podcast directory, and it remains true now. YouTube is massive. Spotify is powerful. Both are major forces in video, discovery, audience behavior, and creator monetization. But neither one has historically been able to shift the core technical direction of podcasting the way Apple can.

Apple’s move to support HLS video podcasts inside Apple Podcasts is not just another video feature. It is a market shift signal.

Apple is saying that video podcasting needs to work more like modern streaming media while still preserving the podcast model that creators, hosting companies, and listening platforms have built around for two decades.

Apple describes the new HLS video experience as allowing listeners to switch between audio and video, view horizontally, download video for offline viewing, and continue using existing podcast features, such as follows and downloads. Apple also says creators can monetize through sponsorships and dynamic advertising, including video ads provided by the creators’ hosting platform.

Since 2005, video podcasting has been available in Apple Podcasts as an MP4 video download via RSS, while non-RSS-based video distribution has gained traction on platforms like YouTube, which support video. Spotify has had video podcasts via direct upload, like YouTube, with a few API based submission processes.

Below is Apple iTunes Podcasts page on MAC and Windows.

Below is a screenshot of the Microsoft Zune Marketplace software on Windows from 2011.

Apple is not new to video podcasts, as well as the early (2007-2014) Microsoft Zune supported Video Podcasts (see image above); Apple has supported video since the earliest years of podcasting, when they were a significant part of the medium, with most mainstream media companies, large and small, supporting video podcasts via RSS, like HBO, Showtime, CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central, and most others you can think of. Independent creators like Ask a Ninja and startups like Revision3 and TWIT.TV.

But since about 2014, video has not been central to the Apple Podcasts app, making it hard to discover it there today. Video podcasting was there but not treated as a first-class media experience in the Apple ecosystem, and thus declined in popularity as audio podcasts became dominant.

Now Apple and Apple Podcasts are moving video podcasting into a more modern HLS streaming framework, the same method YouTube uses to stream video.

All the above is why Spotify’s support for Apple’s HLS video publishing workflow is not optional. It is required if Spotify wants Megaphone and Spotify for Creators to remain competitive in podcast hosting.

Spotify cannot afford to be in a position where a creator using Spotify’s own hosting tools has a harder time publishing video to Apple Podcasts than a creator using Acast, ART19, Omny Studio, Transistor, Podigee, Libsyn, Blubrry, iHeart, or other hosting providers that have moved quickly into Apple’s HLS video workflow. Apple’s support materials already tell creators to work with a hosting provider that supports video via HLS on Apple Podcasts.

So Spotify had to move.

That does not mean Spotify suddenly became a fully open podcasting infrastructure company. Spotify has always been a bit of a rebel in the podcasting market. It often adopts podcasting approaches that shift the advantage toward Spotify’s own platform, app experience, audience data, and monetization systems. That is not always bad. Spotify has pushed the market forward in some areas, especially around video adoption and creator monetization inside its own ecosystem.

But Spotify has not typically been the company that aligns the whole podcasting industry around open, cross-platform technical standards.

Apple still plays that industry leadership role more than anyone else.

The next big question is whether Spotify stops at supporting Apple’s HLS publishing workflow or goes further.

Will Spotify add HLS video streaming support via RSS using an Alternative Enclosure or a similar pass-through model, so video stream links can flow beyond Apple Podcasts into other podcast apps and platforms?

That is the question that matters now.

If Megaphone and Spotify for Creators can support HLS video for publishing into Apple Podcasts, could they also support HLS video links inside RSS for external podcast consumption platforms like iHeart, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Fountain, and other apps that may want to support video playback in a more modern way?

That would be a much bigger move.

It would mean Spotify is not only supporting Apple’s new video podcast workflow because it has to. It would mean Spotify is helping make HLS video distribution more available across the broader podcast ecosystem. Really helping the broader industry to actually innovate in the RSS feed they have spent years criticizing was not happening.

The Alternative Enclosure concept matters because podcasting has long been built around the RSS media file enclosure model. Traditionally, that meant an audio file, often an MP3, delivered as a downloadable media file. For years, video podcasts have often meant an MP4 file. But modern video distribution does not really want to live solely in a giant downloadable-file model anymore.

HLS, or HTTP Live Streaming, breaks video into adaptive streaming segments. It is the way much of modern video delivery already works across the streaming media world. It can adapt to bandwidth. It can create a better user experience. It can open up better advertising possibilities. It can improve playback reliability. It can make video podcasting feel less like downloading a file and more like a contemporary media experience.

That is where podcasting is heading: Video-First.

The download model has served podcasting incredibly well. It gave podcasting its open distribution foundation. It allowed creators to publish once and reach many apps. It gave the medium independence from a single-platform gatekeeper, was simple, and took advantage of the limited bandwidth of the earlier medium-birth era that has now passed.

But as the industry moves deeper into video, dynamic video and audio ad insertion, cross-device (screen sizes) consumption, and seamless listen-to-watch and watch-to-listen behavior, the old download-first model is increasingly looking outdated as both the central delivery method and the metrics, too.

That does not mean RSS goes away. It means RSS has to evolve.

Podcasting needs to preserve the creator-controlled, open distribution layer while allowing modern media delivery, such as HLS, underneath it. That is the real importance of Apple’s HLS move. Apple is not adding video, as they have had video all along. Apple is forcing the hosting industry to rethink how podcast video and increasingly audio should be delivered, monetized, measured, and experienced.

Then everyone else has to respond. That is the cascade effect.

Hosting platforms have to support HLS publishing workflows. Ad tech platforms have to think about video and audio ad insertion differently. Metrics providers have to account for streams, downloads, plays, watch behavior, and hybrid listening/viewing sessions. Podcast apps have to decide whether they remain audio-only experiences or become richer show-consumption platforms. Creators have to decide whether their shows are audio-first, video-first, or multi-format, adapting to where the audience is.

Podcast Consumers will not care about the technical details. They will just expect the experience to work.

They will expect to start listening in the car, continue watching on a tablet, pick up later on a desktop, and still feel like it is the same show, because it is. Apple’s HLS video podcast experience is clearly aimed at that kind of seamless consumption behavior.

This is where podcasting becomes less about podcast media files and more about consuming shows at scale.

I have been saying for a while that podcasting is moving into a broader show-based media era. Audio is still core. Audio remains the most intimate and flexible format.

Video is now central to discovery, trust, audience connection, and monetization. The question is not whether video belongs in podcasting. It does. The question is whether the podcasting ecosystem can support video without simply handing everything over to YouTube, Spotify, or any other closed platform.

That is why Apple’s move matters.

Apple Podcasts is the only major podcast platform with sufficient market power to drive the industry toward a more modern technical layer while keeping podcasting connected to RSS-based distribution and creator-controlled publishing.

Spotify’s support for Apple HLS video is a practical business decision. Megaphone and Spotify for Creators need to stay competitive. But it is also an acknowledgment that Apple still has the power to set the technical direction of podcasting when it chooses to act.

The next test is whether Spotify will support this only where Apple requires it, or help extend HLS video publishing more broadly through RSS pass-through and Alternative Enclosure-style support.

This is where the industry should be watching.

If the HLS video format becomes something Apple supports only through approved hosting integrations, then we have a powerful new Apple Podcasts video layer.

If HLS video becomes something that can travel through RSS in a broader, interoperable way, then podcasting takes a much bigger step toward a modern open media future.

That second path is the one that could change everything.

It could impact consumers, creators, hosting companies, monetization systems, metrics standards, and listening/viewing platforms.

It could also finally move podcasting beyond the limits of the download model while preserving the open publishing spirit that made podcasting matter in the first place.

Spotify’s support for Apple’s HLS video shift is not just about Spotify. It is about Apple once again moving the podcasting market, and the rest of the industry deciding how open, modern, and creator-controlled the next era of podcasting will be.