Post AulhEUvg2faghRAnJY by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
(DIR) More posts by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
(DIR) Post #AulPf6Vn8Sbtc7bPmq by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T18:37:02Z
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The HLS Discussion. Yes, I know that several hosts have seen the light (in terms of future survival) and are looking at HLS.I want a definable commitment by all Podcasting 2.0 apps to support it.If we, aka hosts, add this, it will come at a significant cost to deliver the media in HLS. I am not spending a single dev dollar until there is a reciprocal commitment.Video podcasting is supported today with no additional dev work.There has to be a joint effort here.
(DIR) Post #AulPf7Z1DwmmsQ7VSK by ericpp@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T19:34:55Z
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@Todd_Blubrry What do your customers want and what apps do their listeners use? It's near impossible to get all apps to implement any specific feature much less this one and I don't think it matters. The only apps that matter are the ones your customers/listeners use.
(DIR) Post #AulPf8GcbpfF3eWKQ4 by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T19:47:43Z
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@ericpp They want global distribution on all platforms. Simple. With tens of thousands of paying customers, their wants and needs are far and wide.If Apple Podcasts said we make Video a first-class citizen again with no change to the current distro, aka fixed media. MP4, then all the podcast hosts will have to support it as it is.The HLS discussion is an attempt aka attempt to drive the narrative, as only three podcast hosts today support MP4 delivery.So maybe you see my reluctance.
(DIR) Post #AulPf8zzt7xbKNkZ96 by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T19:59:16Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @ericpp The good thing is that if you build hosting-side HLS support and no podcast apps support it, then nobody will be using your bandwidth, so it won't cost you much (outside of the dev time commitment). I'd be more afraid of all the apps actually supporting it and driving your bandwidth costs through the roof.
(DIR) Post #AulQ7jkMqzwZPL4cRE by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T20:04:33Z
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@dave @ericpp We have conducted a comprehensive cost analysis, and even with lower completion rates based on my data costs, it's many many multiples higher than fixed media. Takes me back to 2008 costs. It was costing me 10 cents to deliver a single video.
(DIR) Post #AulfbFjwTvWKLKPI3c by james@bne.social
2025-06-03T21:23:44Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @dave @ericpp I am curious, when Cloudfront delivers 60% of all podcast episodes, how affordable HLS would be. Cloudfront charges are, roughly:$0.75 for a million requests$0.085 per GB of dataHLS typically uses chunks of ten seconds. Each of those are a separate request. So, a two hour show is the same amount of data vs a normal download, but 7,200 requests vs just one.I know that this pricing model has scared plenty of people away from chunked media in the past. What’s different here?
(DIR) Post #AulfbHK8aq4FFsLi76 by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T22:56:58Z
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@james @dave @ericpp As per your exampleHLS typically uses chunks of ten seconds. Each of those are a separate request. So, a two hour show is the same amount of data vs a normal download, but 7,200 requests vs just one.1,000,000 / 7200 = 1381000 Plays / 138 = 7.24 x .75 = $5.43So, in all reality, the request is where you get killed on AWS This is where the clouflare solution is better until you move to much traffic and they force you into a contract.
(DIR) Post #AulfbIcxkKihIYAG5w by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T22:57:53Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @james @ericpp I was about to post that very thing. AWS nickle and dimes you like crazy. Using a CDN that charges a flat delivery rate per MB would be the only option to keep cost under control. I would even consider co-locating some actual storage hardware, putting a caching layer in front of it and making a bandwidth agreement with the datacenter provider. Hyper-scalers will kill you on CDN rates.
(DIR) Post #AulfuFfOyhprcNLIWm by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:01:24Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @james @ericpp A pair of redundant supermicro boxes with a butt-ton of drives running minio behind Varnish. I'd be interested to see a spec'd out price on that setup compared to a CDN bill.
(DIR) Post #AulfvGOvjX5qBX7X6G by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:01:35Z
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@dave @james @ericpp YouTube owns the DataCenter, owns the Fiber, has peering agreements, has cache servers in all major data centers, and at the edge, aka your ISP paying rent and rack space. .So they pay for the power, and equipment, and have invested billions.Yet we still do not know if YT is profitable.
(DIR) Post #Aulg3YcrrFeT1bavBY by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:03:05Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @james @ericpp My gut says if they are, it's only slim. I think that's why they push YT Premium so hard. Advertising can't pay their bills. They need actual subscribers. Just like Spotify. Ads didn't make Spotify profitable. Subscribers did.
(DIR) Post #Aulg4z3V4xF9HgjQum by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:03:21Z
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@dave @james @ericpp Servers and rack rental would be recovered very quickly..Yet, Podcasters are gonna want this for $20 a month, including their audio hosting.Impossible.
(DIR) Post #Aulg8J1rH4Kc6FY1xI by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:03:56Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @james @ericpp Yep. That's the bottom line. It'll be expensive to the end user.
(DIR) Post #AulgKMtYj48pZ7Pxrs by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:06:04Z
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@dave @james @ericpp But I can deliver a 2GB MP4, which we have been doing for 15 years, with never a complaint, and the total cost is less than a penny via RSS. So think about that, thus why I said we at Blubrry will need all app buy in.
(DIR) Post #AulhESy5KkKQcKHgn2 by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T22:50:03Z
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@james @dave @ericpp Cloudfront would not be the solution I would use for HLS. It would likely be Cloudflare initially. Then, as things scaled up, switch back to AWS or roll our own. We did the math based on our CloudFront BW cost, which is "much" lower than your example.No one, at least those we have talked to, considers AWS because there are more fees to considerMediaConvert could be $1.00 per S3 Storage .05 / Data transfer. .10Cloudfront gb data rate x.xxCloudfront Request +.xx
(DIR) Post #AulhETrO18Z3Nq9qzI by ericpp@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:11:22Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @james @dave CloudFlare Streams has worked great for the live streaming projects I've been involved with. Some people self host Owncast to do their live streaming. I'm sure there's plenty of other purpose built services available as well. Maybe it would be easier to let users integrate with these services rather than creating your own?
(DIR) Post #AulhEUvg2faghRAnJY by Todd_Blubrry@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:15:13Z
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@ericpp @james @dave If we do it, Cloudflare would be the place. I pay a single exit fee off AWS to put the media into Cloudflare; they do the rest of the work. I pay for bandwidth, which is much easier to swallow and cheaper by many multiples than AWS.Until it isn't, Cloudflare loves to send letters and force you into fixed contracts. We big big big numbers associated. You have to read their fine print carefully.
(DIR) Post #AulhEVoGlhG9QkiOPI by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-03T23:16:11Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @ericpp @james Yeah. Cloudflare is great until you get "the phone call".
(DIR) Post #AumzDwNeUDArsi6O2K by pauljrobinson@mastodon.me.uk
2025-06-04T07:57:19Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @ericpp would these issues be helped if the PSP pushed for all their standards to become a formal ISO Standard (eg ISO:xx001). There would be additional costs involved in order for apps and hosts to gain the accreditation but it would also have greater likelihood of industry wide adoption. It would also slow things down enough to allow businesses like Blubrry to not be overwhelmed by constant new additions to the standard (generally ISO standards update only every few years)
(DIR) Post #AumzDxpL6kuqMs40pc by pauljrobinson@mastodon.me.uk
2025-06-04T07:59:59Z
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@Todd_Blubrry @ericpp @james I guess my question is: what would your thoughts be on the industry creating a new ISO standard based on direction and input from the PSP?
(DIR) Post #AumzDyiHoSrt7HltTc by james@bne.social
2025-06-04T08:05:11Z
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@pauljrobinson @Todd_Blubrry @ericpp I see no benefit from complicating things.If HLS video is something that customers want, then podcast hosts will provide it. If it isn’t, they won’t. It’s a non-trivial piece of work, and each hosting company will make their own decision whether or not they want to support it.
(DIR) Post #AumzDzKZW7Ud21gT9U by pauljrobinson@mastodon.me.uk
2025-06-04T08:13:50Z
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@james @Todd_Blubrry @ericpp I think some sort of formalised accreditation is the only way PSP will increase adoption of all the standards they’re currently promoting, and the only way of creating a uniform minimum baseline of features that the entire industry should be delivering.
(DIR) Post #AumzE03wnPmzIkuhsW by dave@podcastindex.social
2025-06-04T14:12:26Z
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@pauljrobinson @james @Todd_Blubrry @ericpp Lack of formal accrediting hasn't slowed down adoption:https://podcastindex.org/apps
(DIR) Post #AumzE6llrOPQ6PSn1E by pauljrobinson@mastodon.me.uk
2025-06-04T08:17:37Z
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@james @Todd_Blubrry @ericpp I also think it would elevate and professionalise the industry in the eyes of larger institutional financial investors.
(DIR) Post #AumzEEaMng2YLMBnM0 by pauljrobinson@mastodon.me.uk
2025-06-04T08:47:03Z
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@james @Todd_Blubrry @ericpp not to mention the fact that it would be a system that engineers, quality assurance etc in big business would understand. Their technical/QA teams need something solid and static to measure against. So no changes to the standard for at least 3 years in order to achieve widespread adoption before any updates to standard are rolled out. But new pod 2.0 features get announced so frequently I’m not surprised Apple/Spotify don’t bother even trying to keep up