@evanEvan Prodromou An open format that Apple initially embraced and made an open directory for discovery, would be my take. Other Mom and Pop podcast networks sprung up then large orgs discovered they could sell ads.
An open directory operated as a co-op or non profit would be a nice to have since many podcasting apps build their own.
I don’t think it would be as large today if it wasn’t for discovery support.
@fahrniRob Fahrni @evanEvan Prodromou There is an Open Directory operated as a non-profit. It’s run by 
@adamAdam Curry 
and 
@dave - and it’s free for everyone. https://podcastindex.org
No podcast apps build their own directory really, except Spotify (and Apple of course). Everyone else uses Apple’s APIs or Podcast Index. Some odd corporate things like iHeart or SiriusXM have their own podcast directories, I guess, but they’re few and far between.
Here’s (I think) a full list of them all.
https://podnews.net/article/all-the-podcast-directories
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