Dropout is an American subscription streaming service run by the production company of the same name (formerly CollegeHumor ), founded in September 2018. Dropout streams original programming, and does not run advertisements. Its content is mainly composed of live play , such as Dimension 20 hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan , and improv comedy and panel shows like Game Changer and Make Some Noise , both hosted by Dropout owner Sam Reich . Dropout's series often feature a rotating cast of regular comedians and performers.
64-420: Actual play , also called live play , is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gamemaster , and out-of-character engagements such as dice rolls and discussion of game mechanics. The genre emerged in the early 2000s and became more popular throughout
128-565: A "scripted podcast" or "audio drama") is similar to a radio drama , but in podcast form. They deliver a fictional story, usually told over multiple episodes and seasons, using multiple voice actors, dialogue, sound effects , and music to enrich the story. Fiction podcasts have attracted a number of well-known actors as voice talents, including Demi Moore and Matthew McConaughey as well as from content producers like Netflix , Spotify , Marvel Comics , and DC Comics . Unlike other genres, downloads of fiction podcasts increased by 19% early in
192-558: A PC or MP3 player. The service was available for about a year until i2Go's demise in 2001. In October 2000, the concept of attaching sound and video files in RSS feeds was proposed in a draft by Tristan Louis . The idea was implemented by Dave Winer , a software developer and an author of the RSS format. In August 2004, Adam Curry launched his show Daily Source Code , focused on chronicling his everyday life, delivering news, and discussions about
256-574: A central list of the files on a server as a web feed that one can access through the Internet . The listener or viewer uses special client application software on a computer or media player, known as a podcast client , which accesses this web feed, checks it for updates, and downloads any new files in the series. This process can be automated to download new files automatically, so it may seem to listeners as though podcasters broadcast or " push " new episodes to them. Podcast files can be stored locally on
320-433: A community forum dedicated to discussing the show's content. The cost to the consumer is low, and many podcasts are free to download. Some podcasts are underwritten by corporations or sponsored, with the inclusion of commercial advertisements . In other cases, a podcast could be a business venture supported by some combination of a paid subscription model , advertising or product delivered after sale. Because podcast content
384-428: A free podcast version of their book as a form of promotion. On occasion such novelists have secured publishing contracts to have their novels printed. Podcast novelists have commented that podcasting their novels lets them build audiences even if they cannot get a publisher to buy their books. These audiences then make it easier to secure a printing deal with a publisher at a later date. These podcast novelists also claim
448-617: A live audience. Ticket sales allow the podcasters an additional way of monetizing. Some podcasts create specific live shows to tour which are not necessarily included on the podcast feed. Events including the London Podcast Festival, SF Sketchfest and others regularly give a platform for podcasters to perform live to audiences. Podcast episodes are widely stored and encoded in the mp3 digital audio format and then hosted on dedicated or shared webserver space. Syndication of podcasts' episodes across various websites and platforms
512-547: A microphone, and a USB audio interface is needed to mix them together. If the podcast includes video, then a separate webcam might be needed, and additional lighting. Dropout (streaming platform) Originally founded in 1999 by Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen , then independent website CollegeHumor was acquired by holding media and entertainment company IAC . CollegeHumor's work originally only included editorial articles, but eventually expanded to include online video and development and production of TV shows. In 2013,
576-402: A new original title per month in 2019, according to Sam Reich. By 2020, the service had retired all scripted shows in favor of cheaper and more successful unscripted content. Dirty Laundry , Play It By Ear , and Make Some Noise , each spun off from Game Changer , premiered throughout 2022. In 2023, Dropout started airing the improvisational interview show Very Important People , and
640-470: A non-struck SAG-AFTRA contract. In 2018, the Diana Jones Award for excellence in tabletop gaming named the concept of actual play as that year's award winner, marking the first year the award was not awarded to a game, organization, or individual. Academic Emily Friedman, writing for Los Angeles Review of Books , highlighted that "there's the elemental pleasure of being told a story, intertwined with
704-532: A podcast in the last month. 12.5% of the UK population had listened to a podcast in the last week and 22% of the United States population listens to at least one podcast weekly. The form is also acclaimed for its low overhead for a creator to start and maintain their show, merely requiring a microphone, a computer or mobile device, and associated software to edit and upload the final product. Some form of acoustic quieting
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#1732887495753768-536: A popular podcast and webseries format, and contributed to the resurgence of TTRPGs in the 2010s and 2020s. In 2008, the creators of Penny Arcade partnered with Wizards of the Coast to create a podcast of a few 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures which led to the creation of the Acquisitions Incorporated . After the podcast was well-received, the players began livestreaming games starting in 2010 at
832-639: A problem. ... Though they're not required to by unions, he said Dropout is working to become one of the first streamers to pay residuals to their writers, actors, and crew members". Dropout also pays performers to audition. Dropout's overall subscriber count almost doubled during 2023. Dropout officially retired all CollegeHumor branding in September 2023. Later that year, Dropout shared its profit with its employees and other workers. As of June 2024 , Dropout earns around 80–85% of its revenue via subscriptions. Dropout's show Very Important People
896-399: A success upon launch in 2019. A year after Dropout's launch, the service had between 75,000 and 100,000 subscribers. Dropout planned to release a new original title per month in 2019, according to Sam Reich. However, the programming slate did not allow Dropout to pivot quickly enough away from scripted content and it was still not profitable by the end of 2019; Reich later noted that "we had
960-753: A time of their choosing. Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, but some distribute in video, either as their primary content or as a supplement to audio; popularised in recent years by video platform YouTube . A podcast series usually features one or more recurring hosts engaged in a discussion about a particular topic or current event. Discussion and content within a podcast can range from carefully scripted to completely improvised. Podcasts combine elaborate and artistic sound production with thematic concerns ranging from scientific research to slice-of-life journalism . Many podcast series provide an associated website with links and show notes, guest biographies, transcripts, additional resources, commentary, and occasionally
1024-443: A website, blog, or other syndication method. Episodes can be released on a regular schedule, e.g., once a week, or irregularly as each episode is completed. In the same manner as audiobooks, some podcast novels are elaborately narrated with sound effects and separate voice actors for each character, similar to a radio play or scripted podcast, but many have a single narrator and few or no sound effects. Some podcast novelists give away
1088-433: A writer's room full of scripted comedy writers. All of us were sort of having to pivot to think about something that wasn't our primary skill set." Because Dropout was in the middle of a $ 30 million subscription investment, the streamer was on track to "lose" another $ 10 million by the end of 2019 before it would be profitable. In January of 2020, IAC announced it had ceased financing CollegeHumor, leading to
1152-429: Is a portmanteau of " iPod " and " broadcast ". The earliest use of "podcasting" was traced to The Guardian columnist and BBC journalist Ben Hammersley , who coined it in early February 2004 while writing an article for The Guardian newspaper. The term was first used in the audioblogging community in September 2004, when Danny Gregoire introduced it in a message to the iPodder-dev mailing list, from where it
1216-472: Is also often utilised. Between February March 10 and 25, 2005, Shae Spencer Management, LLC of Fairport, New York filed a trademark application to register the term "podcast" for an "online pre-recorded radio program over the internet". On September 9, 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected the application, citing Misplaced Pages 's podcast entry as describing the history of
1280-407: Is an actual play licensed by the publisher Paradox Interactive , and based on their role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade ; it premiered on Geek & Sundry in 2018. Rivals of Waterdeep is an official Wizards of the Coast actual play show, based on their Dungeons & Dragons system. Wizards of the Coast has also published collaboration sourcebooks based on actual play shows, such as
1344-451: Is based on RSS feeds, an XML -formatted file citing information about the episode and the podcast itself. The most basic equipment for a podcast is a computer and a microphone . It is helpful to have a sound-proof room and headphones . The computer should have a recording or streaming application installed. Typical microphones for podcasting are connected using USB . If the podcast involves two or more people, each person requires
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#17328874957531408-417: Is likely to change as new types of content, new technology to consume podcasts, and new use cases emerge. An enhanced podcast, also known as a slidecast , is a type of podcast that combines audio with a slide show presentation. It is similar to a video podcast in that it combines dynamically generated imagery with audio synchronization, but it is different in that it uses presentation software to create
1472-688: Is often free, podcasting is often classified as a disruptive medium , adverse to the maintenance of traditional revenue models . Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio or video files using RSS feeds to the devices of subscribed users. A podcaster normally buys this service from a podcast hosting company such as SoundCloud or Libsyn . Hosting companies then distribute these media files to podcast directories and streaming services, such as Apple and Spotify , which users can listen to on their smartphones or digital music and multimedia players. As of June 2024 , there are at least 3,369,942 podcasts and 199,483,500 episodes. "Podcast"
1536-516: Is regularly involved in the productions that Polygon spoke with, and therefore they will not be affected". Justin Carter, for Gizmodo , stated it was tricky as the "fate of an Actual Play show depends on the company behind it, and possibly what platform it's released on" – shows such as Dimension 20 on the streaming service Dropout and Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! on the "upcoming 24-hour Dungeons & Dragons Adventure streaming channel" are impacted by
1600-507: The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020) based on Critical Role and Acquisitions Incorporated (2019) based on the live play game by the same name. During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike , Charlie Hall of Polygon commented that "actual play, which has grown in popularity since well before the pandemic, has often pulled in Hollywood types to fill seats at the table. But neither SAG-AFTRA nor AMPTP
1664-618: The HowStuffWorks podcast. In October 2013, the EFF filed a petition with the US Trademark Office to invalidate the Personal Audio patent. On August 18, 2014, the EFF announced that Adam Carolla had settled with Personal Audio. Finally, on April 10, 2015, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invalidated five provisions of Personal Audio's podcasting patent. A podcast generator maintains
1728-577: The Dread Trident: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Modern Fantastic , commented that shows such as Acquisitions Incorporated and Critical Role reflect "a wider phenomenon made clear by numerous Youtube.com videos of individual gaming sessions by random groups ... The confluence of these digital and analog streamed elements adds to the increasing archive of realized gametexts that can be consumed and analyzed with
1792-457: The PAX festival. Acquisitions Incorporated went on to be described by Inverse in 2019 as the "longest-running live play game". Critical Role , a web series in which professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons , launched in 2015. Critical Role has been credited by VentureBeat as responsible for making actual play shows "their own genre of entertainment", and has since become one of
1856-687: The COVID-19 pandemic , the number of unique listeners in the US decreased by 15% in the last three weeks of March 2020. Podcasting has been considered a converged medium (a medium that brings together audio, the web and portable media players ), as well as a disruptive technology that has caused some individuals in radio broadcasting to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production and distribution. Podcasts can be produced at little to no cost and are usually disseminated free-of-charge, which sets this medium apart from
1920-409: The COVID-19 pandemic. A podcast novel (also known as a "serialized audiobook" or "podcast audiobook") is a literary form that combines the concepts of a podcast and an audiobook . Like a traditional novel , a podcast novel is a work of literary fiction; however, it is recorded into episodes that are delivered online over a period of time. The episodes may be delivered automatically via RSS or through
1984-711: The Motherlands are actual play shows with casts that are entirely made up of people of color. Death2Divinity is an actual play show with an all- queer , "all fat-babe " cast. Actual play shows have also been credited with improving representation of LGBT people in media more generally. Entertainment website Comic Book Resources has said that LGBT representation has been more easily incorporated into actual plays because they are often produced by independent creators and distributed online. The site named The Adventure Zone and Dimension 20 as two examples of actual plays which include LGBT characters. Friedman also commented that
Actual play - Misplaced Pages Continue
2048-462: The SAG-AFTRA strike, while productions like Dimension 20 that hire talent and airs on a closed platform (i.e., one that's not open to anyone to post content on) are impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike". In August 2023, Sam Reich announced that all Dropout shows (including Dimension 20 ) have resumed production as it was determined that their "New Media Agreement for Non-Dramatic Programming" was actually
2112-516: The alchemy of watching that story be created in front of your eyes (or ears). [...] We perceive simultaneously the character played and the player playing". Actual plays have contributed towards improving representation of people of color , women, and others in tabletop gaming, which has had a reputation of being primarily made up of white men. Maze Arcana's Sirens , with Satine Phoenix as dungeonmaster (DM), features an all-women group of players. Rivals of Waterdeep (DMed by Tanya DePass ) and Into
2176-405: The app. After launch, Dropout saw that the unscripted and less expensive content both acquired and retained viewers, while more expensive and scripted shows neither acquired nor retained viewers, with the limited exception of WTF 101 . Dimension 20 became the most popular show on the platform, followed by Um, Actually and Cartoon Hell . Game Changer , hosted by Reich, would also become
2240-589: The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic . During the July-November 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike , Dropout series such as Dimension 20 , Game Changer and Um, Actually were initially shut down. Reich stated: Because we aren't associated with the AMPTP , it's possible we may be able to reach an interim agreement with SAG that allows us to continue to produce content during the strike. But we'll only do that, obviously, if we get
2304-470: The best places to discover the undersung 'ambitious middle' of actual plays — that is, shows that aspire to the same storytelling heights as the most popular troupes, but that lack the resources of time and production budget". TTRPG publishers have engaged with actual plays by licensing shows based on their products, running their own, incorporating content from actual plays back into source material, and playtesting games in actual play format. L.A. by Night
2368-454: The blessing of the union and the buy-in of our performers. If not, we have enough content in the can to last us a little past the end of the year. [...] As for me, I intend to honor my union's position that I not promote SAG productions as a performer – even if they are produced by me. That means that I won't personally be promoting any of our shows for the time being. In August 2023, Reich announced that all Dropout shows resumed production as it
2432-483: The decade, particularly with the 2015 debut of Critical Role , an actual play webseries featuring professional voice actors . According to Evan Torner writing in Watch Us Roll , actual play is rooted in phenomena including magazine "play reports" of wargames and internet forums dedicated to role-playing games. With the emergence of esports , livestreamed gaming , and Let's Plays , actual plays of TTRPGs became
2496-528: The development of podcasting. Curry promoted new and emerging internet audio shows in an attempt to gain traction in the development of what would come to be known as podcasting. Daily Source Code was initially directed at podcast developers. As its audience became interested in the format, these developers were inspired to create and produce their own projects and a community of pioneer podcasters quickly developed. iPodderX, released in September 2004 by August Trometer and based on earlier work by Ray Slakinski,
2560-446: The end of 2023, the average user subscribed for 18 months; Reich said in June 2024 that the statistic is continuing to increase. In August 2019, CollegeHumor also began to partner with Facebook to offer Dropout content via paid video subscriptions on Facebook's platform. In addition to original series, Dropout offered videos produced by CollegeHumor 72 hours before they were released to
2624-494: The exposure that releasing a free podcast gains them makes up for the fact that they are giving away their work for free. A video podcast is a podcast that features video content. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts. Dead End Days, a serialized dark comedy about zombies released from October 31, 2003, through 2004, is commonly believed to be the first video podcast. A number of podcasts are recorded either in total or for specific episodes in front of
Actual play - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-616: The founding of Dropout was in response to difficulty in receiving advertising dollars on traditional media platforms for mature content. At launch, Dropout announced a mix of scripted and unscripted content, as well as digital comics and chat-story content and a subscriber-only Discord. Dropout utilizes CollegeHumor spinoff Vimeo as its hosting service. Dropout officially launched native iOS and Android apps for its service in December 2018, allowing users to watch shows and also cast to smart TVs. Comics and chat stories were also integrated into
2752-588: The generic term 'podcast' to accurately refer to podcasting services" and that "Apple does not license the term". However, no statement was made as to whether or not Apple believed they held rights to it. Personal Audio , a company referred to as a " patent troll " by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), filed a patent on podcasting in 2009 for a claimed invention in 1996. In February 2013, Personal Audio started suing high-profile podcasters for royalties, including The Adam Carolla Show and
2816-660: The imagery and the sequence of display separately from the time of the original audio podcast recording. The Free Dictionary , YourDictionary , and PC Magazine define an enhanced podcast as "an electronic slide show delivered as a podcast". Enhanced podcasts are podcasts that incorporate graphics and chapters. iTunes developed an enhanced podcast feature called "Audio Hyperlinking" that they patented in 2012. Enhanced podcasts can be used by businesses or in education. Enhanced podcasts can be created using QuickTime AAC or Windows Media files. Enhanced podcasts were first used in 2006. A fiction podcast (also referred to as
2880-443: The join function. The company has justified the pricing model as allowing them to create content without being dependent on, or beholden to, requests from advertisers. In December 2018, visitors to the service spent on average 31 minutes per visit, and visited on average 3.5 times per week. Throughout 2019, Dropout began to experiment with more live streaming versions of their shows, through using Twitch and podcast-like formats. At
2944-449: The largest "actual plays have viewer numbers that are the envy of some television networks". Amanda Farough wrote for VentureBeat that "the boundaries and barriers that have traditionally kept TTRPGs hidden behind an opaque divide have come tumbling down" and that actual play "long-form narrative is reshaping itself as an expression of both players and the audiences that accompany them on the journey ahead". Curtis D. Carbonell, in his book
3008-715: The layoff of over 100 employees. IAC unsuccessfully attempted to sell CollegeHumor to numerous studios and entertainment companies at this time, reportedly seeking up to $ 100 million for the company. However, IAC ultimately sold CollegeHumor to then Chief Creative Officer Reich in 2020, who then transitioned to CEO. IAC still has a minority stake in Dropout. The deal was finalized in March 2020. Dropout ended production on scripted shows and focused on unscripted shows such as Um, Actually , Dimension 20 , and Game Changer , briefly producing these series through online conference during
3072-476: The modern fantastic". Both Farough and Carbonell highlighted that actual play shows have also increased sales of TTRPGs and related products. The Critical Role animated series The Legend of Vox Machina was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2019, where it raised US$ 11.39 million , setting the record for the most highly-funded film or TV project in the platform's history. Following this, Amazon streaming service Prime Video acquired exclusive streaming rights to
3136-573: The most prominent actual play series. Another popular series is The Adventure Zone , a comedic actual play podcast which has featured several TTRPG systems. As of 2021, it received over 6 million monthly downloads, and ranked highly on Apple podcast charts. By 2021, there were hundreds of actual play podcasts. Many web festivals, such as New Jersey, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cusco, and New Zealand, "now include actual play categories, and many have scholarship programs". Polygon highlighted that "web fest selections are quickly becoming one of
3200-571: The podcasting industry still generated little overall revenue, although the number of persons who listen to podcasts continues to grow steadily. Edison Research, which issues the Podcast Consumer quarterly tracking report estimated that 90 million persons in the U.S. had listened to a podcast in January 2019. As of 2020, 58% of the population of South Korea and 40% of the Spanish population had listened to
3264-431: The public. Previously, a subscriber-only Discord server was included as a service, later expanded to non-subscribers as well, until its closure on May 26, 2024. Dropout also has a store which sells merchandise (such as shirts, stickers, and mugs) related to shows on the platform. Shows on Dropout are usually released fortnightly , a schedule used more often for podcasts than for television. Dropout planned to release
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#17328874957533328-401: The series. The "Balance" campaign of The Adventure Zone was adapted into a series of graphic novels , the first of which was published in 2018. Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet . Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device to listen to at
3392-406: The service as a "TV-MA version of CollegeHumor" that would "allow us to double down our investment into premium original content, resulting in a bigger, better, badder CollegeHumor." Dropout was also pitched as a way to allow fans to dive deeper into pre-established popular characters and shows from CollegeHumor's YouTube channel. CollegeHumor's Chief Creative Officer, Sam Reich , also claimed that
3456-505: The strike as they "fall under SAG's Electronic Media contract, and are thus shut down". However, other actual plays such as Critical Role and shows on the Glass Cannon Network were not impacted by the strike. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , explained that YouTube and Twitch channels appear to be a "grey area" so " Critical Role and most Actual Play shows that air exclusively on YouTube and Twitch do not appear to impacted by
3520-428: The term "iPod" or "Pod" in their products' names. By 2007, audio podcasts were doing what was historically accomplished via radio broadcasts, which had been the source of radio talk shows and news programs since the 1930s. This shift occurred as a result of the evolution of internet capabilities along with increased consumer access to cheaper hardware and software for audio recording and editing. As of early 2019,
3584-500: The term "pod" has been used by the public to refer to Apple's music player so extensively that it falls under Apple's trademark cover. Such activity was speculated to be part of a bigger campaign for Apple to expand the scope of its existing iPod trademark, which included trademarking "IPOD", "IPODCAST", and "POD". On November 16, 2006, the Apple Trademark Department stated that "Apple does not object to third-party usage of
3648-579: The term. The company amended their application in March 2006, but the USPTO rejected the amended application as not sufficiently differentiated from the original. In November 2006, the application was marked as abandoned. On September 26, 2004, it was reported that Apple Inc. had started to crack down on businesses using the string "POD", in product and company names. Apple sent a cease and desist letter that week to Podcast Ready, Inc., which markets an application known as "myPodder". Lawyers for Apple contended that
3712-865: The traditional 20th-century model of "gate-kept" media and their production tools. Podcasters can, however, still monetize their podcasts by allowing companies to purchase ad time. They can also garner support from listeners through crowdfunding websites like Patreon , which provide special extras and content to listeners for a fee. Podcasts vary in style, format, and topical content. Podcasts are partially patterned on previous media genres but depart from them systematically in certain computationally observable stylistic respects. The conventions and constraints which govern that variation are emerging and vary over time and markets; podcast listeners have various preferences of styles but conventions to address them and communicate about them are still unformed. Some current examples of types of podcasts are given below. This list
3776-434: The user's device, or streamed directly. There are several different mobile applications that allow people to follow and listen to podcasts. Many of these applications allow users to download podcasts or stream them on demand. Most podcast players or applications allow listeners to skip around the podcast and to control the playback speed. Much podcast listening occurs during commuting ; because of restrictions on travel during
3840-671: The video production CollegeHumor team moved to Los Angeles to continue to create online and traditional video consisting of shows like Adam Ruins Everything and Hot Date as well as sketch and short-form comedy on its YouTube channel. However, ad revenue became increasingly scarce, with YouTube's unfavorable ad rates and an ongoing risk of CollegeHumor's content being demonetized on the platform, as well as Facebook's inflated viewership numbers not bringing in anticipated ad sales. After starting production in 2017, CollegeHumor launched its Dropout TV video platform on September 26, 2018. CollegeHumor's then-CEO, Rich Cusick, announced
3904-424: Was adopted by podcaster Adam Curry . Despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer or similar device that can play media files. The term "podcast" predates Apple's addition of podcasting features to the iPod and the iTunes software. In September 2000, early MP3 player manufacturer i2Go offered a service called MyAudio2Go.com which allowed users to download news stories for listening on
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#17328874957533968-478: Was determined that their "New Media Agreement for Non-Dramatic Programming" was actually a non-struck SAG-AFTRA contract. Also in August 2023, NPR stated that "Dropout has not shared their official subscriber count, but Reich says it's in the mid-hundreds of thousands. He's very aware that doesn't come close to the hundreds of millions of subscribers that large media companies have, but, to him, that's not necessarily
4032-775: Was the People's Voice Winner in the video comedy category at the 2024 Webby Awards . Dropout is available worldwide; as of 2024 around 60% of subscribers were in the United States. Dropout launched with a beta price of $ 3.99 per month, for the first three months of the service. After December 2018, the price rose to a three tiered option, with monthly memberships for $ 5.99/month, semi-annual memberships for $ 4.99/month, and annual memberships for $ 3.99/month. As of 4 January 2022 , new subscribers paid $ 5.99 monthly or $ 59.99 yearly, while those who already subscribed prior to that date were charged $ 4.99 monthly or $ 47.99 yearly. Users are also able to access Dropout content through YouTube via
4096-514: Was the first GUI application for podcasts. In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9, which added formal support for podcasts, thus negating the need to use a separate program in order to download and transfer them to a mobile device. Although this made access to podcasts more convenient and widespread, it also effectively ended advancement of podcatchers by independent developers. Additionally, Apple issued cease and desist orders to many podcast application developers and service providers for using
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