Odeo Caches Podcasts
In general I've been positive about Odeo's approach to facilitating the distribution of podcasts. But I can't understand why they would follow the lead of Apple who are caching podcast MP3 files for distribution through iTunes. They are doing this, as is Apple, without giving podcasters a choice of whether or not they want their files cached. As such, my Libsyn stats do not accurately represent the audience for my show. Odeo does allow a person to view the number of downloads for each show, but those stats are not syndicated and it's otherwise a pain to try and stitch together stats from LibSyn, Odeo and iTunes.
So here's what I'd like to see from Apple and Odeo. Please allow me a choice of whether or not I want my audio files cached. And if you can't do that then please allow me a simple way (via password protected RSS possibly) to keep track of my stats related to your services.
***UPDATE***
Odeo does not cache podcasts according to a recent comment from Rabble. They are performing some kind of a url re-direct that points to the original file. My latest New York Minute Show podcast has the following Odeo url http://www.odeo.com/show/download/210247/4/ libsyn.com.media.podcastnyc.PodcastNYCKatrina.mp3 vs. the original url http://libsyn.com/media/podcastnyc/PodcastNYC-Katrina.mp3. I'm not sure how my Libsyn stats are interpreting this redirect as there is still a delta between what the two services report for this episode. That's another fish to fry. So the verdict is Odeo is not guilty on caching. As for Apple, it will be a long time I'm sure before I hear from them.
So here's what I'd like to see from Apple and Odeo. Please allow me a choice of whether or not I want my audio files cached. And if you can't do that then please allow me a simple way (via password protected RSS possibly) to keep track of my stats related to your services.
***UPDATE***
Odeo does not cache podcasts according to a recent comment from Rabble. They are performing some kind of a url re-direct that points to the original file. My latest New York Minute Show podcast has the following Odeo url http://www.odeo.com/show/download/210247/4/ libsyn.com.media.podcastnyc.PodcastNYCKatrina.mp3 vs. the original url http://libsyn.com/media/podcastnyc/PodcastNYC-Katrina.mp3. I'm not sure how my Libsyn stats are interpreting this redirect as there is still a delta between what the two services report for this episode. That's another fish to fry. So the verdict is Odeo is not guilty on caching. As for Apple, it will be a long time I'm sure before I hear from them.
Recommend Podcast NYC To Your Friends
posted by PodcastNYC.net at 7:23 PM
2 Comments:
We actually are doing redirects so we pass the request through. We spent a while figuring it out to make sure that podcasters will have correct records showing up in their logs. So while you see an odeo url, that is so we can internally track downloads, but the actually request gets passed through to the podcaster.
Glad to see you guys are listening, or watching. I'm not sure exacly how those redirects work, but when files come through via the Odeo Syncr, the names have a bunch of text added to them, which also lead me to believe that the files were being cached.
Things still aren't tying out between the number of downloads shown for particular episodes on Odeo vs. what I'm seeing on my LibSyn stats. I'm not technical enough to figure out whether that's a result of the redirects or not.
The main questions was about caching though and I'm satisfied that you guys are not otherwise storing the files. No w iTunes on the other hand...
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