I think another big factor in podcasts getting more popular these days is that the content and quality of podcasts are getting better. Today you don't need equipment and staff only radio stations can afford to produce high quality good sounding content. A computer with an USB mic and Audacity together with a tool like Auphonic [1] are enough to get good sound. The internet makes it easier to research stuff and prepare content collaboratively without being in the same room.
Because we strongly believe that there is a bright future for podcasting a friend and I started Podigee [2]. Our aim is to make publishing a podcast easier and faster so beginners can get an easy start and more experienced podcasters can focus on producing high quality content without worrying about publishing software and infrastructure.
Additionally we support a movement that was started here in Germany called Podlove [3]. They provide open source software like a Wordpress plugin for publishing podcasts and a web player which is currently completely revised (and will be pretty awesome after that). Besides that they also try to establish new standards and promote old ones that are not widely used (like paged feeds). Currently we (I do most of the coding) are working on a new kind of subscribe button [4] which will make subscribing a podcast a lot easier for listeners. We have a lot of podcast client developers on board to support subscribing through the button and we have high hopes that this will push podcasting even further. The button will see an official release in the coming weeks.
There's already such thing as "pcast://" links, which are recognized by most podcasting clients. It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the naked RSS feed. Any kind of obfuscation around that just makes things more painful for users.
First, it's actually not that simple :) We tried out like a whole lot of podcast clients (30+ I think) and 'are recognized by most podcasting clients' is certainly not true. That's why we recommend the following to client developers: If your OS allows it subscribe to the OS default (which is often pcast://) but also define your own schema (like mypodcastclient://). This allows us to have a 'Open device default app' link that on Android shows all installed clients that subscribe to pcast://, but also to specifically start a client with its schema.
Second, 'It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the naked RSS feed.' is also not true. We talked to a lot of people and subscribing to a podcast is a nightmare for people that don't get (and don't want to get) the concept of what an RSS feed is. And copying and pasting links from a webpage to an application is already an obfuscation (and a real pain in the ass on a mobile device) for the 'normal' user, so why not add a more user friendly obfuscation :)
However, the button is an experiment and we'll see if and how people will use it. Until now the feedback from podcasters and listeners is nothing but positive.
Because we strongly believe that there is a bright future for podcasting a friend and I started Podigee [2]. Our aim is to make publishing a podcast easier and faster so beginners can get an easy start and more experienced podcasters can focus on producing high quality content without worrying about publishing software and infrastructure.
Additionally we support a movement that was started here in Germany called Podlove [3]. They provide open source software like a Wordpress plugin for publishing podcasts and a web player which is currently completely revised (and will be pretty awesome after that). Besides that they also try to establish new standards and promote old ones that are not widely used (like paged feeds). Currently we (I do most of the coding) are working on a new kind of subscribe button [4] which will make subscribing a podcast a lot easier for listeners. We have a lot of podcast client developers on board to support subscribing through the button and we have high hopes that this will push podcasting even further. The button will see an official release in the coming weeks.
[1] https://www.auphonic.com
[2] https://www.podigee.com
[3] http://www.podlove.org
[4] http://www.podlove.org/podlove-subscribe-button/