Podcasts, Wallcasts, and Paycasts

The Ezra Klein Show, as it appeared on my podcast app this morning. It is now a wallcast.

Would a blog be a blog if it went behind a paywall, or if you needed a subscription to read it?

Of course not. Blogs are on the open Web, and tend to stay there so long as they don’t move away from their original location.

Same should go for podcasts. “Wherever you get your podcasts” certifies the open nature of podcasting.

But now the New York Times is putting Ezra Klein’s podcast archives behind a paywall.

Never mind how icky this is on several grounds. Our challenge now is classification. We need a new noun for restricted ‘casts such as Ezra’s. I suggest wallcasts.

For subscription-only ‘casts, such as some on SiriusXM*, I suggest paycasts.

Bottom line: It can’t be a podcast if you have to pay for any of it, including archives.

By the way, it won’t matter if a Times subscription opens wallcast archives, as it does for print. By putting their podcast archives behind a paywall, the Times is changing the DNA of those casts. A wallcast is not a podcast. Full stop.

Spread the words.

*SiriusXM’s paycasts include “SmartLess,” “Freakonomics Radio,” “The Joel Osteen Podcast,” “Last Podcast on the Left,” and “Andy Cohen’s Daddy Diaries.” They require a subscription to SiriusXM or its Podcasts+ service​. Some, such as “Marvel’s Wastelanders” and “Marvel/Method also require a subscription​. I’m not sure what kind. (FWIW, I’ve been a SiriusXM subscriber since 2005, but only listen to live subscription streams. I’ve never listened to any of its podcasts.) SiriusXM does have some shows in podcast form, however. Examples are “The Megyn Kelly Show,” “Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata,” and “Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.” I believe it also has some wallcasts. For example, “SmartLess” episodes are on the open Web, but early access and bonus episodes are behind a paywall​. Or so it seems to me in the here and now. I invite corrections.