Spotify and its hosting platforms are adopting Apple's tech for video podcasts

Spotify is embracing Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology for video podcasts. This is a bigger deal than it sounds.

HLS is Apple's streaming protocol that's been the standard for video delivery across the web for years. By adopting it, Spotify-hosted video podcasts can now play natively in Apple Podcasts without requiring listeners to jump between apps.

This is unusual in the podcast platform wars, where companies typically build walls around their content. Spotify has been pushing hard into video podcasting, signing exclusive deals and building out video infrastructure. But exclusivity only works if people can actually watch the content.

For creators, this means their video podcasts get wider distribution without extra work. For listeners, it means less friction when a show they follow goes video. You won't hit a dead end if your podcast app of choice is Apple Podcasts and the show is hosted on Spotify.

The move suggests Spotify is prioritizing reach over lock-in for video content. That's smart. Video podcasts are still finding their audience, and making them harder to access doesn't help anyone.

This also signals that open standards still matter, even in an era of platform competition. HLS has been around since 2009, and it's still the path of least resistance for getting video to play everywhere. Sometimes boring infrastructure wins.