Welcome to the Podstr Project
Your Keys, Your Podcast
this is a project proposal and is not yet implemented
Podstr is an open project that puts the control of authoring, publishing, and distributing a podcast in the hands of creators.
Bringing together Podcasting 2.0 and Nostr, the Podstr Project makes podcasts open and free for discovery, reducing the ability for censorship by large organizations. Podstr gives creators control over their show and episodes using their cryptographically verified identity.
Author
When you set up a free Nostr account, you receive a public and private key. Your private key is like a password that connects you to everything that works with Nostr.
Your Nostr account allows you to publish your podcast with your signature, validating it comes from you and no one else. You and those you authorize are able to post and update show info and episodes. You are in control.
Podstr uses the Podcasting 2.0 conventions established by the Podcast Index. Properties from the namespace project are available allowing you to create podcasts with the latest abilities.
- Value Splits ⚡️
- Transcripts 📄
- Chapters 📘
- Medium 🎙️
- Guid 🆔
- and more 🤙
Publish
In order to be discovered, your podcast info needs to be available online. Traditionally this means hosting your rss.xml feed on a server, often owned and controlled by someone else. If you run the server yourself, you must deal with the expense and hassle of uptime.
Introducing the Podstr Relay Network
With Podstr, your podcast info is sent to a group of Nostr relays that know how to host and distribute podcasts. These relays are operated by different organizations, communities, and individuals, removing points of failure and reducing the ability for your content to be unpublished.
Because your podcast is authored with your Nostr account, it is impossible for the relays to alter your content, so you don’t even need to know or trust the people running the relay. Podcast info signed with your key remains intact as it gets shared across the network.
The relay is open source software, so you are always able to run your own Podstr relay, giving you complete control over availability.
Distribute
With your podcast signed and published to the network, it is ready to be seen and heard. Podstr is flexible and works with traditional and modern podcasting services.
RSS
The RSS feed has served podcasting well for two decades. That isn’t going to change immediately. Podstr has the ability to generate an xml file for your podcast, based on the info you authored with your Nostr account. This xml file can be hosted on a server and used by podcasting services.
Podcast Index
Whether through the XML file or by integrating directly with Nostr, the Podcast Index will be able to read your published podcast info. It might even be the largest podcast Nostr relay operator at some point.
Nostr apps
Brand new podcast apps that were written with Nostr at the foundation read from Podstr relays. Most apps use a list of popular Podstr relays to find podcast info. Users are able to add relays to the list themselves, assuring they can find the content they want.
There are many modern podcast apps that support Podcasting 2.0. They can be updated to speak directly to Podstr relays as well.
All of these apps will have the ability to provide a rich podcast experience with value splits, zaps, and social engagement. Best of all, because it’s using Nostr, listeners may move between apps and all of their subscriptions and comments will be there waiting for them.
The Nostr Magic
There is something special that comes with Nostr. First and foremost, your account belongs to you. It’s yours. Anything you publish with your account, yours.
Even better, that audience that you work so hard to please, they are on every single app that supports Nostr. Gone are the days of pleading with listeners to make the jump from an old social media platform to the latest one. All apps that integrate with Nostr will know the user because on their Nostr account. Any new app that comes along, sign in with Nostr, and your audience is right there.
The Podstr Project Objective
Podstr is developed in the open, supporting open standards. We aim to provide a source of truth for podcasts that are available based on the author’s terms. We work together with the podcasting community to meet people and projects where they are.
If you’re ready to take control of your podcast, let’s go!
Get started today.