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Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

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Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a closer look at that feeling. If you're not comfortable with what they're trying to do, but also not comfortable with trying to mitigate it, as it'll only incentivize them to do worse - then how comfortable are you with them existing? The problem is ad distribution companies here and now. The problem won't be gone until they're gone.

The problem is people are willing to pay for certain products with their attention, via ads, but not with money. Given the choice of paying $1 for a podcast or pirating said podcast, sufficient number of people would not choose the first option to make it a viable business.

That has not been established. In fact, the whole music, video and computer game industries are evidence of the opposite - even before DRM and convenient streaming/store platforms on-line, piracy was still just a drop in a bucket and businesses asking for money up front were perfectly viable.

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#62

It's a cool technical achievement, sure. But as a listener of many podcasts I do not support this at all. I love that podcasters can make a living or at least a little money while I listen for free.

I suppose you've never once fast-forwarded through an ad in a podcast you listen to.

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#63
post #33
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lack of balance is why we can't have nice things. There has to be a middle ground where publishers make money to keep publishing and consumers of those publishing keep consuming the content without being annoyed to the point of wanting to abolish all ads. The result of extremism here is that it wouldn't be viable financially to produce content. Paid subscription models don't seem to work leaving advertising the onl…

Why do paid subscription models not work? Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal seem to work. Switched to Tidal recently, love the reach incl. ECM label! (If there would be something comparable for newspapers I'd pay too, as is, I ublockorigin (or abstain))

They do work, I pay Netflix, Spotify and Prime. But there is a limit. I can't pay every single publisher. Micropayments didn't seem to have taken off, and when I hit paywalls these days I turn away - I don't want a subscription in order to consume one article. I now dread the day where content will be so distributed across publishers and subscriptions, we'd be back at the start in a cable-company style world.

I'm not saying ads are good, and no ads are great. I'm saying there has to be a balance. And publishers are best to realise this as well since the more they push, the more people will push back.

Maybe (just a passing thought as I'm typing), the ad pricing model should change? Maybe if ads were more expensive and more selective it would offset the revenue by quantity into revenue by quality ad-wise...

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#64
post #45

Right now, there's teams of people at companies like Spotify and Stitcher, frantic in front of whiteboards, trying to plan a future for podcasts wherein it will be harder/impossible to skip the ads. First, they have to control the distribution. Then, they have to build the tech, which will obviously involve some kind of DRM. To say that I hope they fail is an understatement. But I know they'll try because in the inte…

> trying to plan a future for podcasts wherein it will be harder/impossible to skip the ads. Aren't most podcasts selling flat rate slots to run ads? Example: Company A gives podcast author $X amount of dollars to run a 30-60 second ad in their 1 hour podcast. If all 10,000 listeners don't listen to the ad then the podcast author still gets the same amount of ad revenue. My thought process on that is, if I begin to h…

If nobody buys the product, the Company won't buy ads again from that podcast

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#65
post #45

Right now, there's teams of people at companies like Spotify and Stitcher, frantic in front of whiteboards, trying to plan a future for podcasts wherein it will be harder/impossible to skip the ads. First, they have to control the distribution. Then, they have to build the tech, which will obviously involve some kind of DRM. To say that I hope they fail is an understatement. But I know they'll try because in the inte…

> trying to plan a future for podcasts wherein it will be harder/impossible to skip the ads. Aren't most podcasts selling flat rate slots to run ads? Example: Company A gives podcast author $X amount of dollars to run a 30-60 second ad in their 1 hour podcast. If all 10,000 listeners don't listen to the ad then the podcast author still gets the same amount of ad revenue. My thought process on that is, if I begin to h…

If nobody listens to the ad, how much more episodes will the advertiser be willing to pay for?

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`content creators who really care would find a way to make it work` is a terrible way to think. All that means is the barrier to entry increases from anyone, from any background and means to people who can afford to produce content already. You lose the young kids starting out, you loose those from poorer backgrounds, you loose the creatives working on their side projects while working a 9 to 5 because they can no lo…

People are already making content without monetizing it, and have been for decades. As alien a way of thinking as it may seem to some, many human beings do not need a bizarre system of 'market-based incentives' to get anything done at all. They just do it, out of passion, boredom, to learn, or to share with friends. Are you seriously implying the 'young kid starting out' has Youtube monetization all setup in order, o…

Your posts actually seem like the sort of perversion that ads have inflicted on our relationship with content and how they've trained us to value content at $0.

I don't really understand how waiting around and hoping for someone to make something out of hobby or charity is a reasonable stance when content brings me a non-zero amount of value and entertainment, when I can pay for it and get better results. Life is too short to sit and pray that someone else will feel like doing something for free that will happen to benefit me.

The idea seems a bit juvenile. Or as if we're all such simpletons that anything will please us all the same, it doesn't matter, so just wait for the next free shit.

I don't even understand how this idea survives concrete examples. If I happen to enjoy someone's free hobby content, then I directly benefit from their ability to make a living producing that content.

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`content creators who really care would find a way to make it work` is a terrible way to think. All that means is the barrier to entry increases from anyone, from any background and means to people who can afford to produce content already. You lose the young kids starting out, you loose those from poorer backgrounds, you loose the creatives working on their side projects while working a 9 to 5 because they can no lo…

People are already making content without monetizing it, and have been for decades. As alien a way of thinking as it may seem to some, many human beings do not need a bizarre system of 'market-based incentives' to get anything done at all. They just do it, out of passion, boredom, to learn, or to share with friends. Are you seriously implying the 'young kid starting out' has Youtube monetization all setup in order, o…

I don't remember many young video creators before Youtube.

You know what Youtube runs on, right? It's not just the creators who get money from ads.

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#68
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I remember there was an Internet without ads. I don't think we need literal garbage stimuli for media to thrive.

When?

Not that long ago. When I was in university in 1996 there were almost no ads. When I left university in 1999 there were a lot more. The quality of content didn't really increase in that time.

Right now there are youtube channels that don't monetize, and have good content. There are soundcloud profiles, blogs and short stories that have no ads.

Most of the advertised internet is garbage, but it's also by far the most popular, due to the ads.

Advertising skews people's views of worthiness, and makes a mockery of honest recommendations. That's literally what it was invented to do!

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#69
post #51

Right now, there's teams of people at companies like Spotify and Stitcher, frantic in front of whiteboards, trying to plan a future for podcasts wherein it will be harder/impossible to skip the ads. First, they have to control the distribution. Then, they have to build the tech, which will obviously involve some kind of DRM. To say that I hope they fail is an understatement. But I know they'll try because in the inte…

currently Malcolm Gladwell is doing sponsorship for Revisionist History by splicing episodes with mini 30-60sec advertorials in which he interviews AT&T Chief Marketing Officer about the awesomeness of AT&T's 5G. It's genius, because it comes across as - informative - non-spammy and with the typical easy to digest Gladwellian narration. What's egregious about it to my taste is that much like Gladwell's podcasts, it s…

Native ad reads can be fun and deceptive. Linus Tech Tips WAN Show has the courtesy of including timestamps that allows you to skip past ads or at minimum, identify which segments are clearly delineated as ads. I don't suppose most content producers will volunteer that information and have it marked on the seekbar or some other clear UI element to indicate when advertisement is playing. Isn't that a legal requirement for videos even on youtube? Podcast gets away with it by dumping a sponsorship disclaimer in the show info metadata.

Re: Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

#70
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lack of balance is why we can't have nice things. There has to be a middle ground where publishers make money to keep publishing and consumers of those publishing keep consuming the content without being annoyed to the point of wanting to abolish all ads. The result of extremism here is that it wouldn't be viable financially to produce content. Paid subscription models don't seem to work leaving advertising the onl…

'What about my business model' is not a valid argument. You are not in fact entitled to one. Personally I'd rather see 95% less 'content' on the Internet if it meant it were ad free. I'd rather have no Facebook than one that serves you personalized ads. I'd rather have no online news media than news websites that serve ads. I'd rather have no television programs than watch programs with commercials. 'Content creators…

Music to my ears. It is always breathtaking to see the number of people who cling to the religion of ad-supported content as _the only way forward_.

Bad UX as a business model? It can't go away soon enough.

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