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Adblock Radio: An adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts

github.com

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

#81

Post by exDM69 »

I absolutely hate advertising on the radio.

But thank goodness in "socialist" Scandinavia I have several ad-free radio stations to choose from. We've got a tax-funded national broadcaster (used to be a fee on radio ownership, then TV ownership before, but now it's tax funded) and some volunteer-run organizations that have their own radio station. Our national broadcaster also has a world feed from other national broadcasters (in their own language), the BBC World feed for example.

Not only do they provide ad-free content, but the broadcast is usually more interesting than the commercial stations. Where the commercial channels have a very short playlist that repeats over and over again (something to do with licensing deals from the record producers), the non-commercial channels have radio show hosts/DJs who can choose what they play. Some of the programs are rather specialized, like a show that plays only Cuban music and another one that plays Estonian music.

In addition to ad-free radio and TV broadcasts, they also have a news website without ads.

Not everyone agrees with me, but I'll gladly pay some taxes for this service. The ad-free radio and TV is only a bonus, what I really want to pay for is the independent news outlet.

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

#82

Post by iamstupidsimple »

mnm1 wrote: post #59
diffeomorphism wrote: post #15

Neat software, but I think this is less defensible than other ad blockers. With web ad blockers you protect against tracking, privacy violations and potentially malware and thus don't see "unacceptable ads". In contrast this seems to be about blocking ads just for the sake of blocking ads.

Ads themselves are not defensible. Trying to manipulate others for gain is a disgusting practice. It can lead to depression in individuals and encourages extreme materialism in culture. There's no such thing as an acceptable ad.

Advertising is necessary (paid or not it's the same shit) for small businesses to get off the ground, at all. Cut off ads and you'll strangle thousands of startups/SMBs. Physical ads haven't lost their effectiveness. If they had then we'd be in real trouble.

I don't like ads either but remember there are multiple perspectives here. We should focus on purging bad actors than the entire practice. For now though, I see ad blockers as the tools of change and fully support them.

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

#83

Post by efdee »

nickjj wrote: post #73
efdee wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

None, but the people who skip the ads manually now are not going to buy the ad's product if they can't skip the ad. They were non-buyers in either case. Ad skippers are generally a different type of person who won't be convinced to buy something just because they were forced to listen to it. They will however buy something on their own terms and some of them also like to show support for the things they listen to or…

People who skip ads are, in general, just as susceptible to them as most other people. So yes, if they are forced to listen to it, they will, in general, buy more of these products.

Advertising works because it is psychology. Nothing rational about it.

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

#84

Post by throwawawathrow »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #66
throwawawathrow wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>I don't even understand how this idea survives concrete examples.

Lol you don't understand how knowledge can be shared between two or more parties without one of them making a profit? Am I reading this right?

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

#85

Post by scumbert »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #61
lotsofpulp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> In fact, the whole music, video and computer game industries are evidence of the opposite

Only anecdotally to make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

It seems pretty intuitive that people just prefer the thing that costs the least utility, whether that be time or money.

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

#86

Post by nickjj »

efdee wrote: post #83
nickjj wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None, but the people who skip the ads manually now are not going to buy the ad's product if they can't skip the ad. They were non-buyers in either case. Ad skippers are generally a different type of person who won't be convinced to buy something just because they were forced to listen to it. They will however buy something on their own terms and some of them also like to show support for the things they listen to or…

People who skip ads are, in general, just as susceptible to them as most other people. So yes, if they are forced to listen to it, they will, in general, buy more of these products. Advertising works because it is psychology. Nothing rational about it.

That's the thing though. We're not in a Black Mirror scenario where you're really forced to listen to ads (thankfully haha).

If an ad plays, you can just flip to something else just like tons of people do on cable TV. If a podcast starts forcing ad plays then ad skippers will just switch to something else until the ad is done.

If someone really doesn't want to listen to an ad then they will find ways to avoid it. This is partly why piracy is so popular. It usually has little to do with price. It's just wanting to watch or listen to something without having ancillary content forced upon you in a distracting way.

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

#87

Post by johnsea »

harel wrote: post #63
johnsea wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can't pay every single publisher either. When I occasionally read articles from about 5 newspapers, I couldn't (well, don't want to) subscribe to all of them.

Ads are not my main issue, the trackers and the website-bloat are. If I could trust the intermediary I'd voluntarily supply my interests in order to facilitate better ads (but there would need to be a resonably small scope of where this information goes).

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

#88

Post by scumbert »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #66
throwawawathrow wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Bingo. He's unwittingly the poster child for the devaluation of human capital.

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

#89

Post by amrrs »

gdhbcc wrote: post #71
amrrs wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know we don't want to see / hear ads. But at the same time, these ads on the podcast are making livelihoods/income for those content creators and If we strip that off of them, saying I don't like ads but hey I do like your content. Where do you think we can have the line?

Their need to make a living is not a legitimate excuse to brainwash me. If they cannot find an ethical business model, then they must go out of business.

I guess not every single ad is about Brainwashing. If that's the case of your wish, then every single company on the planet would go bust because every company would be selling something to you through ads or pitches at some point.

I hate Display ads because they're content heavy, irrelevant and suck my personal information. But podcast ads are not targetting nor using my cookie or phone id. It's just some content creator is getting paid to get the word out and in fact the podcaster would make it clear that this is an AD unlike in many other platforms where inline and native ads are common.

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

#90

Post by criddell »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #53
TeMPOraL wrote: post #43

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.

I'll pay with my attention, but not with my data. Radio ads are annoying because of the high volume and fast talking, but I'm not going to try to block them.

On the web, put up an add with no tracking (effectively a digital billboard) and I'll stop using my ad blocker. The advertising might be annoying, but the surveillance is a human rights violation (according to the UN).

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