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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

#211

Post by madisfun »

mkolodny wrote: post #76
TeMPOraL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason ad blockers are called "ad blockers", and not "tracking protectors" or "privacy protectors" or "malware protectors" (the latter three being their own category of software). It's because they exist precisely for blocking ads "just for the sake of blocking ads". Ads are malicious. It's perfectly fine to block them. Privacy protection is just a convenient side effect.

I agree that it's perfectly fine to block ads. And that ad blockers' primary feature is blocking ads. At the same time, I think most ads aren't malicious. They aren't "intending to do harm". Ads sell things. Sometimes things people want. I'd guess that most people who use ad blockers just don't like being sold things.

Sometimes. It's not a good defence of a thing, if it is good only sometimes and only for some people. By implication it's not good for the others.

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

#212

Post by joe-collins »

amrrs wrote: post #41
dest wrote: post #3

Hello, author of Adblock Radio here. Thanks for posting this. I can answer questions if you have any. You can read more on the context of this project in this article: https://www.adblockradio.com/blog/2018/11/15/designing-audio...

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?

I don't know about podcasting, but for music, streaming royalties are so abysmal that I can't feel guilt about blocking ads on those services. If I want to support an artist, I'll buy their music on Bandcamp, where I know they'll get the majority of the purchase price.

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

#213

Post by buboard »

cwkoss wrote: post #204
buboard wrote: post #24

We also need to start seeing advertising as a way for publishers/performers/makers to cut a slice of benefit from corporate profits. If we remove advertising everywhere, corporates are just going to seek non-media ways to market , and the whole mediascape will lose.

Sounds like a net positive to me. Media living in fear of offending advertisers limits the range of acceptable discourse and causes it to slant corporatist.

nah , ad-supported media are invariably more diverse. Fear of offending subscribers leads to much more self-censorship

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

#214

Post by cwkoss »

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…

What percentage of HN users do you think are posting because they are paid to do so?

This seems like a relatively high quality site compared to the rest of the internet.

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

#215

Post by lostgame »

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.

This is an over exaggeration that doesn’t imply a lot of thought for the consequences.

How are new products and inventions supposed to create word of their existence? As a musician I see ads for new VSTs and instruments or accessories all the time I’ve never heard of, and affect my workflow in a massively significant and positive way.

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

#216

Post by lostgame »

_bxg1 wrote: post #202
chmln wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to push back against tracking in ads, you have to support non-tracking ads. Why? I don't want any ads whatsoever. Maybe it's harsh but if they can't survive without ads then let them go? Many good podcasts already charge money.

Well for one thing, it would be literally impossible to establish a subscription model for radio stations. For another thing, online news sources have been trying to make subscriptions work for years and nobody's figured out how to do it yet. But going beyond that, who are you to declare that entire mediums' worth of content is invalid simply because of the lack of available mechanisms for collecting the revenue they…

>> Well for one thing, it would be literally impossible to establish a subscription model for radio stations.

I get what you’re saying, but Sirius XM would like a word with you.

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

#217

Post by cwkoss »

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…

Perhaps micropayments haven't taken of because of the ad industry.

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

#218

Post by cwkoss »

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.

If you think about how advertising works, you can partially inoculate yourself from this by changing your perception of ads.

If two products are the same price, but only one is advertised, the advertised product must be inferior because they are using your money to try to manipulate you.

Next time you watch TV, notice the brands and consider their competitors. Advertisers tend to be inferior quality and optimizing for short-term gains over customer benefit in comparison to their competitors.

Why does Mazda advertise so much more than Toyota? Because they provide less value per dollar, and have to make that up via thought manipulation.

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

#219

Post by shadofx »

_bxg1 wrote: post #202
chmln wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to push back against tracking in ads, you have to support non-tracking ads. Why? I don't want any ads whatsoever. Maybe it's harsh but if they can't survive without ads then let them go? Many good podcasts already charge money.

Well for one thing, it would be literally impossible to establish a subscription model for radio stations. For another thing, online news sources have been trying to make subscriptions work for years and nobody's figured out how to do it yet. But going beyond that, who are you to declare that entire mediums' worth of content is invalid simply because of the lack of available mechanisms for collecting the revenue they…

>just die altogether

Sounds good. I preferred when websites existed as a result of a person's individual passion on a particular topic, not the network of fake news clickbait vying for attention that we have now.

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

#220

Post by _bxg1 »

lostgame wrote: post #216
_bxg1 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well for one thing, it would be literally impossible to establish a subscription model for radio stations. For another thing, online news sources have been trying to make subscriptions work for years and nobody's figured out how to do it yet. But going beyond that, who are you to declare that entire mediums' worth of content is invalid simply because of the lack of available mechanisms for collecting the revenue they…

>> Well for one thing, it would be literally impossible to establish a subscription model for radio stations. I get what you’re saying, but Sirius XM would like a word with you.

Despite the name, it's really not the same thing at all.
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