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We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

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Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#61

Post by erikpukinskis »

nerfhammer wrote: post #13
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did like their term of "netcast" because podcasts grew way beyond the iPod. But like with many terms nowadays it seems Podcast was the one to catch on as the generic term. Leo Laporte even mentioned that they gave up on "netcast" because it was obvious it would never happen and it was causing a lot of confusion with new listeners.

the mechanical cash register sound effect is still used to represent money in media despite the fact that the kids these days have never seen a mechanical cash register and have no reason to be able recognize that sound from real life.

I’m 38 and I doubt I’ve ever seen a “cha-ching” style cash register in active use either. Didn’t those get phased out in like the 60s?

Maybe when you say “kids” you’re talking about me though!

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#62

Post by erikpukinskis »

julvo wrote: post #51

What I struggle to see about this new era of podcasting is: why now? Would someone with more insight help me to understand?

The radio to podcast transition is an S-curve driven by smartphone adoption.

There is a slight offset from the smartphone adoption curve because you need a bigger market to support niche productions long enough to work out enough standard formats that it can be easily replicated in non-niche segments.

Once you have non-niche shows that are nicely formatted, and you’re past the tipping point for smartphones, the curve stands up.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#63

Post by mikestew »

eropple wrote: post #43
mikestew wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s probably one of the best features having an Apple Watch: flick of the wrist, couple of taps, bye bye ad. If I had to pick up my phone, I probably wouldn’t skip the ads, either.

Depending on your podcast player, what would be "next track" in a music app is "skip N seconds." I double tap my headphones and skip the ad. It doesn't work in the basic Apple podcasts app, but that app stinks and Pocket Casts is now free to use.

Oops, sorry; yeah, I forgot to specify the app being Overcast. Though without firing up the machinery to confirm, I believe on the watch it's just using Apple's Now Playing? Or maybe not. Anyway, to be specific, on the Apple watch there are buttons on either side of play/pause; one goes back 30 seconds, one goes forward.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#64

Post by ziggity »

mikestew wrote: post #63
eropple wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on your podcast player, what would be "next track" in a music app is "skip N seconds." I double tap my headphones and skip the ad. It doesn't work in the basic Apple podcasts app, but that app stinks and Pocket Casts is now free to use.

Oops, sorry; yeah, I forgot to specify the app being Overcast. Though without firing up the machinery to confirm, I believe on the watch it's just using Apple's Now Playing? Or maybe not. Anyway, to be specific, on the Apple watch there are buttons on either side of play/pause; one goes back 30 seconds, one goes forward.

Overcast is an interesting case study on optimizing for listeners vs. creators.

The app developer, Marco Arment, is also co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast. One cool feature in Overcast is chapter markers: You can embed ID3v2 chapter frames in your RSS feed's MP3 files indicating when different segments start. This lets the listener jump between segments, it's a pretty slick experience.

Unsurprisingly, ATP uses this functionality. Advertising chapters are labelled as such, but the timecodes are always deliberately skewed so that skipping to the next chapter after an ad still gives you the last 15 seconds or so of the ad read.

I suppose this is a slightly better user experience than disabling the Skip Next button altogether on an ad segment, but it still irks me to be on the losing end of a conflict of interest.

...says the guy (me) complaining about a free podcast being played in a free podcast app.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#65

Post by ziggity »

rapfaria wrote: post #35
pcarolan wrote: post #18

We'll know we hit big podcast when they take away the 'skip forward 15 seconds' button. Advertisers will demand this like they did with video.

App idea: Community-run data API for podcasts that people mark the beginning and end of audio ads. This way most of the community can skip them.

Dynamic Ad Insertion wreaks havoc with this. Podcast eps can have different lengths and segments can have different start times depending on the ad profile of the listener.

And that's just at a single point in time: It's not uncommon for episodes to be re-edited and re-uploaded, or ads to be changed up (with different lengths) over time.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#66

Post by nerfhammer »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #61
nerfhammer wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the mechanical cash register sound effect is still used to represent money in media despite the fact that the kids these days have never seen a mechanical cash register and have no reason to be able recognize that sound from real life.

I’m 38 and I doubt I’ve ever seen a “cha-ching” style cash register in active use either. Didn’t those get phased out in like the 60s? Maybe when you say “kids” you’re talking about me though!

I didn't mean "kids these days" to be taken exactly literally. I'm not at all sure in which decade digital cash registers became overwhelmingly common.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#67

Post by mikestew »

ziggity wrote: post #64
mikestew wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, sorry; yeah, I forgot to specify the app being Overcast. Though without firing up the machinery to confirm, I believe on the watch it's just using Apple's Now Playing? Or maybe not. Anyway, to be specific, on the Apple watch there are buttons on either side of play/pause; one goes back 30 seconds, one goes forward.

Overcast is an interesting case study on optimizing for listeners vs. creators. The app developer, Marco Arment, is also co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast. One cool feature in Overcast is chapter markers: You can embed ID3v2 chapter frames in your RSS feed's MP3 files indicating when different segments start. This lets the listener jump between segments, it's a pretty slick experience. Unsurprisingly, ATP uses this…

Even as I typed my follow-up, I was thinking, "ya know, I wouldn't put it past Arment to just replicate the Now Playing UI and then season to taste." So, yeah, bad example.

a free podcast app

Arment's attention to little details is one of the reasons I paid whatever trivial amount he wants for an app I use daily. ;-)

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#68

Post by eropple »

ziggity wrote: post #64
mikestew wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, sorry; yeah, I forgot to specify the app being Overcast. Though without firing up the machinery to confirm, I believe on the watch it's just using Apple's Now Playing? Or maybe not. Anyway, to be specific, on the Apple watch there are buttons on either side of play/pause; one goes back 30 seconds, one goes forward.

Overcast is an interesting case study on optimizing for listeners vs. creators. The app developer, Marco Arment, is also co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast. One cool feature in Overcast is chapter markers: You can embed ID3v2 chapter frames in your RSS feed's MP3 files indicating when different segments start. This lets the listener jump between segments, it's a pretty slick experience. Unsurprisingly, ATP uses this…

Does anything besides Overcast actually respond to chapter markers?

...says the guy (me) writing a self-hostable podcast platform.

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#69

Post by ziggity »

eropple wrote: post #68
ziggity wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overcast is an interesting case study on optimizing for listeners vs. creators. The app developer, Marco Arment, is also co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast. One cool feature in Overcast is chapter markers: You can embed ID3v2 chapter frames in your RSS feed's MP3 files indicating when different segments start. This lets the listener jump between segments, it's a pretty slick experience. Unsurprisingly, ATP uses this…

Does anything besides Overcast actually respond to chapter markers? ...says the guy (me) writing a self-hostable podcast platform.

Apparently I was wrong about how podcast chapters are embedded: It's not in the RSS feed itself but encoded as ID3v2 tags in the MP3 file.

Apple Podcasts added support in iOS 12, here's a Google Sheet of the rest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2L14UVH1xtN4iDG4awh...

Re: We’re Entering the Era of Big Podcasting

#70

Post by fallingfrog »

pcarolan wrote: post #18

We'll know we hit big podcast when they take away the 'skip forward 15 seconds' button. Advertisers will demand this like they did with video.

What podcasts do you listen to? I’ve never encountered one with advertisements. Well I guess hardcore history does. But the rest don’t, they’re all on Patreon.
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