31–40 of 285 posts
I do listen to one podcast that has an ad-free feed for patreon supporters. It works rather well and they have add a surprising amount of bonus content for subscribers.
Cool idea? Yes. Good idea? No. If we do stuff like this, the podcast industry will switch to a closed system which would require you to install proprietary apps to listen to stuff. Likely several different apps for different shows and companies. As it exists today, it's a very open system, with publicly accessible feeds and the ability to use any app. Don't ruin it. It's not hard to press the "skip forward 30 seconds…
So its ethical to manually skip the ads but not to automate the process?
I was thinking about making exactly this today while listening to 99PI. Decided that I would rather support the makers. I wish that the various apps allowed subscriptions to avoid ads in a given podcast. 99PI is doing a fundraising drive right now. As part of it, they share that 1/10,000 listeners donates. I would be happy to pay 99PI $1 a month for their podcasts if I could skip ads.
If the advertisers can't tell if you're using this app or a traditional podcast app, are you really supporting the makers any less by using this app? The advertisers won't pay them any less because they won't be able to know that x% of users didn't hear the ad.
Cool idea? Yes. Good idea? No. If we do stuff like this, the podcast industry will switch to a closed system which would require you to install proprietary apps to listen to stuff. Likely several different apps for different shows and companies. As it exists today, it's a very open system, with publicly accessible feeds and the ability to use any app. Don't ruin it. It's not hard to press the "skip forward 30 seconds…
By your own logic, podcasters would be releasing their own proprietary apps to prevent users from pressing the "skip forward 30 seconds" button when an ad starts playing. Why isn't that happening?
Cool idea? Yes. Good idea? No. If we do stuff like this, the podcast industry will switch to a closed system which would require you to install proprietary apps to listen to stuff. Likely several different apps for different shows and companies. As it exists today, it's a very open system, with publicly accessible feeds and the ability to use any app. Don't ruin it. It's not hard to press the "skip forward 30 seconds…
So its ethical to manually skip the ads but not to automate the process?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So its ethical to manually skip the ads but not to automate the process?
Podcasts and podcast advertisers know we can skip them, they accept this. If they see a lot of users skip ALL of them, it isn't okay.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So its ethical to manually skip the ads but not to automate the process?
Sure, because some percentage of the users will still listen to the ad, especially if it's the first time they're hearing it. Make it automated, that guarantees that no one is listening to it. Which would mean no revenue for the content creators. Which would lead to a really crappy system.
If the advertiser isn’t given any information about playback at ad time, then the revenue would not be affected.
So how does it really do the skipping feature? Do you transcribe the podcast and look for standard advertising copy for companies like Squarespace, hello fresh, etc? Would it register a false positive if one of those company names is said?
But honestly manual flagging wouldn't be too hard either.
As a podcaster (Mixergy.com), I love this. My listeners should never feel guilty about skipping ads. If my ads aren't interesting or don't improve your life, you owe it to yourself to skip. I keep working to improve my ads. Most recently: I hired a copywriter (Neville Medhora) to go over my ad reads. And today I recorded interviews with 10-second ads, instead of 3-minute ones.
I’d also expect listeners to be much less likely to mind, since it would be such a nicer experience than the norm.
I'm still shocked that Google has not made a podcast platform wherein they manage the ads and subscriptions. Host the audio, inject ads at the breaks, allow paid subscriptions that remove the ads, have a monthly payment option, etc. Basically half YouTube half Audible. I do listen to one podcast that has an ad-free feed for patreon supporters. It works rather well and they have add a surprising amount of bonus conten…
They already had a superior product to competition, in my opinion: Google Play Music, better than Spotify. Better UI, didn't crash, better app, more reliable casting, etc. But they're closing it and making you switch to Youtube Music. Under the hood, they won't register new agencies for submitting to Google Play Music. Current ones can so you'll still see new music, but the point is they're pushing everyone to probably the worst music playing app I've ever seen in my life.
So, if they were going to do it, they'd do it on Youtube Music, but that app is hot garbage, so, don't expect too high.