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Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
81–90 of 285 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#82Pure curiosity, is this based off of Adblock Radio? https://github.com/adblockradio/adblockradio I've been curious for a while how hard it would be to proxy my podcast feeds through a local server that stripped ads. As far as I can tell, this stuff has to be done dynamically per-file -- sharing timestamps don't work because ads are dynamically injected during each download.
It's not using Adblock Radio, though that is an interesting idea. All new technology.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#83I came here to judge - but if there's no way of paying for the adverts to go away (stitcher? maybe spotify (I pay, but don't use it for podcasts)) I have sympathy. Skeptoid did offer a nice/hacky/old-school solution likely to work with your favourite player - subscribe manually with ~ : @ podcasts.xml" rel="nofollow">http:// : @ podcasts... Providing your player lets you put in a URL - it "works" and doesn't require…
This is quite common - many podcast apps, if not the very biggest ones, support feed importing and those feeds can include a username and password. It's really not that complicated, it just looks like a long URL and in most cases you can click on it in an email or website on your phone, and add it directly to the podcast app from there.
The hard part at the moment is the friction from your podcast app to paying to "unlock" that feed to importing it back to your podcast app. Some of us are working on a standard called PodPass (https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/08/podpass-wants-to-build-the...) to make it seamless, but without the walled gardens.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
How are they seeing that ads have been skipped? That seems like it would only happen if your player is spying on you.
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Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#85This is why we can't have nice things. Podcasts rely on advertising for revenue, and given the static nature of pre-recorded ads, they are the least intrusive in this era of AI driven hyper real-time ad-targeting. Reminiscent of print ads on newspapers.
So respect the effort of the creator and stop automating ad skipping. Heck, I even implore you to listen to the ads that make your favorite shows available for free, but you always have the skip-ahead button in your player
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#86Cool 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…
How is this different than, say, Brave blocking in-flow YouTube ads? Minus the fact that this one is a paid app.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
So its ethical to manually skip the ads but not to automate the process?
Is it ethical not to look at a billboard when you're walking down the street? Is it ethical to mute the TV when commercials come up? I think it's just your choice, right?
I believe this is false equivalency. I probably agree with the overall argument that it's not unethical, but in both examples you give you're not requesting someone's service in exchange for nothing. For TV, you're already paying for a service, so do what you will. For billboard's, you're literally getting nothing in return or asking to be bombarded by ads.
A better example would probably adblocking on either YouTube or any website. The service is otherwise free, and you're demanding it in some sense.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#88Cool 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…
It's an open system because the numerous and ongoing attempts to make it a closed system have been unsuccessful because users don't like that. Spotify and Stitcher are the most recent attempts to secure tons of exclusive content behind an app gate or a paywall.
Even if this app is successful beyond OP's wildest dreams it's going to take 1% of the market or whatever -- the idea that this is going to cause a sudden shift in business strategy, and that that shift will be in favour of proprietary apps in a way that people aren't trying now, beggars belief.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#89Cool 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…
How is this different than, say, Brave blocking in-flow YouTube ads? Minus the fact that this one is a paid app.
It doesn't have to be different. They can both be a bad idea.
Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads
#90Podcasters should probably provide ad-less versions of podcasts for subscribing users, e.g. using Coil or similar extension for monetization.