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Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

adskippro.com

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Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#121

Post by criddell »

zozbot234 wrote: post #93
rahuldottech wrote: post #12

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…

I agree that this app is somewhat less than ethical and that folks should refrain from using or supporting it. It's one thing to block 3rd-party ads on the Web, which come with fairly severe privacy implications for the user and ruin their Web browsing experience - but none of this applies to ads which are simply part of an open audio podcast. If the industry shifts to proprietary players in order to enforce ads, thi…

Some podcast companies are inserting user targeted ads into the file.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#122

Post by dest »

adskipprod wrote: post #82
danShumway wrote: post #3

Pure 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.

Creator of Adblock Radio here. If some day you are able to share your approach to filter ads, especially native ones, I would greatly appreciate it.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#123

Post by bilekas »

rahuldottech wrote: post #12

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…

I was going to play devils advocate until your edit of having the paid app (i didn't download it)

This is in essence no longer something that's just a cool idea and a nice novelty, it's why streaming companies and creators especially complain about losing revenue.. OP is taking what I would prefer to go to creators.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#125

Post by xyproto »

DataGata wrote: post #32
nickthegreek wrote: post #21

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.

Some people would prefer not to listen to podcasts at all, if they had to listen to ads.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#126

Post by hombre_fatal »

StillBored wrote: post #104
LeftHandPath wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But advertisements in podcasts are commonly pre-recorded by the podcast host(s) - so the host would still be paid for the advertisement, before it goes online. If the advertiser isn’t given any information about playback at ad time, then the revenue would not be affected.

Well the question I don't see answered anywhere is how well this actually works. For some podcasts where the ad's are per-recorded and played across a couple different podcasts it seems the problem is pretty easy to solve. OTOH, I've seen a number of youtube and podcasts where the Ads are read by the hosts as part of the show and are unique for each podcast. I heard one once recently where the host must have had 10 d…

The app has a list of the dozen podcast it works with. It doesn't work with any other. That alone should tell you the app simply identifies some sort of jingle or pattern. Or these are the podcasts that OP is willing to manually tag as each episode is released.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#127

Post by endorphone »

zozbot234 wrote: post #93
rahuldottech wrote: post #12

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…

I agree that this app is somewhat less than ethical and that folks should refrain from using or supporting it. It's one thing to block 3rd-party ads on the Web, which come with fairly severe privacy implications for the user and ruin their Web browsing experience - but none of this applies to ads which are simply part of an open audio podcast. If the industry shifts to proprietary players in order to enforce ads, thi…

Podcast ads have a much more insidious problem in that they perpetuate and encourage a disingenuous, lie-for-dollars[1] culture. Hearing podcasters gushing about products that just so happen to sponsor their podcast is exactly what advertisers are paying for -- that it's "genuine" and someone who you theoretically trust is pitching whatever they're selling -- and it's just incredibly greasy and distasteful. It is the lowest form of sponsorship.

When I see ads on the NYTimes I know they're just whoever paid for the space. It isn't the NYTimes claiming to have curated the best of the best and they're only showing you the greatest products and this just happens to be The Best pickup truck out there, etc. Eh.

[1] - Every podcaster is going to claim that no, it's really what they think, what a marvelous coincidence. It's amazing what someone will "think" when their paycheque relies upon it.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#128

Post by antielectronite »

rahuldottech wrote: post #48
spencey wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I listen to a podcast where they make money off merch and Patreon only. No need for advertising.

That only works for podcasts with big, dedicated audiences.

same with ads.

Re: Show HN: I built a podcast app that skips over the ads

#129

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

danpalmer wrote: post #47

I block ads on the web because web advertising networks proved that they had no respect for user privacy, lacked security controls around their ad delivery, and were targeting using data that they probably shouldn’t have had access to. Podcasts do not suffer from this. It’s much harder to identify a user, the ads aren’t software, just audio, so security is better and there’s not much way to see who is listening to th…

Podcast ads suffer from the same issue as most other ads, which is that they're primarily lies intended to manipulate your emotions and influence you to act in ways that are against your self interest.
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