Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#51

Post by 1123581321 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

ThisIsTheWay wrote: post #42

klelatti wrote: post #33

Joe who? Seriously, I think that there are a number of reasons why this won't pan out as predicted: - There aren't really any tent-pole, must listen podcasts. They thought Joe Rogan was one but I'm hearing a lot of people have stopped listening to him on Spotify (I have). - Spotify (and others) don't have the money to buy out the whole podcast ecosystem and many podcast makers I think would resist going Spotify exclu…

I'll admit I'm a podcast novice, but what player are you using and what does it offer beyond Spotify? I find, download, and play podcasts through Spotify without issues, and the few features I need (speed adjustment, offline access, and show notes/links) are all available on Spotify. If there is a better way to listen, I'd love to hear about it.

Castro on iOS. It uses an inbox triage model that lets me subscribe to a lot of podcasts and keep up with what they’re doing, without cluttering my queue or inducing decision fatigue. It has more granular (per-podcast) controls for smart speed, silence skipping, voice leveling, skipping intros and automatic triage than Spotify. It also lets me upload custom audio and subscribe to custom/private feeds. Support for scripting listening and feed management with iOS shortcuts is above a useful threshold.

Prior to Castro, I used Overcast and Pocket Casts, which have similar features.

I’m sure Spotify is the future but these third party clients are great for heavy listeners who want more control.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#52

Post by dna_polymerase » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

romanhn wrote: post #23

dna_polymerase wrote: post #12

I guess I don't know the right podcasts, but in my opinion, most of them are lazy marketing efforts by large corporations. I don't want to listen to native ads. And this is basically everything Spotify seems to suggest to me in the podcast section. I fled Soundcloud because they couldn't get their shit together, it seems Spotify won't be competing forever as well. Their app has random stutters on modern hardware, and…

Not sure what you mean by "cluttered with podcast stuff". I'm a happy Spotify user and I'm barely aware that the podcast stuff exists.

Maybe we are in different A/B groups but for me the podcasts are now in row 3 minimum, sometimes in the second row on home screen. So at times I see them.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#53

Post by zomgwat » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

tmh88j wrote: post #48

StavrosK wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pocket Casts. I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable, but I haven't even felt the need to check. Plus, I don't like a monoculture.

>I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable Maybe I'm missing out on part of the experience. What else is there to do with a podcast other than download/stream and listen? - Thanks for all the tips. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts but I'll give it a shot.

Chapter support is a nice feature when it's available. There are some podcasts that I listen to straight through. I skip around others.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#54

Post by mvolfik » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #35

Do Spotify actually manage to sell any significant number of subscriptions due to podcasts? Personally when ever I hear about an interesting podcast, and it's followed by "available on Spotify/Podimo, whatever", my reaction is always: Okay, never mind then. There are so many great podcasts on the open web. Those available on platforms like Spotify always seems to be people with existing celebrity status trying to "ca…

Beware though that "available on Spotify" (idk Podimo) doesn't necessarily mean that it's exclusive there. But it's very common around here and many people use it for convenience (and the podcasts can advertise it as "look we are in this fancy mainstream app", not weird (?) RSS, while they likely offer that too). I myself used Spotify for freely available podcasts too, only recently switched to Podcast Addict for nerdy automatic download settings

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#55

Post by atoombs » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

tmh88j wrote: post #48

StavrosK wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pocket Casts. I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable, but I haven't even felt the need to check. Plus, I don't like a monoculture.

>I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable Maybe I'm missing out on part of the experience. What else is there to do with a podcast other than download/stream and listen? - Thanks for all the tips. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts but I'll give it a shot.

Not the parent commenter, but there's a lot of features I like out of Pocket Casts that Spotify doesn't do as well.

- Queuing/auto-queuing to a next-up playlist (with features like add to start or add to end)

- Faster playback (e.g. listening at 2x speed)

- Alerts when new episodes drop to a given feed

It's very configurable and works well.

Also, I just dislike having to abandon my music queue when I listen to a podcast on Spotify. It's nice to have music playing at home, pause it, go for a walk listening to a podcast, finish the walk, then resume the same song/playlist at home.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#56

Post by klelatti » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

ThisIsTheWay wrote: post #42

klelatti wrote: post #33

Joe who? Seriously, I think that there are a number of reasons why this won't pan out as predicted: - There aren't really any tent-pole, must listen podcasts. They thought Joe Rogan was one but I'm hearing a lot of people have stopped listening to him on Spotify (I have). - Spotify (and others) don't have the money to buy out the whole podcast ecosystem and many podcast makers I think would resist going Spotify exclu…

I'll admit I'm a podcast novice, but what player are you using and what does it offer beyond Spotify? I find, download, and play podcasts through Spotify without issues, and the few features I need (speed adjustment, offline access, and show notes/links) are all available on Spotify. If there is a better way to listen, I'd love to hear about it.

I use PocketCasts (on iOS) and I'm happy enough to pay for a subscription (extra benefits are marginal though).

It's less about features, I think, and more about the overall experience. It's probably quite personal too, but in no particular order:

- Smoother and more responsive UI

- Less cluttered and more dense UI eg visual overview of all my subscriptions

- Silence trimming

- Sharing from a given place in a podcast

I do use Spotify for music though so I'm not completely anti the Spotify experience. In fairness to the Spotify designers I do think that they have a more difficult job in integrating podcasts into an app that is mainly a music player.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#57

Post by alangibson » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

Patreon is (currently) the counterweight keeping Spotify from sucking up a critical mass of the high quality podcasts. If Patreon were to fold for some reason, you might see a lot of professional podcasters heading under Spotify's wing just out of necessity.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#58

Post by tapland » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

tmh88j wrote: post #48

StavrosK wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pocket Casts. I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable, but I haven't even felt the need to check. Plus, I don't like a monoculture.

>I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable Maybe I'm missing out on part of the experience. What else is there to do with a podcast other than download/stream and listen? - Thanks for all the tips. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts but I'll give it a shot.

Well, why are we not coding on laptops from 1994?

The user interface can be wildly different.

Pocket casts changed recently but oh how I lived the old ui. Spotify had nothing on it.

Haven't had a reason to download Spotify since even though I haven't liked all the changes in the new pocket casts.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#59

Post by StavrosK » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

tmh88j wrote: post #48

StavrosK wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pocket Casts. I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable, but I haven't even felt the need to check. Plus, I don't like a monoculture.

>I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable Maybe I'm missing out on part of the experience. What else is there to do with a podcast other than download/stream and listen? - Thanks for all the tips. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts but I'll give it a shot.

Playback speed, how many episodes to download on each podcast (some I listen to often, some rarely), what do with them when done, when to go to the next episode automatically, there's a lot. And I want these configurable per-podcast.

Re: Spotify is killing the open podcast ecosystem (2020)

#60

Post by boardwaalk » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

tmh88j wrote: post #48

StavrosK wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Pocket Casts. I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable, but I haven't even felt the need to check. Plus, I don't like a monoculture.

>I just like it a lot, and I don't want to switch because it does everything I need. Spotify seems like it wouldn't be as configurable Maybe I'm missing out on part of the experience. What else is there to do with a podcast other than download/stream and listen? - Thanks for all the tips. I don't listen to a ton of podcasts but I'll give it a shot.

Some apps also have the ability to compress silent gaps in audio which can save a lot of time over time. It may not work if you’re listening to things that need ‘comedic timing’ but otherwise it’s entirely seamless.

I’ve been using Apple’s app recently and its the one thing I quite miss.