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We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

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Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#101

Post by quantumhobbit »

maxxxxx wrote: post #90
schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

Apple Podcasts has gotten worse pretty much every year. I have switched to Overcast and I find it excellent. Lean and clean.

Overcast seems to bug out on me everytime I try to play episodes in the order they were released instead of most recent first.

It also never removes played episodes no matter what my settings.

Seriously these should be simple things.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#102

Post by schnevets »

emerongi wrote: post #80
schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

Not sure what you are even exactly complaining about. Is it the UI? I agree that most podcast players just lack features. They're built for "dummies": you can subscribe and click play, that's mostly it. I'm a power-user. Podcast Addict on Android is the best player I have used, it has a ton of features and extreme customizability. Still, I am now using PocketCasts which is inferior by a wide margin, but it has sync c…

Simply put, it's a UI issue that affects every aspect of the business. Podcasts have an artificially diminished shelf-life. If you don't release an episode every two weeks, your show gets buried in the library. It means the format is synonymous with churned, radio broadcast-like content.

This has also affected the monetization model. Most ads use promo codes for services, but those promos expire and change, rendering that content valueless. Given these limitations, it's a miracle any producers are funding serialized content that actually has a conclusion.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#103

Post by hanklazard »

otikik wrote: post #51
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

> I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc My counterargument to that is that in order to do any of those things you need to have your eyes engaged with the content. I can listen to podcasts (or audiobooks) while at the gym, cooking, doing laundry, cleaning dishes, or going to pick my ki…

A slightly different take on your “eye engagement” point is that podcasts allow us to utilize time that would otherwise be spent listening to music, talking to others, thinking, or just zoning out. Combined with Apples air pods (a horribly great piece of technology), I find myself using lots of time for podcasts that I wouldn’t otherwise (like when I’m doing the dishes). I find all of this enjoyable overall but I do worry that the decreased time that I spend in thought or present with others could be a net negative in the end.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#104

Post by petercooper »

otikik wrote: post #51
Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

> I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc My counterargument to that is that in order to do any of those things you need to have your eyes engaged with the content. I can listen to podcasts (or audiobooks) while at the gym, cooking, doing laundry, cleaning dishes, or going to pick my ki…

Listening to podcasts or audiobooks while I go to sleep is my biggest life hack. I've been doing it for about six years and now sleep in around 5-10 minutes, whereas it used to take up to an hour before that.

It does mean it takes me months to get through a longer book, but that's no big deal, and means I actually going to bed.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#105

Post by icebraining »

schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

Eh, I don't see it as a limitation of RSS, it's still up to the aggregator to display the episodes however they want after they've fetched the raw data.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#106

Post by intrasight »

blang wrote: post #88

I'm actually worried that podcasts are going the way of the web. What, for a while, was a weird world of enthusiasts talking about things that interests them seems to be morphing into a world of a few big corporate entities calling the shots. I have two reasons for these worries. 1) The purchase of Gimlet by Spotify mentioned in the article. 2) The purchase of Stuff Media by iHeart. The purchase of Gimlet is problema…

I tried some Gimlet podcasts but didn't find any of consistent quality. For me "consistent quality" means I'm willing to binge-listen every episode and in order.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#107

Post by dewey »

chooseaname wrote: post #96
schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to the awfulness of Apple Podcasts. What were they thinking?! It's just bad.

I’m always surprised when people complain about it. It does everything it should for me, syncs with my other devices and automatically downloads the new episode over night and tells me about it in the morning. What are you missing?

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#109

Post by iscrewyou »

loudmax wrote: post #41
spuz wrote: post #17

I am surprised that higher capacity storage on phones was not mentioned as a driver of podcast listenership. For me, when I upgraded to a phone that had 32GB of storage around 2014 I was finally able to store mp3s that would download automatically ready for me to listen to along with all the music and photos that we would otherwise fill up our phone storage with. Before this, it was actually pretty hard to be an avid…

I suspect you're correct. I find it surprising that people buy flagship phones that don't include an SD card reader. It seems that there's a belief among some handset manufacturers that storage capacity is only relevant for apps since all media is stored in the cloud. Either that or they just want to charge you for that extra storage. Being able to download hours worth of podcasts on an SD card and not worry about st…

This is when I used to carry an android phone. I used to worry about that. Then I had to manually move apps to the SD card. Then I had to manage a gallery on my phone and my SD card. Then I had to wait for the memory card to load the apps if I ever restarted my phone. After a point, after I passed 64gb, I didn’t care. I simply wanted something I didn’t have to manage. So I preferred a phone with internal storage. If iPhone started coming with a memory card, I still wouldn’t bother adding one. It just seems like a hassle.

And they are prone to corruption. Never happened to me but I’ve read plenty of horror stories. Why subject myself to another data loss vector?

With the new 256gb capacity phones, it’s never a hassle when it comes to space anymore.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#110

Post by temporalparts »

intrasight wrote: post #106
blang wrote: post #88

I'm actually worried that podcasts are going the way of the web. What, for a while, was a weird world of enthusiasts talking about things that interests them seems to be morphing into a world of a few big corporate entities calling the shots. I have two reasons for these worries. 1) The purchase of Gimlet by Spotify mentioned in the article. 2) The purchase of Stuff Media by iHeart. The purchase of Gimlet is problema…

I tried some Gimlet podcasts but didn't find any of consistent quality. For me "consistent quality" means I'm willing to binge-listen every episode and in order.

I'm sure you can find some consistently bad quality content out there.
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