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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

#171

Post by istjohn »

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…

As a happy PocketCasts user, what am I missing out on that Podcast Addict has? Looking over the Play Store feature list, nothing jumps out.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#172

Post by paulgb »

wenbin wrote: post #167
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'…

Try searching podcasts by people or topics here https://www.listennotes.com

Thanks for creating listennotes! I've found it very useful when I want to find a bunch of interviews of the same person on different shows.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#174

Post by brailsafe »

jedberg wrote: post #120
intrasight wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 always enjoy Science Vs. Also, Startup, which actually has featured a bunch of YC companies. Reply all has good stuff too most of the time.

I wish Science vs. kept the sort of quality from earlier episodes when they were either not on Gimlet or had just come to Gimlet. They lean pretty heavily on narratives now, and while it may be entertaining, it's getting further and further away from science—or even minimally analytic.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#175

Post by dangoor »

slg wrote: post #116
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 agree, we might be leaving the golden age rather than entering it. The article mentions Spotify exclusive shows and we have already seen several other paywalled shows from companies like Audible and Stitcher. Meanwhile a number of podcasters are taking control of their own shows, not joining a podcast network or content company, and moving the show to platforms like Patreon. That is great for the content creators t…

> That is great for the content creators themselves, but it hurts discoverability and just isn't great for the podcast listener.

I subscribe to a couple of shows which offer free versions, discoverable through Apple's directory and others, and paid "upgrades". Those paid upgrades come into the same app I use for listening to podcasts generally. I actually think things today are pretty well set up for podcasters who want to be independent but still get paid.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#176

Post by wenbin »

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.

Personally, I don’t listen to every episode of any podcasts. I don’t even subscribe to any podcasts. I just cherry pick episodes from different podcasts to listen.

Normally, I find all episodes interviewing a person of my interest, then binge listen them all. These episodes may be from some pretty unknown podcasts that I don’t want to listen to other episodes .

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#177

Post by chrxr »

Can anyone tell me if young people listen to podcasts? Like people under 16? I found something that suggests 7% of listeners are under 17*... I just wonder with an audience split like that, is it expected that young people will suddenly pick up podcasts when they reach a certain age? Or is it an indicator that the format doesn't appeal to the youngest generation?

https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/new-demo...

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#178

Post by ptruesdell »

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…

Agreed. And I imagine that if Spotify succeeds, then Apple might eventually follow suit and start picking up exclusives. At that point, there's no going back.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#179

Post by black6 »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #139
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…

Personally, I subscribe to the podcasts of: Sam Harris, Conan, The Energy Gang, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and a couple other NPR shows. None of my podcasts, IMO, are decreasing in quality, nor would I expect any of these groups to sell-out as they are off-shoots of other things. The podcasts I listen to are intentionally hand-selected over time to be 1) informative, 2) have a decent cont…

> In particular, I find independent podcasts like Sam Harris or Dan Carlin to be FANTASTIC, and that content is free for all to download in multiple ways. So, I'm not worried in the slightest.

This. Dan Carlin is fantastic and I enjoy supporting him because of the quality. No Agenda and Congressional Dish are two more listener supported/value-for-value podcasts which do an outstanding job. No Agenda, in particular, raised the bar extremely high for production value, and they do it all live to tape! No back office. Little-to-no post production. Those guys are proof you don’t need a studio, enployees, or advertisers to make a living out of podcasting.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#180

Post by alexhutcheson »

chrxr wrote: post #177

Can anyone tell me if young people listen to podcasts? Like people under 16? I found something that suggests 7% of listeners are under 17*... I just wonder with an audience split like that, is it expected that young people will suddenly pick up podcasts when they reach a certain age? Or is it an indicator that the format doesn't appeal to the youngest generation? https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/ne…

Teenagers mostly don't have long commutes, which is where a lot of podcast listening seems to happen.
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