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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

#221

Post by pmoriarty »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #118
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…

iHeartMedia is a junk stock and will probably delisted from NYSE soon. Stuff Media will be gutted and lost in the ensuing chaos in the coming years as iHeart desperately attempts again to restructure their debt. Both them and Cumulus Media serve as yet another sad tale of what happens when PEGs descend on in for the rape and pillage.

Just out of curiosity, what are PEGs?

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#222

Post by detaro »

pmoriarty wrote: post #221
Dirlewanger wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iHeartMedia is a junk stock and will probably delisted from NYSE soon. Stuff Media will be gutted and lost in the ensuing chaos in the coming years as iHeart desperately attempts again to restructure their debt. Both them and Cumulus Media serve as yet another sad tale of what happens when PEGs descend on in for the rape and pillage.

Just out of curiosity, what are PEGs?

I'd guess "private equity $somethings"?

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#223

Post by asnrk »

ryandrake wrote: post #213
hanklazard wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Are there any studies on how good retention is when consuming books as a background task while you're doing something else? Sample size = 1, but I briefly tried listening to audio books while driving, cooking, etc. but stopped when I realized I got all the way through a few books without even vaguely remembering what they were about.

Yeah IDK if I'm just way worse at focusing on spoken words while doing other things than most people or what, but I can't get into podcasts or audio books at all. If I do other things while listening I miss so much that I have no idea what's going on, and even the supposedly very good ones are so dull that if I'm going to spend focused time consuming them I'd rather read, or watch something, or listen closely to some good music, or almost anything else.

I guess maybe if I got back into running they'd be good for that. Can't think of when else I could possibly use them.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#224

Post by donretag »

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 am glad I am not the only one. Podcasts are simply not for me.

I am FAR more efficient at reading content than listening to it. Not even close.

And since I am a massive music fan, I rather listen to music than listen to talk. There is so much new music to explore, who has time for podcasts?

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#225

Post by ben174 »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #205
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 have fond memories when I was a teenager, loading my 80gb iPod video full of podcasts I could listen to on trips. The reason I even got into podcasts back then, was I didn't have any money to buy CDs or mp3s, but I could download as many podcasts as I wanted and it was awesome.

I remember downsampling things to a barely-listenable 32Kbps just so I could fit the maximum amount of content onto 16 or 32 megabyte SmartMedia card in my Diamond Rio.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#226

Post by mercer »

wenbin wrote: post #153

If you want to explore what podcasts are out there, try Listen Notes, a podcast search engine I built https://www.listennotes.com You would be surprised how many unknown but interesting podcasts on the Internet :)

That's an awesome thing that you made! So far I've just been doing very limited searching from within Overcast. This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, plus a whole bunch of features I didn't even know I wanted :).

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#227

Post by loblollyboy »

gibspaulding wrote: post #114
hanklazard wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've wondered about this too. It's rare now, but sometimes I just want to drive to work in silence and it's always surprising to me how nice it can be. I'd be curious to see a study about the affects of time spent "zoned out". I wonder if it may turn out to be an important opportunity for our brains to subconsciously process things or work on ideas. I'd imagine our ancestors spent a significant portion of their lives…

I’ve started to intentionally not listen to anything at times when I otherwise would

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#228

Post by dangoor »

slg wrote: post #197
dangoor wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 w…

I subscribe to a few as well. The some episodes free and some paid model is the better for discoverability than everything behind a paywall, but it can still be off-putting to new listeners. Although my primary problem with that model is that it isn't sustainable for heavy listeners. Each show can cost anywhere from $2-$10 per month. That adds up quickly. I end up spending more on podcasts a month than I do on Netfli…

Yeah, that's fair that the individual podcast pricing may not scale for the consumer the way the Spotify model does.

I write fiction on the side and am able to put my ebooks (and print books, for that matter) into a variety of stores. If a model could be started through which a podcast producer can put their podcast in multiple stores so that it's a paid show but available in Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, etc., that would be a nice model indeed.

It's doubtful that Spotify would attempt such a model.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#229

Post by Dirlewanger »

pmoriarty wrote: post #221
Dirlewanger wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iHeartMedia is a junk stock and will probably delisted from NYSE soon. Stuff Media will be gutted and lost in the ensuing chaos in the coming years as iHeart desperately attempts again to restructure their debt. Both them and Cumulus Media serve as yet another sad tale of what happens when PEGs descend on in for the rape and pillage.

Just out of curiosity, what are PEGs?

Private equity groups. Several have been brokering their debt restructuring over the years. Here's their most recent complete restructuring from about a year ago (http://www.insideradio.com/free/restructuring-will-wipe-bill...) (they're currently in bankruptcy at the moment.)

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#230

Post by jedberg »

brailsafe wrote: post #174
jedberg wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree the format has changed a bit, but I still enjoy it. You're right though, going back to basics would be nice.
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