We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts • Hacker News Board

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#361

Post by frankzinger » Sat, Feb 23, 2019, 7:36 AM UTC

iamjaredwalters wrote: post #100

chooseaname wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Mind elaborating? I just search for a podcast and click play. Never seemed to need much more functionality than that. What am I missing?

It often fails to download podcasts. Overcast I can just tap 'download' and trust that it will do its work. Not Apple Podcasts.

I got the "this episode is not currently available" message all the time whereas I never get anything similar from Overcast.

It often fails to transition from one podcast to the next in the playlist (ie, stops playing). Sometimes even when all involved episodes have been downloaded.

It fails to automatically delete old episodes.

It fails in multiple ways when it loses connectivity. E.g., it refuses to continue playing a very well-buffered episode if there's no connectivity. Mind you, I suspect that some of the connectivity issues may be a result of them never having tested it with 'slow' connections (2Mbps in my case). This obviously wouldn't absolve them in the least, however.

This is just off the top of my head. It's one of the worst pieces of software I have ever used. From a company with billions in cash.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#362

Post by krinchan » Sat, Feb 23, 2019, 5:43 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #325

krinchan wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many podcast platforms are already basically setting up ad networks. Content creators supply time stamps and the CDNs stitch in ads at the point of download into those.time stamps. At the moment, conversion rates are highest when the host reads the ads, so there's still a lot of work for the creator but minimal effort for the advertiser. It's likely that eventually the bar will lower and people will stop minding less…

> many players are working to integrate it Do you have any information on who? I've mostly heard about players announcing they won't support it, and Apple and Spotify have their own analytics systems they'd probably prefer people use.

So I do seem to have jumped the gun. It definitely appears that most the indie podcatchers are in wait and see mode. Almost all the "we won't support it" has a "yet" or "at this time" clause.

The big thing is Apple. Apple is definitely the big boy in the pond and NPR is in talks to get it working.

The thing is, if other podcatchers continue to refuse to provide data somehow, the advertisers are going to start refusing to pay for downloads and only for impressions verifiable on Apple, Spotify, and Google's apps. The end result is the closing off into walled gardens.

We already have Stitcher and Spotify buying up podcasts and keeping them exclusive to their platforms.

It can go either way but like...it's bad if it doesn't go this way. Either you're buying podcasts per episode or trapped on Google/Apple/Spotify's horrific podcast apps.

The apps are horrific. Google compresses audio to the point you get obvious quality loss and artifacting, even to my non-audiophile ears on $20 earbuds.

Apple Podcasts is a PITA once you've subscribed to more than 10 podcasts. It's really badly set up if you subscribe to a serial audio drama and have several seasons to catch up on.

Spotify thinks podcasts are just playlists in order from newest to oldest and wow is that a barebones and impossible UX for anything but a talkshow type podcast.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#363

Post by 0XAFFE » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 8:25 PM UTC

scrooched_moose wrote: post #138

0XAFFE wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is https://fyyd.de/charts if you want a good overview of the german podcast scape. For fiction maybe something like that https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/hoerspiel-speicher/wdr_h... ?

Even that seems to have localization unless Mike Missanelli - Philly's First FM Sports Station is the 6th most popular podcast in Germany. Everything showing on the charts (for me) is English language. Hörspiel-Speicher looks interesting though, thanks!

Indeed, I changed my locale to en_US and I got whole other bunch of podcasts. Change your locale to de_DE and it will have all of german podcasts.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#364

Post by intrasight » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

weaksauce wrote: post #255

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.

Bagman and slow burn were good if you are into historical political scandals. Covered watergate, Clinton impeachment and Nixon’s vp spirew Agnew.

Just did some research - those two do look like an excellent fit