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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

#81

Post by scrooched_moose »

iagooar wrote: post #50

I work for a German podcast hosting company and what's been happening in podcasting in 2018 here in Germany is pure madness. There's been an explosion of different companies and producers that have gotten into the space, bringing really high-quality content. Also, Spotify grew into the second largest platform bringing in a lot of fresh air and slowly but steadily eating into and breaking up Apple's monopoly. Now we'r…

Offtopic, but do you know of any good German fiction podcasts? I'm looking for something like LeVar Burton Reads in German. I'm somewhere around B1/B2 and trying to improve a little.

I listen to a lot of IQ Wissenschaft und Forschung, but need a bit of variety.

I've had a lot of trouble searching due to localization services.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#82

Post by roywiggins »

BurningFrog wrote: post #62
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'…

Podcasts aren't for reading a prepared text. They're mostly for conversations.

Podcasts are very good for interviews and conversations, which of course can be cleaned up and transcribed but may suffer for it.

There are also audio dramas, audiobooks, documentaries, and so on, that are all tightly scripted and can work very well. Some of them may work just as well as longform text and I guess that's what GP prefers. I enjoy audio documentaries a lot though.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#83

Post by DanTheManPR »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #14

As a long-time podcast listener, I have been steadily reducing my intake of podcasts in recent months. For me, this is largely due to a few annoying trends, such as Podcast A airing an episode of Podcast B, a new offering from the same organization. These crossovers are becoming common, and they are basically very long ads. I am seldom interested, but it's difficult to get them out of the play queue, especially while…

I've been reducing my intake as well, after more than a decade of listening to 4+ hours a day worth of podcasts (and still having to skip episodes because I was subscribed to so many).

Podcasts nowadays tend to have way more advertising, long digressions, long intros and credit sequences, more re-runs and crossover episodes. That hasn't happened in a vaccum - the content and production values have gotten a lot more ambitious. A lot of the heavy hitters of modern podcasting have entire staffs dedicated to production, to investigation and research... they have caught up and surpassed radio shows of old, and now are more comparable in scope to a lot of documentary TV shows. Paying for all that has required a very different model of revenue, one that I'm not nearly as interested in consuming.

...but could they even support themselves with a paid subscription model? What's frustrating is that cross-promotion is very effective at increasing subscriber count.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#84

Post by spuz »

protomyth wrote: post #47
spuz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plus, the whole idea What idea are you referring to? The article I read talks about why podcasts are becoming more popular but doesn't present any new idea around advertising (unless I missed it).

the whole idea from the article about buying up all the podcasts ala Netflix. How did you read the article and miss the Spotify part?

As I understand, Spotify podcasts still contain ads. It's not clear from the article that they intend to provide ad free podcasts for a monthly subscription either.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#86

Post by intrasight »

I consume these types of media in order of consumption volume

1. Podcasts 2. The Economist (text and audio) 3. Youtube

Podcast listening dominates. I had started listening to podcasts when I was having trouble sleeping and wanted to stop using drugs (Trazodone) to help me sleep. I still use podcasts for that purpose, but I also now listen to them any time that I am able - like driving or doing chores or yardwork. It's just amazing to have some well-spoken, interesting person or persons in my head while I do something that doesn't require the higher cognitive centers.

My rule for podcasts is quality over quantity - meaning quantity of channels in my app, not quantity of hours consumed. My "binge podcasts" are those by Mike Duncan - "The History of Rome" and "Revolutions". Other favorites are "In our Time". If anyone know of other podcasts of the same quality as those by Mike Duncan, please do share.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#88

Post by blang »

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 problematic for a couple of reasons, but the biggest is that a distribution channel now owns a large content company which could lead to content bubbling. I don't want to have different players for different shows, I want the shows to be available on all players. I believe this is already happening, "Crime town" season 2 is only available on Spotify.

The iHeart purchase might be more troubling. Have you ever noticed that no mater where you are in the US, the radio stations are extremely similar? This has a few reasons, one of which is, that station is probably owned by iHeart (formerly Clear Channel), they own over 400 radio stations are are in virtually every US market [1]. I'm not saying iHeart is evil, but the chance that shows get more homogenous increase when large corporate players have to satisfy shareholders. I'm not sure I can take any more true crime shows.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_owned_b...

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#89

Post by opmac »

intrasight wrote: post #86

I consume these types of media in order of consumption volume 1. Podcasts 2. The Economist (text and audio) 3. Youtube Podcast listening dominates. I had started listening to podcasts when I was having trouble sleeping and wanted to stop using drugs (Trazodone) to help me sleep. I still use podcasts for that purpose, but I also now listen to them any time that I am able - like driving or doing chores or yardwork. It'…

Seems like audio books would be a good addition to your list of media consumption.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#90

Post by maxxxxx »

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.
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