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We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

419 points by andrewacove 8y ago

dontbenebby 8y ago
If anything there's too many good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to. (I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people, I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)
- scottlocklin 8y ago
  I almost never listen to podcasts for this reason, and because it is vastly more efficient to read than it is to listen to a couple of people talking who may or may not be sticking to the topic. It's funny the market effect, if you're, say, John Dolan, it's vastly more time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or 2000 word essay on a topic that nobody wants to pay for. It's kind of interesting the psychology here: people will pay for things which take hours out of their week, but won't pay for the thing which takes 3 minutes to read, even if the 3 minute thing contains more information. From my perspective; the denser information is more valuable!
  - harmegido 8y ago
    it's difficult to read while walking your dog, or making dinner, or doing the dishes, etc. That's the value add of an audio-only format for me.
    - scottlocklin 8y ago
      Doesn't do anything for me; I'd rather listen to music or learn a language if I need to hear noise during such activities.
  - saspiesas 8y ago
    It's worth noting that that's not all types of podcasts. Just like you get radio shows that are talk radio or on a specific subject you get podcasts that are more akin to radio plays, like welcome to night Vale.
  - naravara 8y ago
    You just have to let go of the need to be "caught up" or hear everything. Most podcasts don't really need that much continuity, so the need to listen to them ALL or even the idea of a "backlog" is just FOMO. Think of it more like the old days of broadcast radio or TV. You listened to whatever happened to be on while you were listening and if you didn't hear something. . . who cares it's just entertainment? Most of my podcast subscriptions I listen to only rarely. It's more like a shortlist of channels that have things I might be interested in hearing.
    - chooseaname 8y ago
      I tend not to listen to serial podcasts for this reason (unless traveling and I can binge on the plane).
  - Marsymars 8y ago
    I love reading, but podcasts let me consume knowledge or entertainment during activities where reading isn't possible. That being said, for me, the biggest downside of podcasts is that although I'm willing to pay, there's no easy method of discoverability of high-quality, ad-free podcasts. edit: However, I jump around in media fairly often - I often go months without listening to podcasts, so I have no interest in paying a subscription fee. I just want to pay a per-episode rate and get DRM-free audio files that I can use as I wish.
  - michaelt 8y ago
    Most of the podcasts I listen to are while doing things like exercise and housework that aren't compatible with reading. The podcasts I listen to are all from the BBC, so they're scripted and produced for radio, rather than just being people chatting. Listen to e.g. [1] or [2] and it's all on topic (and being the BBC, ad-free). [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads
    - drcongo 8y ago
      The BBC's Podcasting House podcast [1] is excellent for discovering new, high quality stuff. They play you a single episode (often the first) of a different podcast every week. I've discovered some great shows through it. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads
  - icebraining 8y ago
    > it's vastly more time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or 2000 word essay on a topic I don't know what kind of talks those are, but the podcasters I listen to spend a lot of time researching for the episodes. I'm guessing few people can just ad-lib 90 minutes of interesting stuff every week.
  - roywiggins 8y ago
    You can certainly get a lot of semantic information crammed into a short piece of text, but an interview gives you the cadence of someone's voice, which may be important in its own way. Audio can be very dense, but in ways that aren't strictly linguistic. People also tend to express themselves differently in conversation than they do on the page, and listening to an interview with an interesting person may actually tell you more about them than their writing, or even a cleaned-up version rendered in text. Like, which conveys the situation better, "Oh the humanity" or the audio as recorded (you can in this case ignore the video, which was recorded separately)? https://youtu.be/pUVDmXvXcbk?t=39 https://youtu.be/pUVDmXvXcbk?t=39
- falcolas 8y ago
  Upping the listening speed is the only cure I know of. Quite a few podcasters can be listened to exclusively at up to 2x the normal speed without significant impairment to their content. Of course, some others talk so quickly that 1x is the best you can do.
  - goldemerald 8y ago
    I am one of those people who listens/watches all media at 2x speed. It takes some time to get used to and is nearly impossible without headphones. Some people do talk quickly enough that I can't listen to them while doing any complex activity (e.g. Mike Duncan's revolutions podcast). But most other podcasts aren't scripted, so 2x is easy enough for speakers like Joe Rogan and Dan Carlin.
    - meowface 8y ago
      I personally like to listen to podcasts to relax, zone out, or have some background noise on while I'm working (I work from home). If I were consuming them for informational/educational content, I think this would make sense, but I kind of like them being slower-paced and chill.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  Where do you find them? I keep trying to get into podcasts (tech, computer science, military, history...) but I really struggle. A sea of ancient abandoned shows when I search on my iPhone, seems nothing still running? Where should I be looking?
  - o_____________o 8y ago
    I found a few gems on tastedive.com, soundcloud.com, and iTunes.
  - Marsymars 8y ago
    Why is abandoned a problem? If you're looking for books to read or TV shows to watch, do you avoid "abandoned" series?
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      Well... yeah if they’re about current affairs like the military or the current state of tech. I don’t want to listen about a new fitness test introduced in 2011 that they’ve already replaced, or how they’re asking for feedback on programming language design changes they already made half a decade ago. Also if I get into a podcast and it only has three episodes and then forgotten about I then have to go looking for a new one immediately rather than subscribing and then always having something to listen to.
  - dontbenebby 8y ago
    I don't actually listen to many tech podcasts - instead I use them to get news/politics to cut down on mindless browsing. NYT The Daily and NPR's Up First podcast can get you up to speed while doing all your daily hygiene stuff. And NPR's weekly politics roundup is good. If you like history "Futility Closet" has a lot of good esoteric history stuff. Reply All is eclectic and fun. Radiolab has good hard science stuff. Hidden Brain is more social sciences oriented.
  - dgritsko 8y ago
    The Podcasts subreddit (https://reddit.com/r/podcasts https://reddit.com/r/podcasts) is full of recommendations. I also use PocketCasts, which has a "Discover" feature that I have used from time to time. Lastly, I've heard of several podcasts via word of mouth from other friends.
- lawlessone 8y ago
  What music do you listen to?
protomyth 8y ago
So, how is this different from the previous attempts to turn unpaid podcasts into paid podcasts? Given the amount of content in the podcast space, people seem to find other shows. Plus, the whole idea really suffers when you talk about people like Joe Rogan or any other big name. They can get money from advertisers themselves. We see some of this with YouTube and how "networks" are working or not working. An honest business person willing to create a low-overhead agency to hook creators up with sponsors would probably go far. This whole thing reminds me of the MC Hammer story about the economics of a record deal versus selling records out of the trunk of his car.
- spuz 8y ago
  > 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).
  - michaelt 8y ago
    The parts between "Despite many attempts, there has never been a Netflix of podcasts" and "Spotify will spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring podcasts" Seems to me, that either means the Netflix model - exclusive content, paywalled, $$ monthly subscription - or the Spotify model - mandatory account, free subscription with ads or $$ for ad free.
  - protomyth 8y ago
    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?
    - spuz 8y ago
      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.
dzohrob 8y ago
Cofounder of Chartable here, happy to answer any questions. And, if you're looking for podcast recommendations, I recently analyzed 522 recommendations from 25 different critics' best-of lists to find the best of the best podcasts of 2018, also on the blog: https://chartable.com/blog/the-best-podcasts-of-2018 https://chartable.com/blog/the-best-podcasts-of-2018
DamnInteresting 8y ago
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 driving. As a long-time independent podcast creator, it feels as though the field is becoming saturated, making it nearly impossible for a podcast to stand out without the backing of a major podcast network. It is reminiscent of the tipping point of blogs, where the quirky ecosystem of offerings mostly congealed. That change was good for advertisers and a few big content companies, but detrimental to the diversity of content.
- jccalhoun 8y ago
  Oh I HATE the trend of corporate podcasts shoving episodes of other shows into their feed. I look forward to a new episode of the show I like only to start it and hear some other show. A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. I guess someone told them that missing weeks is bad so they just put a rerun in. Ugh.
  - DamnInteresting 8y ago
    Agreed, re-runs are another annoyance that is driving me away from many podcasts. The concept is an obsolete relic of broadcasting.
    - scott_s 8y ago
      Yes, which is why I forgive This American Life for doing it - they pioneered the format that many podcasts follow, and TAL started on, and is still broadcast on, radio.
  - scriptkiddy 8y ago
    > A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. "Stuff you should know" and "Stuff to blow your mind" do this. However, they sprinkle these in once a week and still release their normal 2 new episodes per week. It kind of makes sense for these shows since they have a massive back log and the nature of the subject matter is not really time sensitive.
spuz 8y ago
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 listener of lots of podcasts without having to deal with the hassle of managing your data storage.
- dgritsko 8y ago
  This is a good point. Desktop/web clients have existed for a while, but I find that I listen to probably 90% of my podcasts on my smartphone. Prior to owning a phone with a large amount of storage, I just didn't really listen to podcasts (at least nowhere near the amount that I am now).
  - rhinoceraptor 8y ago
    There was a sort of golden infancy period for podcasts, where if you had a iPod you could fit a ton of them on the spinning drive.
  - ehsankia 8y ago
    I would never listen to podcast sitting at my computer. 100% of my podcast listening is done while doing chores, walking or taking transit. That's why the rise of smartphones were crucial for the golden age of podcast.
- dzohrob 8y ago
  This is a _really_ good point! I'm trying to find some data on this right now... might have to dig through e.g. Apple's previous phone releases to see trends over time.
- Kye 8y ago
  This is it. I downloaded every episode of LeVar Burton Reads earlier this week. Over 2GB on top of the 400MB from the other handful I subscribe to. My last phone would complain about insufficient space long before now.
Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
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've tried a few times. The podcast is very well done, but each one is about an hour long. I'd much rather have it as a blog post where I can skim through to find the pieces that interest me. They've gotten a little better with their episode descriptions where they tell you what topics they are talking about and when they start, but it's only a minor improvement. Podcasts are also completely inaccessible to search engines. If I want to find the podcast where they talked about an interesting thing that I want to revisit, and it's not in the episode description, it's basically lost forever.
- Naga 8y ago
  You're right, text is a much better medium. However, at least for me, I listen to podcasts at work mostly, or when I am doing something physical like dishes, where reading is impossible (or impractical).
- bitlax 8y ago
  You listen to podcasts like you listen to the radio: when you're driving, doing chores, working out, etc.
  - Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
    I think this is part of my problem. Radio was never really a thing in my childhood, so it's not a big part of my adulthood either. Other than driving in the car, or as an alternative to the TV announcers when hockey was on, my family never had the radio on or music playing. I do listen to music on the bus, but podcasts are too much of a challenge since they're competing with all the other noise around me.
    - rchaud 8y ago
socrates1998 8y ago
I love podcasts. As a self-employed person who needs some light distraction but can't walk to a water cooler and just kill some time, they are perfect. I tried going back to the radio yesterday for a moment and almost threw up with the quality. Not sure if a "Netflix for podcasts" would work. Unless ad money dries up because advertisers think people skip them too much, then I am not sure what the advantage would be. I do skip some of the commercials, but I feel like enough get through to make worth their while. I have legitimately bought stuff because of them. I saw an article about how much Joe Rogan's podcast makes and it was insane, over tens of millions of dollars per year. The guy does zero advertising and probably has less than 5 people working on it. Fucking ridiculous.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  The stuff Rogan advertises is so bizarre. It has been a couple of weeks since I listened to him, but the one I can remember best was some sort of payment app that supposedly paid the user to use the app. Then there have been various AM-radio-type "nutritional" products. Maybe mainstream firms don't want to be associated with him, but how do the goofballs he advertises come up with 8 figures every year?
  - socrates1998 8y ago
    The Cash App is very popular with working class people, which is a huge audience with Rogan. It's always in the top five finance apps. But, yeah, some of the shit he has advertised is off the wall.
  - meowface 8y ago
    The Cash App is made by Square and they probably pay him a lot. And you'd be surprised how much money pseudo-pharmaceuticals like Alpha Brain can make. They usually put tiny amounts of different compounds (legitimate compounds, but below their effectiveness thresholds) into each capsule. Their marginal cost is very low, and they sell at extreme markup.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    Its's always super strange from the UK reader on the BBC hearing the host stop then do an add break live themselves.
jccalhoun 8y ago
I hope that this leads to better podcast discovery. The categories on things like pocketcasts are way too broad. For example, go into the news & politics category and there are tons of true crime podcasts. I don't care about true crime. I just want to hear the news or political talk. In education there are tons of language learning shows and self-help garbage.
- ehsankia 8y ago
  Absolutely. This is why I was hopeful at Google entering the Podcast scene. I was hoping they would use the large amount of data to push podcast recommendations forward. I have yet to see anyone really doing anything like that, taking your list of subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new ones. Seems like a trivial and extremely useful service to provide.
  - BuschnicK 8y ago
    > taking your list of subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new ones Google Podcasts does exactly that.
burger_moon 8y ago
I'm a huge consumer of podcasts, almost entirely comedy podcasts, which are just comedians bs'ing for a couple hours about nothing. However I watch all of them on Youtube, they all record the podcast with video and upload them. I find it to be a much better experience being able to see the person and many use the video aspect to pull up images and video. I guess it's basically just watching tv at that poi I've even started my own yt channel to comment on these podcasts because I enjoy it so much. Plus there's so much content being created there's always something to talk about.
iagooar 8y ago
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're all kind of wondering what's gonna happen next after the acquisition of Gimlet and Anchor. If this isn't the Golden Age of podcasts yet, we're sure pretty close.
- scrooched_moose 8y ago
  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.
  - 0XAFFE 8y ago
    There is https://fyyd.de/charts 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_hoerspielspeicher150.html https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/hoerspiel-speicher/wdr_h... ?
    - scrooched_moose 8y ago
      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!
      - 0XAFFE 8y ago
        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.
king_magic 8y ago
Are we? Podcasts are pretty overwhelming - there’s so many of them, it’s so hard to catch up, and I’m so tired of Blue Apron ads read by the hosts of podcasts. Personally, I’ve pretty much stopped listening to anything outside of NPR One, which does an okay-to-pretty-good job of simplifying the experience of listening to podcasts (at least aligned to NPR). Even then the ads are super annoying.
- scriptkiddy 8y ago
  The ads may be annoying, but consider that ad reads in podcasts are a much more ethical and sustainable advertising model than almost any other model out there. In addition, ad read time takes up at most 5% of the total run time of your average podcast. People who do podcasts as a living or companies where podcasts are their primary revenue source need to make money somehow. Take How Stuff Works for instance. They have some great informational podcasts like "Stuff you Should Know", "Stuff to Blow your Mind", "Stuff they don't want you to know", and "Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe". These podcasts cover very interesting, and sometimes, very important topics. How stuff works makes their money from selling ad reads in their podcasts and ad space on their blog. They are providing a valuable service and paying people to literally do nothing but research and produce podcasts. These people need to get paid. My point is, while nobody actually likes ads, the model which podcasts employ is at least tolerable; especially when compared to something like ads on Youtube.
  - mrweasel 8y ago
    The most inspiring form of monetization in podcasting currently comes from Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Their No Agenda podcast is "value for value", where the fans contribute. They have actually been debating the Gimlet purchase, and have apparently turned down a similar offer. I think both Curry and Dvorak are right when they say that you can actually hear the distaste for reading the ads, and that only very few people are able to do it well. The concept of value for value put forward by No Agenda is fantastic, there's no fixed price, no paywall, but you are encouraged to donate. I can't explain it as beautifully as Adam Curry, but the gist of it is: What value did you derive from listing? Was it $5, $10 or maybe $100 dollars, then please donate that amount. I also think there's a point to his idea that people love being mentioned during the donation segment of the show. It not clear how much Curry and Dvorak make from No Agenda, but I have the feeling that it much more than they care to admit. Sort of an aside: The audio quality of No Agenda is in my opinion the very best in podcasting. Even much bigger productions, with more resources and better equipment sound much worse.
schnevets 8y ago
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 only categorize by topic. I'll listen to something very different on a 5 hour car ride than I would on a 15 minute walk with my dog (beyond something "Comedy" instead of "News") Most listeners see Apple Podcasts as "good enough", but I find it confusing, and other applications follow the same approach with one or two "tweaks" that are not worth sacrificing features or adjusting to a new UI. I'm still optimistic that Spotify can get their act together (since they have the resources and incentive), but they haven't done anything dazzling since quietly adding a podcast section years ago. It severely limits the capabilities of the medium, and yet no one seems to think anything is wrong. I understand this structure is a result of RSS serving as the backbone of "podcatchers", but everyone would benefit from a bit of lateral thinking.
- emerongi 8y ago
  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 capability, which ends up making my life a lot easier since I don't listen to podcasts on just a single device. I think ultimately there is still space for another podcast player that is not built for dummies and offers a wide range of features on multiple platforms. Nothing like that exists, as far as I know.
  - schnevets 8y ago
    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.
bane 8y ago
One of the things that seems really interesting to me is how personal podcasts seem to be to listeners. People really spend time custom curating their lists. Many of the problems with podcasts pointed out below don't bother me in the least, but its because of what I tend to listen to, whereas I have entirely different problems I don't see reflected in anybody else's issues. I think this really speaks to how customizable people's listening habits and needs are. For example, I mostly listen to podcasts when doing dishes and cooking. And I focus on topics that don't really have a timeliness component, so it doesn't matter if the podcast doesn't release new episodes or I discover it years late.
api 8y ago
Podcasting is probably the closest thing right now to the authenticity, diversity, and creativity of the early web. There's a massive diversity of podcasts out there on every subject and even many of the purely amateur ones are of very high quality.
- intrasight 8y ago
  My feelings exactly! So much great stuff covering every subject.
- teekert 8y ago
  I agree wholeheartedly! With my podcasts I feel I know the hosts, I look forward to the content, they may have ads but they pick them to match the content and they are still honest about the products they present in those ads. I don't know what it is, but it feels much more personal (I mainly listen to Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts (no more ads since recently) and some related ones but also Twit and NoAgenda (no ads at all) from time to time. Looking very much forward to the continuation of Stephen Fry's Great Leap Years... I even feel personal interest in the lives of the hosts. Some I've been listening to for over a decade.
deleted 8y ago
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intrasight 8y ago
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.
- opmac 8y ago
  Seems like audio books would be a good addition to your list of media consumption.
- athrun 8y ago
  Note that you can add The Economist's audio feed to your Podcast app. So your 1 and 2 can be the same :)
Causality1 8y ago
There's a lot more content out there now but the ratio of content to advertising has absolutely plummeted. Good for podcasters bad for listeners.
blang 8y ago
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_by_iHeartMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_owned_b...
- intrasight 8y ago
  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.
  - temporalparts 8y ago
    I'm sure you can find some consistently bad quality content out there.
  - jedberg 8y ago
    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.
    - 8y ago
blfr 8y ago
I remember listening to EconTalk back when you downloaded it to your mp3 player using a computer. And maybe I'm a hipster but the golden age seems to be over. It's all too mainstream now, too polished, too polite. Nowadays, I scroll through the multiple new episodes of many shows I used to enjoy to rarely find something I genuinely want to hear. Sure, you can probably dig to something like Cum Town but even then it doesn't feel fresh any more. It's the same with binge watching TV (mentioned in the OP). Much more fun when you pirated the show, when it wasn't intended than when you're just some engagement metric. I haven't binge watched a TV show in at least three years. Also, Google already had a podcasting app once (Google Listen?). I remember using it in like 2012.
- icebraining 8y ago
  I agree that the commercialization has been sucking the air out of interesting "homemade" podcasts. On the other hand, I think the higher popularity has been helping some independent podcasters justify the time they spend on it (some can even make a living from it, like Mike Duncan).
- neetdeth 8y ago
  There's now a glut of overproduced, samey content trying to compete as timewasters for a general audience. It feels like browsing through mass market paperbacks at the supermarket. I think we're in a golden age if you're interested in fringe politics. Otherwise, we're well past it and on the decline.
- toasted 8y ago
  fellow econtalk/cumtown (well more red scare) listener here.. The latest feed refresh used to make me feel "Wow how will I have time to listen to all of these!" whereas now its "God do I really want to listen to any of these." I guess previously we were all starved of interesting long form conversations (or socialist edgelords) but now we're reasonably satiated and like anything else it has to be good to hold our attention. I still find a good econtalk pod is one of my greatest pleasures - russ & munger episodes particularly.
  - 8y ago
meowface 8y ago
For anyone who isn't aware of it, the YC podcast is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1... A few episodes I liked: Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=102 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-uHSnFig... Office Hours with Michael Seibel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=86 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH... Peter Reinhardt on Finding Product Market Fit at Segment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=89 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH...
EamonnMR 8y ago
We already entered it. Serial was the tipping point - a crime podcast with NPR quality production, got hugely popular, people who didn't even like podcasts where talking about it. Also, Gimlet media's production quality is very high.
samstave 8y ago
I love falling asleep to Jo Rogan Podcasts. Also - to his credit, what I like about Joe Rogan, is that he brings on smart people and just is inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them, treats them with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity...
- asteli 8y ago
  That quality of an interviewer is something that not all podcast hosts have. I find that if an interviewer is a trained journalist (i.e. Ira Glass), they do ask questions from a point of curiosity, even if they know the answer. Contrast to someone like Dax Shepard, or in some cases Sam Harris, where they may monologue during an interview, or basically try to interject knowledge or anecdotes to prove they know the material. Harris I can deal with, and to his credit he will sometimes shut up and let the guest talk (e.g. Harris interviewing Zeynep Tufekci). I had to turn Shepard's podcast off after about 10 minutes.
- andrewstuart 8y ago
  >> inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them, treats them with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity... spot on - this is what I like about Joe Rogan podcasts too. Most interviewers can't help talking or interrupting, just when the interviewee was about to say something interesting.
tokyodude 8y ago
There is practically no podcast market in Japan yet and with an average commute of 80 minutes it seems like it's ripe for someone to make something happen.
- Sargos 8y ago
  That's when they sleep so it might be hard to break into that market.
rhacker 8y ago
I have a serious question: For those of you that like podcasts, did your usage go way down (or even stop) when you got married? I listened to them all the time back in the day, but mostly because they were tech oriented. For husband / wife activities only video/youtube/netflix seem to work. Is there any notion that Podcasts are better for people not in relationship thing? I mean you have to either play it for the house or listen on your headphones and it just doesn't make sense to try to tune out the wife for multiple hours. Also my favorite podcast, Java Posse is done anyway. It's weird to actually hear someone calling this the golden age when it was, for me, 10 years ago of listening to them non-stop.
- torinmr 8y ago
  Not married, but in a long-term relationship living with my partner. I listen to them while commuting to work or while doing household chores, and consistently get through 4+ hours/week of podcasts. I don't find my listening habits change that much when I'm alone, as either way I tend to only listen to them while I'm engaged in some other activity. (When I have completely free time I prefer more interactive activities like games or music.)
- sotojuan 8y ago
  Not married but live with my partner for almost 3 years. I listen to podcasts with headphones on at work especially when doing chores. No complaints, though I'm also not doing it 24/7. I've never thought of podcasts as something to do with someone else . Guess it depends on your relationship?
- rsanheim 8y ago
  I've been listening to podcasts for something like 15 years, since early days of TWiT & Java Posse, but I think my usage has remained the same over that time when I've been in long term relationships. My current partner and I will listen to more 'general' podcasts when we are both in the car - so things like This American Life, Akimbo, Heavyweight, How I Built This, or Dan Carlin's HH and Common Sense. When I'm driving or walking around solo, I'll listen to more tech / niche things. Podcasts like the Accidental Tech Podcast, Ruby / React / startup type things, etc. There is honestly so much good content out there that my 'to-listen' queues in Overcast are overflowing for both types of listening.
zhynn 8y ago
If Radiotopia sells out to a conglomerate or publisher, I will be extremely sad. And I am worried that I will eventually need N different apps to listen to the podcasts I like instead of just one. I don't like where this is headed. :(
driverdan 8y ago
While I agree there are plenty of great podcasts out there, I disagree with some of the things in the article. > When Netflix moved into streaming, they invested billions of dollars into original programming, helping usher in the “New Golden Age of Television” The current age of TV started long before Netflix moved to original content. This is not a model anyone should want to see in podcasts. Closed wall content is bad for everyone. > For listeners, there will be more amazing shows of all kinds. More media companies will invest in creating quality long-form audio. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. I listen to and enjoy some expensive, high production corporate podcasts. But I greatly prefer independent podcasts. So many corporate ones are overproduced (eg Radio Lab) or are full of ads, begging for money, cross promotions, and other non-content (eg 99% Invisible). I'm concerned that high budget shows will push out high quality indie shows and make them harder to find. > Spotify will create more exclusive content to aggregate and retain listeners. This is terrible for everyone except Spotify. Closed wall content is bad for everyone. Despite being a paid Spotify user I will not listen to any Spotify exclusives. If you become a Spotify exclusive you're dead to me.
- jacobmoe 8y ago
  > Closed wall content is bad for everyone. You said that twice. It's not bad for subscribers. There's a good argument to be made that ad-driven content is bad for everyone. In fact there's an argument to be made that ad-driven content is ushering in the end of the world. Who was it that said "we're building dystopia to maximize clicks." If you pay for your media, you at least know what the product really is.
  - driverdan 8y ago
    > You said that twice. Yes, intentionally. > There's a good argument to be made that ad-driven content is bad for everyone. No disagreement here. I donate to independent podcasts directly. They get 100% of the money. Many of them have no ads or two versions, one that's free with ads or one that's paid with no ads. It's the best of both worlds.
    - 8y ago
stupandaus 8y ago
The writer made a pretty common finance misunderstanding mistake here: "That may change soon: Spotify bought Gimlet Media, a premium podcast studio, and Anchor, a podcast hosting platform, for $340 million earlier this month. That's a lot of money for an industry that was sized at just $314 million in 2017." Gimlet Media's $340M price tag reflects enterprise value which bakes in future cash flows, while the industry market size of $314M is reflective of estimated revenues in 2017. Apples and oranges.
subjoriented 8y ago
I started listening to "Serial", "This American Life", "Hardcore History" and a large number of other programs. Podcasts are generally easier to consume, reconsume, and schedule. That said, recently (several years) I've moved off of podcasts because there was a surge of podcast content, and no good mechanism to find quality programs. That and I was never able to find consistently good podcast software.
wenbin 8y ago
Podcasts are ubiquitous. There are high quality productions like shows from gimlet media. But most podcasts are more like twitter / Instagram accounts. Podcast becomes a channel for marketing (companies) or self expression (individuals) or exploring some kind of long tailed interests. There’s strong demand of accessing podcast contents from listeners, pr agencies, ads agencies, app developers, teachers & students in k12 schools. Ps, if you want to build a podcast app or a service that needs to access podcasts, you can try out our API: https://www.listennotes.com/api/ https://www.listennotes.com/api/
- baby_wipe 8y ago
  I'm building an app on listennotes right now. It's a fantastic API and wenbin provides amazing support!
wenbin 8y ago
If you want to explore what podcasts are out there, try Listen Notes, a podcast search engine I built https://www.listennotes.com https://www.listennotes.com You would be surprised how many unknown but interesting podcasts on the Internet :)
- baby_wipe 8y ago
  +1 for the ListenNotes API. Easily better than anything else out there.
- mercer 8y ago
  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 :).
djhworld 8y ago
I have my regular podcasts that I listen to pretty much every week and some others that I dip in and out of. I just hope podcasts don't fall to the walled gardens, it's already happening with Spotify, BBC Sounds etc. They hate the idea of RSS
chrxr 8y ago
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-demographic-research-shows-who-really-listens-to-podcasts/ https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/new-demo...
- alexhutcheson 8y ago
  Teenagers mostly don't have long commutes, which is where a lot of podcast listening seems to happen.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    There's also much less content for teenagers. Not all of them are interested in politics or news, for example, which rules out a significant portion of podcasts.
rchaud 8y ago
The golden age has arrived, but for content aggregators and shovel-peddlers. Aggregators like Spotify will buy up popular podcasts and start setting their revenue percentages on the basis of "attention" or some other engagement metric, that will eventually lead to podcasts diluting their content to appeal to the largest possible base. It's already happened to their playlists. The shovel-peddlers will be the usual ebook/video course sellers pitching the 2010s version of "How to blog your way to millions", but for podcasts.
jotjotzzz 8y ago
Really? It felt like the golden age of podcast was a decade ago. I haven't listened to podcasts in a while. With YouTube premium, you can just listen or watch YT videos instead, so maybe it's golden age for videocasts?
- Dowwie 8y ago
  Joe Rogan said that roughly half of his audience is watching his videocasts rather than listening to his podcasts
iamwil 8y ago
> But unlike text-based news and blogs, which have gone through waves of centralization and disruption thanks to Facebook and Google, the podcast industry has remained stubbornly decentralized. Anyone know why podcasting has remained stubbornly decentralized? What are the market forces that lead this to happen?
drdeadringer 8y ago
Tech Dirt recently dropped a podcast episode about podcasting. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techdirt-podcast-episode-200-big-business-podcasting.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techd...
b3b0p 8y ago
I feel, at least for me, the golden age of podcasts is over already. There was the early [0] Retronauts the new Patreon/Kickstarter version is only same in name. Then there was the [1] 1up Yours. All the hosts, co-hosts, and popular regular guests have moved on. Then there was the epic [2] A Life Well Wasted by Robert Ashley. This is absolutely superb. The only podcasts of similar I listen to now are Giant Bombcast and 8-4 Play. I miss the good old days. I've tried to branch out to other topics and areas, but podcasts are my way of escaping and thinking and listening to something else outside work and study. I have actually started to go back through these and re-listen to them. They are timeless. I have a friend who does the same. [0] https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100 https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100 [1] https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-preservation.90181/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-preservation.90... [2] http://alifewellwasted.com/ http://alifewellwasted.com/
- scott_s 8y ago
  We match up well in when we started listening to podcasts, and what we listened to. But I still love Retronauts! I still like the more discussion-oriented episodes that mix deep insights along with personal experiences, but I'm still impressed by the consistent quality.
- tnecniv 8y ago
  At least GB puts out so much content I don't have time for another podcast...
- JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
  ymmv, but Cane & Rinse might be worth a try. Have about 350 episodes, each focusing on a single older game. The hosts are usually a lot more focused on talking about their memories of the games than trying to be entertaining (there's a lot of wannabe comedians in the videogaming podcast sphere ime). Only thing that seems a potential big issue with Cane and Rinse is that it's UK based but tbh I'd assume the lack of a fixation on NES would be a breath of fresh air compared to other podcasts The Jeremy Parish led episodes of Retronauts with Benj Edwards have been really good in recent times too, very informative.
godelmachine 8y ago
Which podcast will help me improve my communication skills? Especially listening and speaking?
ProAm 8y ago
I disagree, I think we have reached peak Podcast and are now entering the walled garden, possibly over-sponsored/advertised age of Podcasts.
pmart123 8y ago
This could be a dumb question, but is there any service that lets you: 1. Bookmark a time in a podcast 2. Highlight/tag a section or snippet 3. Contextually search for phrases or words in a podcast ?
- elwesties 8y ago
  Overcast (iOS app) does the first of your points.
  - pmart123 8y ago
    Awesome. Thanks. I'll check it out.
blunte 8y ago
There's simply no way that "23-25% of US adults listen to podcasts daily or a few times a week."
lbacaj 8y ago
I believe behind much of this success with Podcasts is that we are actually entering a golden age for Audio content that isn’t music. So I don’t think this is limited to just podcasts but podcasts are riding this wave. I think the Apple AirPods, gaining extreme popularity and removing so much friction, the home speakers and the incredibly busy lives of people today all make audio easier to consume while doing other things. I think we will see more and more interesting content in this space and it’s not limited to Podcasts or Audio books. I think we may even get to a point where we see audio go viral, which has never happened to my knowledge. As an example of alternate sources for gaining knowledge on the go, and a little self promotion, I have built an App that uses AI/ML models to read any article to you. You check it out here at https://articulu.com https://articulu.com Generally I’m incredibly motivated by the non music Audio space and I think there will be even more interesting things coming.
m3kw9 8y ago
I think is a bit over hyped looking at just the extra time you have and use that to listen to podcasts: driving, gym on the go. But if you have choice between that and the other medium it compete against a for you attention, it isn’t a win as they hype sugggests
40acres 8y ago
HN is fully of early adopter types so I'm not surprised to see the pessimism about the future of podcasts but this industry still has a long ways to go. Podcasting will probably never be as big as video (streaming, TV, YouTube, etc.) but it's a natural 21st century transition for radio to make. Podcasts have the same advantage as Spotify and Netflix in the sense that programming is not limited to a specific radio station or a specific time. The medium is also diverse enough to support a wide array of content. The worst thing about podcasts is the ad reads, but with the right platform I'm sure it will get better. Another criticism is that many "professional" podcast are edited with the same cloth, they have that "NPR hipster" feel with a banjo and some strings in the background. But as more podcasts come up this too will be remedied.
ryanmcbride 8y ago
I'm terrified that Stamps, MeUndies, and SquareSpace will go out of business and all podcasts will be left with no stream of revenue. /s
atoav 8y ago
The golden age of podcasts is now, from here on I predict much much corparate efforts to destroy the free and decentralized thing the podcast scene is compared to other media. Relatively little ads, relative many people self hosting, very direct connections between producers and listeners, not limited by my Plattform or patent – from now on it is going downhill.
avar 8y ago
I've been a dedicated podcast listener for years, but have recently started to shift towards a larger portion of books on Audible instead where I'd previously listen only to podcasts. I wish I'd have done so earlier, at some point you start bottoming out on the depth podcasts on a given topic can give you.
dweekly 8y ago
Crazy idea, but what if Twitter spun off a subsidiary called Odeo to capitalize on this novel trend‽
mukeshsoni 8y ago
My guess is most people will end us listening to a lot of rehashed mediocre stuff. People will get addicted to listening to random conversations and won't even know what else to do. It will be like twitter but without any feedback mechanism. It will replace people's song listening time with a less melodic medium. Scary.
ahje 8y ago
Honest question here: How do you guys get the time/focus to listen to podcasts? I can't focus on people talking while doing something else so I either have to put down whatever I am doing in order to listen, or I'll miss most of what is being said. Maybe it's just me?
- kaolti 8y ago
  It's not just you, we're just half-assing both.
- selckin 8y ago
  There are a lot of daily activities that don't require your full attention - commuting (driving, bicycle, public transport) - getting ready for work (shower, getting dressed) - cooking, eating - laundry, dishes, vacuuming, ... - shopping - gardening - exercise/working out - ...
- tasuki 8y ago
  For me, long walks. I get a little exercise and fresh air. My sister listens to audio books while doing housework. As the article mentions, many people listen while driving.
billpg 8y ago
Time was, you had to be very careful where you hosted your RSS files because there were so many badly written players that polled the website every few seconds without any caching. Is this still the case?
- adambyrtek 8y ago
  I guess CDNs and services like S3 made it a non-issue.
k__ 8y ago
Somehow I never found podcasts interesting. I was special guest in one last year and liked to talk, but I never liked listening to them.
ceceshao1 8y ago
I'm truly grateful for podcasts as a medium where I can learn something and not have to stare at a screen anymore
c4dna 8y ago
The number of podcast creators keeps increasing, and with that, they are getting harder and harder to find, even the ones you already know. The search tools and search directories need more advanced search options.

419 points by andrewacove 8y ago

If anything there's too many good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to. (I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people, I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)

scottlocklin 8y ago
I almost never listen to podcasts for this reason, and because it is vastly more efficient to read than it is to listen to a couple of people talking who may or may not be sticking to the topic. It's funny the market effect, if you're, say, John Dolan, it's vastly more time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or 2000 word essay on a topic that nobody wants to pay for. It's kind of interesting the psychology here: people will pay for things which take hours out of their week, but won't pay for the thing which takes 3 minutes to read, even if the 3 minute thing contains more information. From my perspective; the denser information is more valuable!
- harmegido 8y ago
  it's difficult to read while walking your dog, or making dinner, or doing the dishes, etc. That's the value add of an audio-only format for me.
  - scottlocklin 8y ago
    Doesn't do anything for me; I'd rather listen to music or learn a language if I need to hear noise during such activities.
- saspiesas 8y ago
  It's worth noting that that's not all types of podcasts. Just like you get radio shows that are talk radio or on a specific subject you get podcasts that are more akin to radio plays, like welcome to night Vale.
- naravara 8y ago
  You just have to let go of the need to be "caught up" or hear everything. Most podcasts don't really need that much continuity, so the need to listen to them ALL or even the idea of a "backlog" is just FOMO. Think of it more like the old days of broadcast radio or TV. You listened to whatever happened to be on while you were listening and if you didn't hear something. . . who cares it's just entertainment? Most of my podcast subscriptions I listen to only rarely. It's more like a shortlist of channels that have things I might be interested in hearing.
  - chooseaname 8y ago
    I tend not to listen to serial podcasts for this reason (unless traveling and I can binge on the plane).
- Marsymars 8y ago
  I love reading, but podcasts let me consume knowledge or entertainment during activities where reading isn't possible. That being said, for me, the biggest downside of podcasts is that although I'm willing to pay, there's no easy method of discoverability of high-quality, ad-free podcasts. edit: However, I jump around in media fairly often - I often go months without listening to podcasts, so I have no interest in paying a subscription fee. I just want to pay a per-episode rate and get DRM-free audio files that I can use as I wish.
- michaelt 8y ago
  Most of the podcasts I listen to are while doing things like exercise and housework that aren't compatible with reading. The podcasts I listen to are all from the BBC, so they're scripted and produced for radio, rather than just being people chatting. Listen to e.g. [1] or [2] and it's all on topic (and being the BBC, ad-free). [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads
  - drcongo 8y ago
    The BBC's Podcasting House podcast [1] is excellent for discovering new, high quality stuff. They play you a single episode (often the first) of a different podcast every week. I've discovered some great shows through it. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads
- icebraining 8y ago
  > it's vastly more time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or 2000 word essay on a topic I don't know what kind of talks those are, but the podcasters I listen to spend a lot of time researching for the episodes. I'm guessing few people can just ad-lib 90 minutes of interesting stuff every week.
- roywiggins 8y ago
  You can certainly get a lot of semantic information crammed into a short piece of text, but an interview gives you the cadence of someone's voice, which may be important in its own way. Audio can be very dense, but in ways that aren't strictly linguistic. People also tend to express themselves differently in conversation than they do on the page, and listening to an interview with an interesting person may actually tell you more about them than their writing, or even a cleaned-up version rendered in text. Like, which conveys the situation better, "Oh the humanity" or the audio as recorded (you can in this case ignore the video, which was recorded separately)? https://youtu.be/pUVDmXvXcbk?t=39 https://youtu.be/pUVDmXvXcbk?t=39
falcolas 8y ago
Upping the listening speed is the only cure I know of. Quite a few podcasters can be listened to exclusively at up to 2x the normal speed without significant impairment to their content. Of course, some others talk so quickly that 1x is the best you can do.
- goldemerald 8y ago
  I am one of those people who listens/watches all media at 2x speed. It takes some time to get used to and is nearly impossible without headphones. Some people do talk quickly enough that I can't listen to them while doing any complex activity (e.g. Mike Duncan's revolutions podcast). But most other podcasts aren't scripted, so 2x is easy enough for speakers like Joe Rogan and Dan Carlin.
  - meowface 8y ago
    I personally like to listen to podcasts to relax, zone out, or have some background noise on while I'm working (I work from home). If I were consuming them for informational/educational content, I think this would make sense, but I kind of like them being slower-paced and chill.
chrisseaton 8y ago
Where do you find them? I keep trying to get into podcasts (tech, computer science, military, history...) but I really struggle. A sea of ancient abandoned shows when I search on my iPhone, seems nothing still running? Where should I be looking?
- o_____________o 8y ago
  I found a few gems on tastedive.com, soundcloud.com, and iTunes.
- Marsymars 8y ago
  Why is abandoned a problem? If you're looking for books to read or TV shows to watch, do you avoid "abandoned" series?
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    Well... yeah if they’re about current affairs like the military or the current state of tech. I don’t want to listen about a new fitness test introduced in 2011 that they’ve already replaced, or how they’re asking for feedback on programming language design changes they already made half a decade ago. Also if I get into a podcast and it only has three episodes and then forgotten about I then have to go looking for a new one immediately rather than subscribing and then always having something to listen to.
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  I don't actually listen to many tech podcasts - instead I use them to get news/politics to cut down on mindless browsing. NYT The Daily and NPR's Up First podcast can get you up to speed while doing all your daily hygiene stuff. And NPR's weekly politics roundup is good. If you like history "Futility Closet" has a lot of good esoteric history stuff. Reply All is eclectic and fun. Radiolab has good hard science stuff. Hidden Brain is more social sciences oriented.
- dgritsko 8y ago
  The Podcasts subreddit (https://reddit.com/r/podcasts https://reddit.com/r/podcasts) is full of recommendations. I also use PocketCasts, which has a "Discover" feature that I have used from time to time. Lastly, I've heard of several podcasts via word of mouth from other friends.
lawlessone 8y ago
What music do you listen to?

protomyth 8y ago

So, how is this different from the previous attempts to turn unpaid podcasts into paid podcasts? Given the amount of content in the podcast space, people seem to find other shows. Plus, the whole idea really suffers when you talk about people like Joe Rogan or any other big name. They can get money from advertisers themselves. We see some of this with YouTube and how "networks" are working or not working. An honest business person willing to create a low-overhead agency to hook creators up with sponsors would probably go far. This whole thing reminds me of the MC Hammer story about the economics of a record deal versus selling records out of the trunk of his car.

spuz 8y ago
> 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).
- michaelt 8y ago
  The parts between "Despite many attempts, there has never been a Netflix of podcasts" and "Spotify will spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring podcasts" Seems to me, that either means the Netflix model - exclusive content, paywalled, $$ monthly subscription - or the Spotify model - mandatory account, free subscription with ads or $$ for ad free.
- protomyth 8y ago
  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?
  - spuz 8y ago
    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.

dzohrob 8y ago

Cofounder of Chartable here, happy to answer any questions. And, if you're looking for podcast recommendations, I recently analyzed 522 recommendations from 25 different critics' best-of lists to find the best of the best podcasts of 2018, also on the blog: https://chartable.com/blog/the-best-podcasts-of-2018 https://chartable.com/blog/the-best-podcasts-of-2018

DamnInteresting 8y ago

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 driving. As a long-time independent podcast creator, it feels as though the field is becoming saturated, making it nearly impossible for a podcast to stand out without the backing of a major podcast network. It is reminiscent of the tipping point of blogs, where the quirky ecosystem of offerings mostly congealed. That change was good for advertisers and a few big content companies, but detrimental to the diversity of content.

jccalhoun 8y ago
Oh I HATE the trend of corporate podcasts shoving episodes of other shows into their feed. I look forward to a new episode of the show I like only to start it and hear some other show. A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. I guess someone told them that missing weeks is bad so they just put a rerun in. Ugh.
- DamnInteresting 8y ago
  Agreed, re-runs are another annoyance that is driving me away from many podcasts. The concept is an obsolete relic of broadcasting.
  - scott_s 8y ago
    Yes, which is why I forgive This American Life for doing it - they pioneered the format that many podcasts follow, and TAL started on, and is still broadcast on, radio.
- scriptkiddy 8y ago
  > A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. "Stuff you should know" and "Stuff to blow your mind" do this. However, they sprinkle these in once a week and still release their normal 2 new episodes per week. It kind of makes sense for these shows since they have a massive back log and the nature of the subject matter is not really time sensitive.

spuz 8y ago

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 listener of lots of podcasts without having to deal with the hassle of managing your data storage.

dgritsko 8y ago
This is a good point. Desktop/web clients have existed for a while, but I find that I listen to probably 90% of my podcasts on my smartphone. Prior to owning a phone with a large amount of storage, I just didn't really listen to podcasts (at least nowhere near the amount that I am now).
- rhinoceraptor 8y ago
  There was a sort of golden infancy period for podcasts, where if you had a iPod you could fit a ton of them on the spinning drive.
- ehsankia 8y ago
  I would never listen to podcast sitting at my computer. 100% of my podcast listening is done while doing chores, walking or taking transit. That's why the rise of smartphones were crucial for the golden age of podcast.
dzohrob 8y ago
This is a _really_ good point! I'm trying to find some data on this right now... might have to dig through e.g. Apple's previous phone releases to see trends over time.
Kye 8y ago
This is it. I downloaded every episode of LeVar Burton Reads earlier this week. Over 2GB on top of the 400MB from the other handful I subscribe to. My last phone would complain about insufficient space long before now.

Mister_Snuggles 8y ago

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've tried a few times. The podcast is very well done, but each one is about an hour long. I'd much rather have it as a blog post where I can skim through to find the pieces that interest me. They've gotten a little better with their episode descriptions where they tell you what topics they are talking about and when they start, but it's only a minor improvement. Podcasts are also completely inaccessible to search engines. If I want to find the podcast where they talked about an interesting thing that I want to revisit, and it's not in the episode description, it's basically lost forever.

Naga 8y ago
You're right, text is a much better medium. However, at least for me, I listen to podcasts at work mostly, or when I am doing something physical like dishes, where reading is impossible (or impractical).
bitlax 8y ago
You listen to podcasts like you listen to the radio: when you're driving, doing chores, working out, etc.
- Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
  I think this is part of my problem. Radio was never really a thing in my childhood, so it's not a big part of my adulthood either. Other than driving in the car, or as an alternative to the TV announcers when hockey was on, my family never had the radio on or music playing. I do listen to music on the bus, but podcasts are too much of a challenge since they're competing with all the other noise around me.
  - rchaud 8y ago

socrates1998 8y ago

I love podcasts. As a self-employed person who needs some light distraction but can't walk to a water cooler and just kill some time, they are perfect. I tried going back to the radio yesterday for a moment and almost threw up with the quality. Not sure if a "Netflix for podcasts" would work. Unless ad money dries up because advertisers think people skip them too much, then I am not sure what the advantage would be. I do skip some of the commercials, but I feel like enough get through to make worth their while. I have legitimately bought stuff because of them. I saw an article about how much Joe Rogan's podcast makes and it was insane, over tens of millions of dollars per year. The guy does zero advertising and probably has less than 5 people working on it. Fucking ridiculous.

jessaustin 8y ago
The stuff Rogan advertises is so bizarre. It has been a couple of weeks since I listened to him, but the one I can remember best was some sort of payment app that supposedly paid the user to use the app. Then there have been various AM-radio-type "nutritional" products. Maybe mainstream firms don't want to be associated with him, but how do the goofballs he advertises come up with 8 figures every year?
- socrates1998 8y ago
  The Cash App is very popular with working class people, which is a huge audience with Rogan. It's always in the top five finance apps. But, yeah, some of the shit he has advertised is off the wall.
- meowface 8y ago
  The Cash App is made by Square and they probably pay him a lot. And you'd be surprised how much money pseudo-pharmaceuticals like Alpha Brain can make. They usually put tiny amounts of different compounds (legitimate compounds, but below their effectiveness thresholds) into each capsule. Their marginal cost is very low, and they sell at extreme markup.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  Its's always super strange from the UK reader on the BBC hearing the host stop then do an add break live themselves.

jccalhoun 8y ago

I hope that this leads to better podcast discovery. The categories on things like pocketcasts are way too broad. For example, go into the news & politics category and there are tons of true crime podcasts. I don't care about true crime. I just want to hear the news or political talk. In education there are tons of language learning shows and self-help garbage.

ehsankia 8y ago
Absolutely. This is why I was hopeful at Google entering the Podcast scene. I was hoping they would use the large amount of data to push podcast recommendations forward. I have yet to see anyone really doing anything like that, taking your list of subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new ones. Seems like a trivial and extremely useful service to provide.
- BuschnicK 8y ago
  > taking your list of subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new ones Google Podcasts does exactly that.

burger_moon 8y ago

I'm a huge consumer of podcasts, almost entirely comedy podcasts, which are just comedians bs'ing for a couple hours about nothing. However I watch all of them on Youtube, they all record the podcast with video and upload them. I find it to be a much better experience being able to see the person and many use the video aspect to pull up images and video. I guess it's basically just watching tv at that poi I've even started my own yt channel to comment on these podcasts because I enjoy it so much. Plus there's so much content being created there's always something to talk about.

iagooar 8y ago

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're all kind of wondering what's gonna happen next after the acquisition of Gimlet and Anchor. If this isn't the Golden Age of podcasts yet, we're sure pretty close.

scrooched_moose 8y ago
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.
- 0XAFFE 8y ago
  There is https://fyyd.de/charts 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_hoerspielspeicher150.html https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/hoerspiel-speicher/wdr_h... ?
  - scrooched_moose 8y ago
    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!
    - 0XAFFE 8y ago
      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.

king_magic 8y ago

Are we? Podcasts are pretty overwhelming - there’s so many of them, it’s so hard to catch up, and I’m so tired of Blue Apron ads read by the hosts of podcasts. Personally, I’ve pretty much stopped listening to anything outside of NPR One, which does an okay-to-pretty-good job of simplifying the experience of listening to podcasts (at least aligned to NPR). Even then the ads are super annoying.

scriptkiddy 8y ago
The ads may be annoying, but consider that ad reads in podcasts are a much more ethical and sustainable advertising model than almost any other model out there. In addition, ad read time takes up at most 5% of the total run time of your average podcast. People who do podcasts as a living or companies where podcasts are their primary revenue source need to make money somehow. Take How Stuff Works for instance. They have some great informational podcasts like "Stuff you Should Know", "Stuff to Blow your Mind", "Stuff they don't want you to know", and "Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe". These podcasts cover very interesting, and sometimes, very important topics. How stuff works makes their money from selling ad reads in their podcasts and ad space on their blog. They are providing a valuable service and paying people to literally do nothing but research and produce podcasts. These people need to get paid. My point is, while nobody actually likes ads, the model which podcasts employ is at least tolerable; especially when compared to something like ads on Youtube.
- mrweasel 8y ago
  The most inspiring form of monetization in podcasting currently comes from Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Their No Agenda podcast is "value for value", where the fans contribute. They have actually been debating the Gimlet purchase, and have apparently turned down a similar offer. I think both Curry and Dvorak are right when they say that you can actually hear the distaste for reading the ads, and that only very few people are able to do it well. The concept of value for value put forward by No Agenda is fantastic, there's no fixed price, no paywall, but you are encouraged to donate. I can't explain it as beautifully as Adam Curry, but the gist of it is: What value did you derive from listing? Was it $5, $10 or maybe $100 dollars, then please donate that amount. I also think there's a point to his idea that people love being mentioned during the donation segment of the show. It not clear how much Curry and Dvorak make from No Agenda, but I have the feeling that it much more than they care to admit. Sort of an aside: The audio quality of No Agenda is in my opinion the very best in podcasting. Even much bigger productions, with more resources and better equipment sound much worse.

schnevets 8y ago

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 only categorize by topic. I'll listen to something very different on a 5 hour car ride than I would on a 15 minute walk with my dog (beyond something "Comedy" instead of "News") Most listeners see Apple Podcasts as "good enough", but I find it confusing, and other applications follow the same approach with one or two "tweaks" that are not worth sacrificing features or adjusting to a new UI. I'm still optimistic that Spotify can get their act together (since they have the resources and incentive), but they haven't done anything dazzling since quietly adding a podcast section years ago. It severely limits the capabilities of the medium, and yet no one seems to think anything is wrong. I understand this structure is a result of RSS serving as the backbone of "podcatchers", but everyone would benefit from a bit of lateral thinking.

emerongi 8y ago
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 capability, which ends up making my life a lot easier since I don't listen to podcasts on just a single device. I think ultimately there is still space for another podcast player that is not built for dummies and offers a wide range of features on multiple platforms. Nothing like that exists, as far as I know.
- schnevets 8y ago
  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.

bane 8y ago

One of the things that seems really interesting to me is how personal podcasts seem to be to listeners. People really spend time custom curating their lists. Many of the problems with podcasts pointed out below don't bother me in the least, but its because of what I tend to listen to, whereas I have entirely different problems I don't see reflected in anybody else's issues. I think this really speaks to how customizable people's listening habits and needs are. For example, I mostly listen to podcasts when doing dishes and cooking. And I focus on topics that don't really have a timeliness component, so it doesn't matter if the podcast doesn't release new episodes or I discover it years late.

api 8y ago

Podcasting is probably the closest thing right now to the authenticity, diversity, and creativity of the early web. There's a massive diversity of podcasts out there on every subject and even many of the purely amateur ones are of very high quality.

intrasight 8y ago
My feelings exactly! So much great stuff covering every subject.
teekert 8y ago
I agree wholeheartedly! With my podcasts I feel I know the hosts, I look forward to the content, they may have ads but they pick them to match the content and they are still honest about the products they present in those ads. I don't know what it is, but it feels much more personal (I mainly listen to Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts (no more ads since recently) and some related ones but also Twit and NoAgenda (no ads at all) from time to time. Looking very much forward to the continuation of Stephen Fry's Great Leap Years... I even feel personal interest in the lives of the hosts. Some I've been listening to for over a decade.

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intrasight 8y ago

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.

opmac 8y ago
Seems like audio books would be a good addition to your list of media consumption.
athrun 8y ago
Note that you can add The Economist's audio feed to your Podcast app. So your 1 and 2 can be the same :)

Causality1 8y ago

There's a lot more content out there now but the ratio of content to advertising has absolutely plummeted. Good for podcasters bad for listeners.

blang 8y ago

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_by_iHeartMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_owned_b...

intrasight 8y ago
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.
- temporalparts 8y ago
  I'm sure you can find some consistently bad quality content out there.
- jedberg 8y ago
  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.
  - 8y ago

blfr 8y ago

I remember listening to EconTalk back when you downloaded it to your mp3 player using a computer. And maybe I'm a hipster but the golden age seems to be over. It's all too mainstream now, too polished, too polite. Nowadays, I scroll through the multiple new episodes of many shows I used to enjoy to rarely find something I genuinely want to hear. Sure, you can probably dig to something like Cum Town but even then it doesn't feel fresh any more. It's the same with binge watching TV (mentioned in the OP). Much more fun when you pirated the show, when it wasn't intended than when you're just some engagement metric. I haven't binge watched a TV show in at least three years. Also, Google already had a podcasting app once (Google Listen?). I remember using it in like 2012.

icebraining 8y ago
I agree that the commercialization has been sucking the air out of interesting "homemade" podcasts. On the other hand, I think the higher popularity has been helping some independent podcasters justify the time they spend on it (some can even make a living from it, like Mike Duncan).
neetdeth 8y ago
There's now a glut of overproduced, samey content trying to compete as timewasters for a general audience. It feels like browsing through mass market paperbacks at the supermarket. I think we're in a golden age if you're interested in fringe politics. Otherwise, we're well past it and on the decline.
toasted 8y ago
fellow econtalk/cumtown (well more red scare) listener here.. The latest feed refresh used to make me feel "Wow how will I have time to listen to all of these!" whereas now its "God do I really want to listen to any of these." I guess previously we were all starved of interesting long form conversations (or socialist edgelords) but now we're reasonably satiated and like anything else it has to be good to hold our attention. I still find a good econtalk pod is one of my greatest pleasures - russ & munger episodes particularly.
- 8y ago

meowface 8y ago

For anyone who isn't aware of it, the YC podcast is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1... A few episodes I liked: Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=102 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-uHSnFig... Office Hours with Michael Seibel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=86 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH... Peter Reinhardt on Finding Product Market Fit at Segment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=89 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-uH...

EamonnMR 8y ago

We already entered it. Serial was the tipping point - a crime podcast with NPR quality production, got hugely popular, people who didn't even like podcasts where talking about it. Also, Gimlet media's production quality is very high.

samstave 8y ago

I love falling asleep to Jo Rogan Podcasts. Also - to his credit, what I like about Joe Rogan, is that he brings on smart people and just is inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them, treats them with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity...

asteli 8y ago
That quality of an interviewer is something that not all podcast hosts have. I find that if an interviewer is a trained journalist (i.e. Ira Glass), they do ask questions from a point of curiosity, even if they know the answer. Contrast to someone like Dax Shepard, or in some cases Sam Harris, where they may monologue during an interview, or basically try to interject knowledge or anecdotes to prove they know the material. Harris I can deal with, and to his credit he will sometimes shut up and let the guest talk (e.g. Harris interviewing Zeynep Tufekci). I had to turn Shepard's podcast off after about 10 minutes.
andrewstuart 8y ago
>> inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them, treats them with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity... spot on - this is what I like about Joe Rogan podcasts too. Most interviewers can't help talking or interrupting, just when the interviewee was about to say something interesting.

tokyodude 8y ago

There is practically no podcast market in Japan yet and with an average commute of 80 minutes it seems like it's ripe for someone to make something happen.

Sargos 8y ago
That's when they sleep so it might be hard to break into that market.

rhacker 8y ago

I have a serious question: For those of you that like podcasts, did your usage go way down (or even stop) when you got married? I listened to them all the time back in the day, but mostly because they were tech oriented. For husband / wife activities only video/youtube/netflix seem to work. Is there any notion that Podcasts are better for people not in relationship thing? I mean you have to either play it for the house or listen on your headphones and it just doesn't make sense to try to tune out the wife for multiple hours. Also my favorite podcast, Java Posse is done anyway. It's weird to actually hear someone calling this the golden age when it was, for me, 10 years ago of listening to them non-stop.

torinmr 8y ago
Not married, but in a long-term relationship living with my partner. I listen to them while commuting to work or while doing household chores, and consistently get through 4+ hours/week of podcasts. I don't find my listening habits change that much when I'm alone, as either way I tend to only listen to them while I'm engaged in some other activity. (When I have completely free time I prefer more interactive activities like games or music.)
sotojuan 8y ago
Not married but live with my partner for almost 3 years. I listen to podcasts with headphones on at work especially when doing chores. No complaints, though I'm also not doing it 24/7. I've never thought of podcasts as something to do with someone else . Guess it depends on your relationship?
rsanheim 8y ago
I've been listening to podcasts for something like 15 years, since early days of TWiT & Java Posse, but I think my usage has remained the same over that time when I've been in long term relationships. My current partner and I will listen to more 'general' podcasts when we are both in the car - so things like This American Life, Akimbo, Heavyweight, How I Built This, or Dan Carlin's HH and Common Sense. When I'm driving or walking around solo, I'll listen to more tech / niche things. Podcasts like the Accidental Tech Podcast, Ruby / React / startup type things, etc. There is honestly so much good content out there that my 'to-listen' queues in Overcast are overflowing for both types of listening.

zhynn 8y ago

If Radiotopia sells out to a conglomerate or publisher, I will be extremely sad. And I am worried that I will eventually need N different apps to listen to the podcasts I like instead of just one. I don't like where this is headed. :(

driverdan 8y ago

While I agree there are plenty of great podcasts out there, I disagree with some of the things in the article. > When Netflix moved into streaming, they invested billions of dollars into original programming, helping usher in the “New Golden Age of Television” The current age of TV started long before Netflix moved to original content. This is not a model anyone should want to see in podcasts. Closed wall content is bad for everyone. > For listeners, there will be more amazing shows of all kinds. More media companies will invest in creating quality long-form audio. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. I listen to and enjoy some expensive, high production corporate podcasts. But I greatly prefer independent podcasts. So many corporate ones are overproduced (eg Radio Lab) or are full of ads, begging for money, cross promotions, and other non-content (eg 99% Invisible). I'm concerned that high budget shows will push out high quality indie shows and make them harder to find. > Spotify will create more exclusive content to aggregate and retain listeners. This is terrible for everyone except Spotify. Closed wall content is bad for everyone. Despite being a paid Spotify user I will not listen to any Spotify exclusives. If you become a Spotify exclusive you're dead to me.

jacobmoe 8y ago
> Closed wall content is bad for everyone. You said that twice. It's not bad for subscribers. There's a good argument to be made that ad-driven content is bad for everyone. In fact there's an argument to be made that ad-driven content is ushering in the end of the world. Who was it that said "we're building dystopia to maximize clicks." If you pay for your media, you at least know what the product really is.
- driverdan 8y ago
  > You said that twice. Yes, intentionally. > There's a good argument to be made that ad-driven content is bad for everyone. No disagreement here. I donate to independent podcasts directly. They get 100% of the money. Many of them have no ads or two versions, one that's free with ads or one that's paid with no ads. It's the best of both worlds.
  - 8y ago

stupandaus 8y ago

The writer made a pretty common finance misunderstanding mistake here: "That may change soon: Spotify bought Gimlet Media, a premium podcast studio, and Anchor, a podcast hosting platform, for $340 million earlier this month. That's a lot of money for an industry that was sized at just $314 million in 2017." Gimlet Media's $340M price tag reflects enterprise value which bakes in future cash flows, while the industry market size of $314M is reflective of estimated revenues in 2017. Apples and oranges.

subjoriented 8y ago

I started listening to "Serial", "This American Life", "Hardcore History" and a large number of other programs. Podcasts are generally easier to consume, reconsume, and schedule. That said, recently (several years) I've moved off of podcasts because there was a surge of podcast content, and no good mechanism to find quality programs. That and I was never able to find consistently good podcast software.

wenbin 8y ago

Podcasts are ubiquitous. There are high quality productions like shows from gimlet media. But most podcasts are more like twitter / Instagram accounts. Podcast becomes a channel for marketing (companies) or self expression (individuals) or exploring some kind of long tailed interests. There’s strong demand of accessing podcast contents from listeners, pr agencies, ads agencies, app developers, teachers & students in k12 schools. Ps, if you want to build a podcast app or a service that needs to access podcasts, you can try out our API: https://www.listennotes.com/api/ https://www.listennotes.com/api/

baby_wipe 8y ago
I'm building an app on listennotes right now. It's a fantastic API and wenbin provides amazing support!

wenbin 8y ago

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

baby_wipe 8y ago
+1 for the ListenNotes API. Easily better than anything else out there.
mercer 8y ago
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 :).

djhworld 8y ago

I have my regular podcasts that I listen to pretty much every week and some others that I dip in and out of. I just hope podcasts don't fall to the walled gardens, it's already happening with Spotify, BBC Sounds etc. They hate the idea of RSS

chrxr 8y ago

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-demographic-research-shows-who-really-listens-to-podcasts/ https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/new-demo...

alexhutcheson 8y ago
Teenagers mostly don't have long commutes, which is where a lot of podcast listening seems to happen.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  There's also much less content for teenagers. Not all of them are interested in politics or news, for example, which rules out a significant portion of podcasts.

rchaud 8y ago

The golden age has arrived, but for content aggregators and shovel-peddlers. Aggregators like Spotify will buy up popular podcasts and start setting their revenue percentages on the basis of "attention" or some other engagement metric, that will eventually lead to podcasts diluting their content to appeal to the largest possible base. It's already happened to their playlists. The shovel-peddlers will be the usual ebook/video course sellers pitching the 2010s version of "How to blog your way to millions", but for podcasts.

jotjotzzz 8y ago

Really? It felt like the golden age of podcast was a decade ago. I haven't listened to podcasts in a while. With YouTube premium, you can just listen or watch YT videos instead, so maybe it's golden age for videocasts?

Dowwie 8y ago
Joe Rogan said that roughly half of his audience is watching his videocasts rather than listening to his podcasts

iamwil 8y ago

> But unlike text-based news and blogs, which have gone through waves of centralization and disruption thanks to Facebook and Google, the podcast industry has remained stubbornly decentralized. Anyone know why podcasting has remained stubbornly decentralized? What are the market forces that lead this to happen?

drdeadringer 8y ago

Tech Dirt recently dropped a podcast episode about podcasting. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techdirt-podcast-episode-200-big-business-podcasting.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techd...

b3b0p 8y ago

I feel, at least for me, the golden age of podcasts is over already. There was the early [0] Retronauts the new Patreon/Kickstarter version is only same in name. Then there was the [1] 1up Yours. All the hosts, co-hosts, and popular regular guests have moved on. Then there was the epic [2] A Life Well Wasted by Robert Ashley. This is absolutely superb. The only podcasts of similar I listen to now are Giant Bombcast and 8-4 Play. I miss the good old days. I've tried to branch out to other topics and areas, but podcasts are my way of escaping and thinking and listening to something else outside work and study. I have actually started to go back through these and re-listen to them. They are timeless. I have a friend who does the same. [0] https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100 https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100 [1] https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-preservation.90181/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-preservation.90... [2] http://alifewellwasted.com/ http://alifewellwasted.com/

scott_s 8y ago
We match up well in when we started listening to podcasts, and what we listened to. But I still love Retronauts! I still like the more discussion-oriented episodes that mix deep insights along with personal experiences, but I'm still impressed by the consistent quality.
tnecniv 8y ago
At least GB puts out so much content I don't have time for another podcast...
JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
ymmv, but Cane & Rinse might be worth a try. Have about 350 episodes, each focusing on a single older game. The hosts are usually a lot more focused on talking about their memories of the games than trying to be entertaining (there's a lot of wannabe comedians in the videogaming podcast sphere ime). Only thing that seems a potential big issue with Cane and Rinse is that it's UK based but tbh I'd assume the lack of a fixation on NES would be a breath of fresh air compared to other podcasts The Jeremy Parish led episodes of Retronauts with Benj Edwards have been really good in recent times too, very informative.

godelmachine 8y ago

Which podcast will help me improve my communication skills? Especially listening and speaking?

ProAm 8y ago

I disagree, I think we have reached peak Podcast and are now entering the walled garden, possibly over-sponsored/advertised age of Podcasts.

pmart123 8y ago

This could be a dumb question, but is there any service that lets you: 1. Bookmark a time in a podcast 2. Highlight/tag a section or snippet 3. Contextually search for phrases or words in a podcast ?

elwesties 8y ago
Overcast (iOS app) does the first of your points.
- pmart123 8y ago
  Awesome. Thanks. I'll check it out.

blunte 8y ago

There's simply no way that "23-25% of US adults listen to podcasts daily or a few times a week."

lbacaj 8y ago

I believe behind much of this success with Podcasts is that we are actually entering a golden age for Audio content that isn’t music. So I don’t think this is limited to just podcasts but podcasts are riding this wave. I think the Apple AirPods, gaining extreme popularity and removing so much friction, the home speakers and the incredibly busy lives of people today all make audio easier to consume while doing other things. I think we will see more and more interesting content in this space and it’s not limited to Podcasts or Audio books. I think we may even get to a point where we see audio go viral, which has never happened to my knowledge. As an example of alternate sources for gaining knowledge on the go, and a little self promotion, I have built an App that uses AI/ML models to read any article to you. You check it out here at https://articulu.com https://articulu.com Generally I’m incredibly motivated by the non music Audio space and I think there will be even more interesting things coming.

m3kw9 8y ago

I think is a bit over hyped looking at just the extra time you have and use that to listen to podcasts: driving, gym on the go. But if you have choice between that and the other medium it compete against a for you attention, it isn’t a win as they hype sugggests

40acres 8y ago

HN is fully of early adopter types so I'm not surprised to see the pessimism about the future of podcasts but this industry still has a long ways to go. Podcasting will probably never be as big as video (streaming, TV, YouTube, etc.) but it's a natural 21st century transition for radio to make. Podcasts have the same advantage as Spotify and Netflix in the sense that programming is not limited to a specific radio station or a specific time. The medium is also diverse enough to support a wide array of content. The worst thing about podcasts is the ad reads, but with the right platform I'm sure it will get better. Another criticism is that many "professional" podcast are edited with the same cloth, they have that "NPR hipster" feel with a banjo and some strings in the background. But as more podcasts come up this too will be remedied.

ryanmcbride 8y ago

I'm terrified that Stamps, MeUndies, and SquareSpace will go out of business and all podcasts will be left with no stream of revenue. /s

atoav 8y ago

The golden age of podcasts is now, from here on I predict much much corparate efforts to destroy the free and decentralized thing the podcast scene is compared to other media. Relatively little ads, relative many people self hosting, very direct connections between producers and listeners, not limited by my Plattform or patent – from now on it is going downhill.

avar 8y ago

I've been a dedicated podcast listener for years, but have recently started to shift towards a larger portion of books on Audible instead where I'd previously listen only to podcasts. I wish I'd have done so earlier, at some point you start bottoming out on the depth podcasts on a given topic can give you.

dweekly 8y ago

Crazy idea, but what if Twitter spun off a subsidiary called Odeo to capitalize on this novel trend‽

mukeshsoni 8y ago

My guess is most people will end us listening to a lot of rehashed mediocre stuff. People will get addicted to listening to random conversations and won't even know what else to do. It will be like twitter but without any feedback mechanism. It will replace people's song listening time with a less melodic medium. Scary.

ahje 8y ago

Honest question here: How do you guys get the time/focus to listen to podcasts? I can't focus on people talking while doing something else so I either have to put down whatever I am doing in order to listen, or I'll miss most of what is being said. Maybe it's just me?

kaolti 8y ago
It's not just you, we're just half-assing both.
selckin 8y ago
There are a lot of daily activities that don't require your full attention - commuting (driving, bicycle, public transport) - getting ready for work (shower, getting dressed) - cooking, eating - laundry, dishes, vacuuming, ... - shopping - gardening - exercise/working out - ...
tasuki 8y ago
For me, long walks. I get a little exercise and fresh air. My sister listens to audio books while doing housework. As the article mentions, many people listen while driving.

billpg 8y ago

Time was, you had to be very careful where you hosted your RSS files because there were so many badly written players that polled the website every few seconds without any caching. Is this still the case?

adambyrtek 8y ago
I guess CDNs and services like S3 made it a non-issue.

k__ 8y ago

Somehow I never found podcasts interesting. I was special guest in one last year and liked to talk, but I never liked listening to them.

ceceshao1 8y ago

I'm truly grateful for podcasts as a medium where I can learn something and not have to stare at a screen anymore

c4dna 8y ago

The number of podcast creators keeps increasing, and with that, they are getting harder and harder to find, even the ones you already know. The search tools and search directories need more advanced search options.