5 ms·

Should I build this?

• detaro 10y ago
  What complication of the current process would your product solve? I'm not all that familiar with the typical podcast workflow, but to me it seems the connection between recording/editing and publishing is just "upload an audio file", which doesn't seem like a big issue, so there is probably more to what you are planning integration-wise?
  • dustball 10y ago
    What problem are you trying to solve? Let novice users (or even lazy pros) create a professional quality podcast without needing extra software or hosting. Re: upload an audio file Soundcloud built their business around doing just this, albeit for a different market. They do support Podcasts but you can tell from the interface it is meant for music primarily.
    • tedyoung 10y ago
      I'm not saying there's not a market here -- I'd like to hear more details (especially as someone starting a podcast). Your landing page doesn't provide any information, and I'm still unclear what the specific pains you're solving are? There's already several podcast-specific hosting companies (libsyn, blubrry, acast, buzzsprout), so what are you adding? There's the RSS feed management and submitting to iTunes (most of the above have that). On the audio creation part, there's Auphonic (automatic leveling and some mixing) and not much else (that I'm aware of) that's automated. From my point of view, editing, transcribing, splicing ads, chapter-marking, compiling show notes, etc., are all manual processes right now, so automating or streamlining them would be great. Something on the ads/sponsor side of things would be valuable: Google had tried doing this for radio spots back in the mid 2000's, but it flopped (not enough good inventory, among other things). I think with podcasts, there's a market that could be created.
• bsvalley 10y ago
  I read your message and looked at your landing page... I still don't have a clue about what you're trying to accomplish. Are you building a search engine for podcasts?
• cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  The answer to this is always yes. Unless it takes months to build an MVP. By building one you'll gain a lot of insights 99% of the population don't have, so it's a win win situation. Don't ask for permission
  • Alex3917 10y ago
    I don't agree. Spend a week coming up with 100 other ideas first, and then get feedback on the most promising ones. Then do the best one. It might still fail, and if it does you'll still learn a lot, but you won't be wasting months or years when you could have chosen something more promising from the beginning. (And that's not a criticism of this specific business idea.)
    • siquick 10y ago
      Alternatively, solve your own problems first and you'll make your own life better and potentially others (i.e. your users) too.
      • brianwawok 10y ago
        I never liked this approach. I am a dev. If all I did was solve my own problems all I would write is developer tools. Which is about the worst market to sell in. Many problems out there that aren't my own.
        • scawf 10y ago
          You are also a human. You may be a father, a driver, a shopper, ... Most widely spread projects are not about jobs.
          • brianwawok 10y ago
            Sure, but think about b2b. An example problem is software for a port-a-potty business. I doubt many people that run a port-a-potty business are as good of software developers as I am. If everyone just scratches their own itch, who would write software for port-a-potty businesses? Do they just not get software? Maybe a little bit of a stupid example, but there are many unsexy b2b software opportunities out there. There is no need for it to be an itch for someone to come in and make a lot of money making their life better. If you can scratch your own itch and make something awesome, great! If not, it doesn't really matter as long as you scratch someone's itch. In my opinion - The top reason to pick a product is where can you provide the most value. If you can solve your own problem of unorganized MP3 files but there is no value (i.e. no one will pay you $20 for it) - then don't do it. If you can solve something unsexy (i.e. save a port-a-potty company $2,000 a month), you can very likely make real money on it.
• dragonbonheur 10y ago
  Twitcasting does that, but go ahead if you can do it better.
• atmosx 10y ago
  What about Spreaker[1] ? Supports recording, hosting, publishing and searching. Has mobile application to accompany the app and it's been around more than 2 years. [1] http://www.spreaker.com/ http://www.spreaker.com/