10 ms·

Show HN: Listen Notes Podcast Search API

80 points by wenbin 9y ago

dvddgld 9y ago
"I'm an avid podcast listener. I listen to 5+ hours podcasts everyday." How do you have time for that? Do you listen while doing light work? Looks like a great service anyway!
- wenbin 9y ago
  I wear AirPods while coding. You know, modern programming work involves a lot of mechanical work... like moving code block around, copy & paste... For such mechanical work, I can multitask by listening to podcasts -- so I don't feel that I waste time :) Whenever I need to think, I just double tap my AirPods to pause. I also listen podcasts during commute, workout, doing grocery, ... I heard serval of my friends said that they spend more time listening to podcasts / audiobooks than watching TV / reading books. I don't know whether it's silicon valley bubble or it's actually a trend :)
  - purephase 9y ago
    I'm with you up until the part about listening while coding. For all of the other more mundane tasks like shopping, dishes, showering, video games, commuting throwing on a podcast makes sense. I just can't concentrate on code and a podcast at the same time. Both will suffer if I try to combine them. Great service! Thanks for sharing.
  - tazard 9y ago
    I'm a full time student with a part time job, and I probably average between 2 and 3 hours of podcasts a day. I live nowhere near silicon valley.
- millette 9y ago
  Time? Speed-listen, as was discussed a couple of weeks ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741428
  - dvddgld 9y ago
    He listens to podcasts for 5 hours or more per day, not 5 hours of content in less time.
dvddgld 9y ago
That makes sense, I find it too distracting to listen to unless I'm doing something entirely monotonous. The illusion of multitasking and all that. I'm jealous that you can just pause to think! I'm definitely in that category of people that spend more time listening than watching, but I can't find 5+ hours per day. Although I might if I replaced all blogs and HN with podcasts haha. In any case, I'll definitely try your service out and show some friends :). Hope you get some donations!
TekMol 9y ago
Big podcast fan here. After looking at the page, I tried: https://www.listennotes.com/api/v1/search?q=hello https://www.listennotes.com/api/v1/search?q=hello And got an empty result. Looks like you need to sign up with some external service to use it? Why that? For the monetization? Or am I missing something?
- wenbin 9y ago
  The API can't be accessed via www.listennotes.com. I host my API on Mashape, where it takes care of some mundane but necessary tasks for building an API, e.g., API key/secret, rate limit, payment, documentation, ... For details, please refer to https://market.mashape.com/listennotes/listennotes https://market.mashape.com/listennotes/listennotes
  - TekMol 9y ago
    Yup, got it! It says "Search (almost) all podcasts & episodes on the Internet." Where does the data come from?
    - wenbin 9y ago
      From iTunes initially. But right now, more and more podcasters submit their podcasts to Listen Notes. Podcasters want their shows to be discovered.
orliesaurus 9y ago
I love this, I just love this. This is what Google should have released a few years back when podcasts started taking over. I can't donate with PayPal because that platform hates me, maybe I can venmo you money for a beer!?. Thanks for sharing it with us!
- swyx 9y ago
  just build on it, he's trying to monetize it not ask for donations
  - rahimnathwani 9y ago
    He is asking for donations. There's a PayPal link at the bottom of the home page: 'Buy me coffee or donate some server time'
froindt 9y ago
This looks very promising! I've thought of doing something similar and started (very slowly) on the project a month ago. What are the data sources you're using for the transcripts behind the api? As an idea for others who are better able to implement, I'd love a system which would search every podcast I've ever listened to. It's very difficult for me to remember which podcast I heard a specific story, maxim, or interview when I want to share it with a friend. Bonus points if a transcript has some timestamps lined up.
- wenbin 9y ago
  I have meta data of podcasts & episodes in my own database, including title, description, publisher, ... But I don't have transcripts. Everyone says they want transcripts, but after some digging, I decide that transcript is not very useful for now -- For listeners, those who choose to listen hate reading texts. For podcasters, it's expensive to produce transcripts and the seemingly SEO boost is not easy to justify -- 1, it takes time for SEO to work; 2, conversational contents (most podcasts) are not high quality when you see them in texts. For Listen Notes (podcast search engine), indexing transcripts introduces more noise than signals. I did some experiment around transcripts, e.g., https://www.listennotes.com/e/51222de65c2c484e8a47608eac13294a https://www.listennotes.com/e/51222de65c2c484e8a47608eac1329... But I decided not to continue for now. The search results from Listen Notes include uuid for episode & podcast. So the client side (e.g., podcast player) can keep track of listen history for a user.
  - danielmorozoff 9y ago
    If you're interested in transcript search. We do it as part of our video processing engine and we work with a some podcast creators to provide search api. Message me if you are interested. We do the first option in what you bring up in your later comment
- swyx 9y ago
  fyi http://audiosear.ch/ http://audiosear.ch/ just closed doors after years of struggling to do in-episode search. its an expensive problem to tackle and something people clearly don't want enough for Audiosearch to survive. its easy to ask and imagine for these but running these services is extraordinarily hard.
swyx 9y ago
how exactly do you rate "best podcasts"? not disagreeing, just interested in methodology. ever thought of giving per episode rating?
- wenbin 9y ago
  I want to be frank here: it's from iTunes top chart via their API https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api/ https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/i... In the future I'll use my own data to come up with my own top chart, e.g., data for searches, clicks, plays, shares, ratings (TODO)...
  - swyx 9y ago
    ah i see. might want to disclose that then. i have no problem with it but it might confuse people that you are adding your own rating somehow
    - wenbin 9y ago
      For now, there's a footnote at the bottom of that page :) Sure, I need to make it more clear.
kbyatnal 9y ago
Very cool! How are you doing the typeahead feature? Do you have a big list of topics or something?

80 points by wenbin 9y ago

"I'm an avid podcast listener. I listen to 5+ hours podcasts everyday." How do you have time for that? Do you listen while doing light work? Looks like a great service anyway!

wenbin 9y ago
I wear AirPods while coding. You know, modern programming work involves a lot of mechanical work... like moving code block around, copy & paste... For such mechanical work, I can multitask by listening to podcasts -- so I don't feel that I waste time :) Whenever I need to think, I just double tap my AirPods to pause. I also listen podcasts during commute, workout, doing grocery, ... I heard serval of my friends said that they spend more time listening to podcasts / audiobooks than watching TV / reading books. I don't know whether it's silicon valley bubble or it's actually a trend :)
- purephase 9y ago
  I'm with you up until the part about listening while coding. For all of the other more mundane tasks like shopping, dishes, showering, video games, commuting throwing on a podcast makes sense. I just can't concentrate on code and a podcast at the same time. Both will suffer if I try to combine them. Great service! Thanks for sharing.
- tazard 9y ago
  I'm a full time student with a part time job, and I probably average between 2 and 3 hours of podcasts a day. I live nowhere near silicon valley.
millette 9y ago
Time? Speed-listen, as was discussed a couple of weeks ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741428
- dvddgld 9y ago
  He listens to podcasts for 5 hours or more per day, not 5 hours of content in less time.

dvddgld 9y ago

That makes sense, I find it too distracting to listen to unless I'm doing something entirely monotonous. The illusion of multitasking and all that. I'm jealous that you can just pause to think! I'm definitely in that category of people that spend more time listening than watching, but I can't find 5+ hours per day. Although I might if I replaced all blogs and HN with podcasts haha. In any case, I'll definitely try your service out and show some friends :). Hope you get some donations!

TekMol 9y ago

Big podcast fan here. After looking at the page, I tried: https://www.listennotes.com/api/v1/search?q=hello https://www.listennotes.com/api/v1/search?q=hello And got an empty result. Looks like you need to sign up with some external service to use it? Why that? For the monetization? Or am I missing something?

wenbin 9y ago
The API can't be accessed via www.listennotes.com. I host my API on Mashape, where it takes care of some mundane but necessary tasks for building an API, e.g., API key/secret, rate limit, payment, documentation, ... For details, please refer to https://market.mashape.com/listennotes/listennotes https://market.mashape.com/listennotes/listennotes
- TekMol 9y ago
  Yup, got it! It says "Search (almost) all podcasts & episodes on the Internet." Where does the data come from?
  - wenbin 9y ago
    From iTunes initially. But right now, more and more podcasters submit their podcasts to Listen Notes. Podcasters want their shows to be discovered.

orliesaurus 9y ago

I love this, I just love this. This is what Google should have released a few years back when podcasts started taking over. I can't donate with PayPal because that platform hates me, maybe I can venmo you money for a beer!?. Thanks for sharing it with us!

swyx 9y ago
just build on it, he's trying to monetize it not ask for donations
- rahimnathwani 9y ago
  He is asking for donations. There's a PayPal link at the bottom of the home page: 'Buy me coffee or donate some server time'

froindt 9y ago

This looks very promising! I've thought of doing something similar and started (very slowly) on the project a month ago. What are the data sources you're using for the transcripts behind the api? As an idea for others who are better able to implement, I'd love a system which would search every podcast I've ever listened to. It's very difficult for me to remember which podcast I heard a specific story, maxim, or interview when I want to share it with a friend. Bonus points if a transcript has some timestamps lined up.

wenbin 9y ago
I have meta data of podcasts & episodes in my own database, including title, description, publisher, ... But I don't have transcripts. Everyone says they want transcripts, but after some digging, I decide that transcript is not very useful for now -- For listeners, those who choose to listen hate reading texts. For podcasters, it's expensive to produce transcripts and the seemingly SEO boost is not easy to justify -- 1, it takes time for SEO to work; 2, conversational contents (most podcasts) are not high quality when you see them in texts. For Listen Notes (podcast search engine), indexing transcripts introduces more noise than signals. I did some experiment around transcripts, e.g., https://www.listennotes.com/e/51222de65c2c484e8a47608eac13294a https://www.listennotes.com/e/51222de65c2c484e8a47608eac1329... But I decided not to continue for now. The search results from Listen Notes include uuid for episode & podcast. So the client side (e.g., podcast player) can keep track of listen history for a user.
- danielmorozoff 9y ago
  If you're interested in transcript search. We do it as part of our video processing engine and we work with a some podcast creators to provide search api. Message me if you are interested. We do the first option in what you bring up in your later comment
swyx 9y ago
fyi http://audiosear.ch/ http://audiosear.ch/ just closed doors after years of struggling to do in-episode search. its an expensive problem to tackle and something people clearly don't want enough for Audiosearch to survive. its easy to ask and imagine for these but running these services is extraordinarily hard.

swyx 9y ago

how exactly do you rate "best podcasts"? not disagreeing, just interested in methodology. ever thought of giving per episode rating?

wenbin 9y ago
I want to be frank here: it's from iTunes top chart via their API https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api/ https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/i... In the future I'll use my own data to come up with my own top chart, e.g., data for searches, clicks, plays, shares, ratings (TODO)...
- swyx 9y ago
  ah i see. might want to disclose that then. i have no problem with it but it might confuse people that you are adding your own rating somehow
  - wenbin 9y ago
    For now, there's a footnote at the bottom of that page :) Sure, I need to make it more clear.

kbyatnal 9y ago

Very cool! How are you doing the typeahead feature? Do you have a big list of topics or something?