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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 s

• 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.
    • intrasight 8y ago
      "Startup" sounds cool. I found it. I don't understand why they don't have a link to the MP3 but instead make me use an app.
      • 2arrs2ells 8y ago
        MP3 links are in the Startup RSS feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/startup https://feeds.megaphone.fm/startup (I strongly recommend starting with Season 1. It's the most honest and vulnerable telling of early startup life that I've ever come across.)
    • bduerst 8y ago
      Reply All criminally releases episodes only every 2 weeks. I need that fix more often.
    • brailsafe 8y ago
      I wish Science vs. kept the sort of quality from earlier episodes when they were either not on Gimlet or had just come to Gimlet. They lean pretty heavily on narratives now, and while it may be entertaining, it's getting further and further away from science—or even minimally analytic.
      • jedberg 8y ago
        I agree the format has changed a bit, but I still enjoy it. You're right though, going back to basics would be nice.
    • iamaelephant 8y ago
      Reply All is very inconsistent. It feels like they get an idea for a story, follow it through and then if it just turns out to be very boring or a "nothing" story they will just produce and release it anyway.
  • duado 8y ago
    That's a pretty high bar which almost nobody needs to meet to be widely acclaimed and highly profitable.
    • hombre_fatal 8y ago
      Such a weird bar anyways. I can binge heroin easier than I can binge a good book. That kind of reasoning celebrates the movement towards skinner boxes and addiction.
      • rexpop 8y ago
        Sounds like a person who wants something thematically consistent to listen on long commutes, or plane rides.
  • wenbin 8y ago
    Personally, I don’t listen to every episode of any podcasts. I don’t even subscribe to any podcasts. I just cherry pick episodes from different podcasts to listen. Normally, I find all episodes interviewing a person of my interest, then binge listen them all. These episodes may be from some pretty unknown podcasts that I don’t want to listen to other episodes .
  • weaksauce 8y ago
    Bagman and slow burn were good if you are into historical political scandals. Covered watergate, Clinton impeachment and Nixon’s vp spirew Agnew.
    • intrasight 8y ago
      Just did some research - those two do look like an excellent fit
  • Spooky23 8y ago
    Gimlet has an NPR narrative style that doesn’t work for everyone and can be a little too much.
• slg 8y ago
  I agree, we might be leaving the golden age rather than entering it. The article mentions Spotify exclusive shows and we have already seen several other paywalled shows from companies like Audible and Stitcher. Meanwhile a number of podcasters are taking control of their own shows, not joining a podcast network or content company, and moving the show to platforms like Patreon. That is great for the content creators themselves, but it hurts discoverability and just isn't great for the podcast listener. The days of all the best shows being available to everyone for free are over. The days of most podcasts just being people having fun and sharing their passions with the world are over. We are entering the world were podcasting is big business.
  • TylerE 8y ago
    As the millennial internet company market inevitably cools (Dollar Shave Club, Blue Apron, etc), where are all these podcasters gonna get ads from?
    • paulryanrogers 8y ago
      At my last job we worked in internet tech for radio stations. Most of the station money came from the auto industry. I guess that makes sense since a non-smart radio fits with driving better than touch screens. EDIT: Forgot to mention, all that to say, it'll probably come from markets that fit how/when/where consumers listen: exercise, entertainment, etc.
      • TylerE 8y ago
        Terrestrial radio is also reasonably location targeted. Can’t really do that with podcasts, at least not with any sort of reliability.
        • miker64 8y ago
          Ads can (and already are) stitched into podcasts based on download location. GeoIP isn't perfect, but it's enough to do location aware advertising in the same vein as terrestrial radio..
• Dirlewanger 8y ago
  iHeartMedia is a junk stock and will probably delisted from NYSE soon. Stuff Media will be gutted and lost in the ensuing chaos in the coming years as iHeart desperately attempts again to restructure their debt. Both them and Cumulus Media serve as yet another sad tale of what happens when PEGs descend on in for the rape and pillage.
  • pmoriarty 8y ago
    Just out of curiosity, what are PEGs?
    • detaro 8y ago
      I'd guess "private equity $somethings"?
    • Dirlewanger 8y ago
      Private equity groups. Several have been brokering their debt restructuring over the years. Here's their most recent complete restructuring from about a year ago (http://www.insideradio.com/free/restructuring-will-wipe-billion-of-iheartmedia-s-debt/article_a8f332f0-28e7-11e8-aa69-af3eb5d38002.html http://www.insideradio.com/free/restructuring-will-wipe-bill...) (they're currently in bankruptcy at the moment.)
      • pmoriarty 8y ago
        So what incentive do they have for "rape and pillage" of companies if they ruin them and themselves in the process?
        • Spooky23 8y ago
          Because the partners collect big fees on the way in and out. Toys R Us is a great example. The PEG people invested 20%, dumped the debt on the Toys R Us balance sheet, and yielded at least $200M in fees. They are also able to harvest paper losses to offset taxes.
• WhompingWindows 8y ago
  Personally, I subscribe to the podcasts of: Sam Harris, Conan, The Energy Gang, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and a couple other NPR shows. None of my podcasts, IMO, are decreasing in quality, nor would I expect any of these groups to sell-out as they are off-shoots of other things. The podcasts I listen to are intentionally hand-selected over time to be 1) informative, 2) have a decent content:fluff ratio, and 3) enjoyable. I unsubscribed from Star Talk because about 90% of it was non-scientific chatter or ads, even though it was enjoyable and informative (sometimes). If a podcast doesn't cut to the damn chase like NDT's, that's an instant unsub from me. In particular, I find independent podcasts like Sam Harris or Dan Carlin to be FANTASTIC, and that content is free for all to download in multiple ways. So, I'm not worried in the slightest.
  • blang 8y ago
    Gimlet media was started by Alex Blumberg, who worked previously for "This American Life" and "Planet Money" (he may have started that one). These are both NPR shows as well as very popular podcasts One of it's show is "Reply All" is hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman. They used to host a podcast called "TLDR" on NPR (WNYC). These guys are all super talented and deserve to be paid very well for the content they produce, but to say those shows and podcasters you like won't go to where there money is probably not 100%.
    • Numberwang 8y ago
      Sam Harris repeatedly (ad nauseum as is his style) talks about his economic decisions and I'd be very very surprised to see him sell out.
  • black6 8y ago
    > In particular, I find independent podcasts like Sam Harris or Dan Carlin to be FANTASTIC, and that content is free for all to download in multiple ways. So, I'm not worried in the slightest. This. Dan Carlin is fantastic and I enjoy supporting him because of the quality. No Agenda and Congressional Dish are two more listener supported/value-for-value podcasts which do an outstanding job. No Agenda, in particular, raised the bar extremely high for production value, and they do it all live to tape! No back office. Little-to-no post production. Those guys are proof you don’t need a studio, enployees, or advertisers to make a living out of podcasting.
• rsanheim 8y ago
  I agree the purchase of Gimlet and putting shows behind paywalls is concerning. That said, as long as the vast majority of shows continue to publish their shows as god intended -- as enclosures on an simple RSS feed -- I think podcasts will stay healthy and vibrant. I will not subscribe to Spotify for a whole host of reasons, and it would take far, far more 'available only on Spotify' podcasts to ever make me reconsider that.
• ptruesdell 8y ago
  Agreed. And I imagine that if Spotify succeeds, then Apple might eventually follow suit and start picking up exclusives. At that point, there's no going back.
• sh87 8y ago
  > I don't want to have different players for different shows This is at the heart of the control problem. If you have one true player, it commands more control than is good for you, me and all consumers. Healthy competition is the only practical way to keep this under check. I make sure to distribute my consumption over at least 2-3 contenders for any content be it search (google, ddg, bing), video (youtube, vimeo, dailymotion), podcasts (overcast, apple podcasts). I've begun extending this pattern over all sorts of consumption. Sure its a hassle for me. I'm ok with it. I like to think that one extra click, one purchase, one download helps the competitors in keeping the market healthy.
  • scrollaway 8y ago
    Insanity. There should be competition but compatibility. It shouldn't be about "one true player" as in one proprietary platform everyone uses (youtube vs spotify vs whatever), but rather every player is compatible with all of the formats. The proprietary-lockin epidemic is a serious issue. I think part of the problem is open standards don't often focus on the payments problem.
    • sh87 8y ago
      For dominant content distributors and platforms, there is real economic incentive for chasing deep lock-ins. And practically no incentive to comply with or contribute to any sort of standard. That is the unfortunate reality today. If we have reasonably good competition among these platforms, we may just have some hope there.
• bmurphy1976 8y ago
  This is something that has been concerning me as well. My fear is that as money perverts this ecosystem, the big players will increasingly push out the small players. They'll suck up all the ad revenue and flood discovery services with mediocre (but well produced!!) corporate shlock. That will suck the air out of the room and damage all the smaller outfits, making them harder to find and less profitable to run. I hope I'm wrong.
• maxhedrome 8y ago
  Long live Napster!
• el_cujo 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 think podcasting is somewhat shielded from this by the fact that you really don't need an insane amount of capital to put out a good product. There definitely are podcasts that have expensive, professional studio set ups, but there are others I've listened to that are just straight up recorded on an iPhone and they can actually sound very decent. This low barrier of entry makes it easy for people to make their own weird podcast without having to water down their product and pitch it to investors. I guess with time that could change if your podcast is considered dead if its not on one of these big corporate channels. As someone who really enjoys the "homemade" feels, I hope this never happens, a podcast feeling overproduced is a big turn off IMO.
  • celeritascelery 8y ago
    > I think podcasting is somewhat shielded from this by the fact that you really don't need an insane amount of capital to put out a good product. You could say the same thing about the web
    • ip26 8y ago
      And aren't there plenty of interesting personal blogs out there?
      • eterm 8y ago
        And it then comes back to content discovery. It doesn't matter what is out there, it matters how easily you can find the niche rather than the corporate.
        • njarboe 8y ago
          Websearch on only non-corp websites. Human curated to prevent gaming the corp filter. I'd pay $5/month for that.
      • 8y ago
• bootlooped 8y ago
  Anecdotally, I have noticed an increase in advertisements in the podcasts I listen to. I think this is more likely a sign of decline than a sign of the opposite.
  • _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    Could it be instead a sign of increasing profitability of podcasts? (That advertisers are willing to pay for ads on podcasts.)
    • bootlooped 8y ago
      Maybe, or it could mean they have to do more ads to stay afloat, where before fewer ads were sufficing.
• brownbat 8y ago
  Stitcher is building a garden. I think they are trying to combat the unassailable dominance of Apple.
• snaily 8y ago
  I think podcasts, from a consolidation POV, looks more like video than music (for starters, think of the content length and engagement level). You'd swap app/provider to listen to a different podcast, but a music player with a limited subset of music is essentially DOA.
• agbell 8y ago
  I love that podcasts are one of the few pure truly open mediums. Its literally just a audio file on a server somewhere included in an RSS feed. I think more people should try to create their own podcast. I've been doing my own podcast after being a guest on a couple episodes of another tech podcast and I can't recommend it enough. I think it should be treated like the low barrier to entry medium it is. Current favorite podcast is the indie hackers podcast. Sometimes something you hear is more impactful then reading the equivalent. I prefer podcasts to audio books usually as podcasts are meant for audio whereas audio books are just adapted to the medium.
  • danhodgins 8y ago
    My experience with doing a podcast has been very positive. Check out the Dan Hodgins show where I share thoughts on life and business - http://DanHodgins.com http://DanHodgins.com. It's available on Itunes, Spotify, Sticher, Google Play and elsewhere. The first two shows are on the topics of greatness (episode 1) and naming your product, service or project (episode 2).
  • askvictor 8y ago
    > I love that podcasts are one of the few pure truly open mediums. Its literally just a audio file on a server somewhere included in an RSS feed. Google's podcast system doesn't allow you to load in arbitrary RSS feeds. This is cause for concern if others go that way too. There will always be open podcatchers and self hosted feeds, just like there will always be web pages, but they will be harder and harder to find.
  • sbmthakur 8y ago
    May I know the name of the tech podcast in which you appeared? You may also point us to those episodes if that's fine.
    • agbell 8y ago
      Hey, so I was a guest host on SEDaily and did about 5 episodes I think and then decided to do my own podcast called corecursive. My format is interviews where an expert is explaining some aspect of software engineering to me. https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2018/01/30/design-principles-from-functional-programming-with-runar-bjarnason/ https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2018/01/30/design-princ... https://corecursive.com https://corecursive.com
• mindslight 8y ago
  > I'm not saying iHeart is evil I don't know why not. Back when they were known as Clear Channel, in the wake of 11SEP2001 they censored songs that went against the agenda of starting wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_memorandum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_memorandum (Ah, I see it has been spun as mere a suggestion. Just like I'm sure the managers at each station only passed along the suggestion. There couldn't have possibly been any accompanying social pressure, especially at that time, that would have made it a tacit order).
  • gmmeyer 8y ago
    Oh yea they're evil. I have no compunction about saying that
• the_watcher 8y ago
  I listened to Crimetown season 2 on Overcast, but you're right, it looks like it's been removed from the feed. I was hoping they'd approach it more like Stitcher has, where they continue to produce open podcasts, but offer additional episodes or only gate a limited number (and definitely expected that any Spotify-only podcasts would be brand new, as opposed to removing access to pre-existing ones).