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Fewer people are creating new podcasts these days
- readonthegoapp 4y agois there a way to find new podcasts, on either listennotes or anywhere else? i've tried seemingly everywhere, but no luck.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoYes. You can buy access to Listen Notes' data: https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/
- djbusby 4y agoHow much is that? Price is hidden behind quote form.
- georgel 4y agoThey don't list their prices for the full db, but I imagine it is very expensive based on their partial datasets on AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/seller-profile?id=f51c44b8-a72c-425a-a963-6d6b0de2b347 https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/seller-profile?id=f51c44b...
- rahimnathwani 4y agoI don't know. But if you've already "tried seemingly everywhere" then maybe it's worth another few minutes to fill out the form.
- csallen 4y agoIf you're just looking to find podcasts to listen to that are new to you, I'd say word of mouth. For example, ask your friends and colleagues. Or ask around on Twitter, Reddit, HN, etc. Or search for conversations where people have shared recommendations. For example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34056715 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34056715
- readonthegoapp 4y agoyeah, i should have been more explicit -- i want newly-created podcasts, which will probably be new to me.
- nofreelunch 4y agoSeemingly everywhere? When i search an existing podcast or even just a subject in my podcast app it typically suggests no less than 30 podcasts to me, most of which i have never heard of. I have found new ones that are quite good, as well as some stinkers and duds. Hard to believe it is that hard to find something vaguely interesting if you have used a modicum of effort.
- readonthegoapp 4y agoyeah, i should have been more explicit -- i want not only new-to-me podcasts, but actually-new/newly-created podcasts -- as in podcasts that were created in the last day, week, month, year, etc. but after all my searching, there are no new-to-me pods, unless i just can't find the newly-created pods, which is very possible, even likely.
- nofreelunch 4y agoAh my mistake. Maybe the answer lies in combining podcast searches with filtering options within your app? I've recently started using filters on my searches in various applications/file systems/etc and it has really improved my UX across the board. Switching from "sort by relevance" to "newest first" might be the move. I've also had a bit of luck trying out podcasts outside of my normal areas of interest. Good luck on your hunt.
- dredmorbius 4y agoMy trick with podcasts (as with books and other content) is to be interest driven, and to seek out podcasts which address my interests. That might be searching for specific podcasts within a topic area, specific creators, or (and most usefully) searching by episode for a specific topic or interview subject. Occasionally there will be references within one podcast to another which I find useful as well, though ... this occurs far less often than such promotions are presented, most especially those which are commercial promotions rather than the more-organic spontaneous mentions of a host or guest. (Many of these are of course not entirely spontaneous, the best however are.) I've had a few good experiences with referrals from other people online, which may be how I came across the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast (absolutely excellent). Several other "History of..." series have mutually recommended one another, notably of Rome, Byzantium, and China. You're Not So Smart being another. Podcasts based on programmes I've known elsewhere (usually radio series) are also a source: CBC Ideas, On the Media, This American Life, and a few others. These ... can be good, though I'm finding some make the pod transition less gracefully than one might hope. Good podcast search tools are another challenge. The Podcast Republic app has a search over all episodes known to it. I don't use Apple iTunes, though suspect it may as well. There are a few Web-based podcast search sites, most have proved disappointing and/or annoying, and the most comprehensive one I've found has been throwing up CAPTCHAs incessantly, which rather entirely makes it useless. I believe that's ListenNotes. I'd really love to see a good podcast search option under DuckDuckGo, hint, hint...
- georgel 4y agoI work in the podcast industry. Anchor made it easy and free for people to start podcasting, so tons of people tried it during lockdowns. But podcasts are a lot of work beyond just having a place to host: from recording, finding guests, editing, marketing, etc. So you have a lot of beginners who drop off.
- bastawhiz 4y agoIt's more than that, though. I own a podcast hosting service that Apple lists on their page of recommended services. Fewer people were starting podcasts in 2021 and 2022 than they were in 2019 and 2018 (it's hard to say before then, because my business has grown). The world, on the whole, lost a lot of interest in podcasting. Part of that is a lack of a focus on podcasting. Serial drove a lot of interest, and that momentum faded with no obvious replacement. Podcasts were something folks made time for on their commutes and during their workouts. When folks started working from home en masse, they had less and less reason to listen. Listenership fell for shows that have remained consistent. Some of my biggest customers have half or less than the number of listens they were pulling per week in 2019. And that's without changing cadence.
- CharlesW 4y ago> The world, on the whole, lost a lot of interest in podcasting. Your customers' data may reflect that, but industry data shows that podcasting is still growing steadily. In their more recent (2022) report, Edison Research notes, "Monthly podcast listening saw growth year-over-year among those age 35-54, as 43% are now monthly podcast listeners, up from 39% in 2021." > Some of my biggest customers have half or less than the number of listens they were pulling per week in 2019. Shows fail. There are countless podcasts whose listens have grown substantially since 2019.
- trbleclef 4y agoListening is growing steadily but is podcast production?
- browningstreet 4y agoI've lost interest in podcasts recently because it feels like the same people are just round-robining from host to host. It's all the same people.. Huberman feels like a lab manufactured podcast meme machine, even the high profile podcasters like Tim Ferris seem to have the same guests as everyone else.
- greatpostman 4y agoWhere did that huberman guy come from. Literally on every feed everywhere, ranting about getting good sleep and exercise. All these podcasters know each other. It may as well be network television
- paulpauper 4y agoThis is what agencies do. They can make someone 'blow up' by having their client on top podcasts and other media.
- rexreed 4y agoIs it important for podcasts to have guests? Are podcasts that provide insight or discussion or deep dives into ideas without guests not as valuable as ones with guests? Do you primarily seek out podcasts that have guests?
- RaoulP 4y agoRe my comment in this thread, I realise maybe this is the distinction I should make to find good podcasts. I should look for ones without guests.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tshaddox 4y agoIsn’t that like, an extremely narrow subset of podcasts you’re talking about? Like basically just the longevity+psychedelics+stand-up comedy podcast circle? I don’t see any of those guests on my movie and TV podcasts, for instance.
- rcme 4y agoThere was definitely a fad over the pandemic of people hosting their own podcasts. Multiple people I know started doing it. Super nice people, but they didn’t offer particularly insightful opinions or have great guests. It seemed like a fun thing for a group of friends to do, but I’m not surprised that podcast creation is slowing down.
- barbariangrunge 4y agoIf podcasts are like blogs, they will need a crazy amount of time and energy to get off the ground and that’s why we don’t see so many blogs any more. Discoverability is too hard for most individuals to even try for now
- leetrout 4y agoThis is very true. I was shocked at how much I needed to have in place to record, to get listed on the major players (and Google took DAYS to publish my show but Spotify and Apple did it within hours).
- BlackjackCF 4y agoYeah. I remember when podcasts first came out (before they were even called podcasts in the iTunes Store.) It was super easy to be discovered because there was so few things out there, and most of them were junk.
- pksebben 4y agoyep. If one could solve the discoverability problem for podcasts they'd make a mint. The problems, as I see them: - must be resistant to gaming. Many of the really popular podcasts are backed by marketing money, many of the best ones are buried - must be able to account heavily for taste. I really love midst, magic tavern, darknet, zzyx (RIP), night vale. Lots of people aren't into fiction so the system would have to have market segmentation built in. like a music app recommendation engine. - should provide mechanisms to link to other stuff for the podcast. A huge part of the problem for the podcasters is the friction there is to give them money. This is mostly solved by podcast metadata but any good tool needs to display these properly. as it is, current podcast recommendation algorithms miss tons of good content. There should be more than enough data on me to recommend a lot of stuff that I've had to hunt down Internet 1.0 style by googling and reading blogs.
- barbariangrunge 4y agoI wonder if an embedded cbatgpt like system could offer such a recommendation engine on demand for different sorts of media. It wouldn’t ever be the best recommendations of all time, but it might be able to handle scale better than humans. Eg, to get something YouTube algorithm like for other services like podcast apps
- a1371 4y agoA personal story about podcasts is that I usually listen to them during my commute. That means my podcast consumption went way down when the pandemic happened and I started mainly working remotely. I just don't have a defined suitable time for them anymore. A few weeks ago I was sick and I put on some podcasts as I was resting. Made me realize how much I miss the content. I wonder how much the radio/podcast industry is reliant on car radios and such.
- aninteger 4y agoI would recommend replacing the commute with a walk every day, get a little bit of exercise, clear your mind, and optionally listen to those podcasts again.
- tresil 4y agoAgreed. Walking and listening to audio books and podcasts is magic. Great for the body and mind.
- rtontic 4y agoI disagree with this. I prefer walking without listening to anything, I find it helps me actually come up with ideas and thoughts of my own.
- kzrdude 4y agoYes, space to think and for the mind to wander is also a healthy and important thing to fit into a week. I find that without this, there's no time to think about the near and far future and plan what to do about those.
- sshine 4y agoI want to take a walk, but I can't help but want to exercise in that time instead. I think walks help with thinking, and exercises can block it. Some people I have great respect for take daily walks. I think having a dog helps here. ;-)
- leetrout 4y agoI just started releasing episodes I recorded the past 3 months. I am excited to finally get some personal interests out there for the world to enjoy! ListenNotes microfeed tool was slick to setup and use to publish. I've had a lot of fun learning everything it takes to make a show. Of particular interest to this crowd E1 with Ange Yaghi & Engine Simulator just released last Wednesday and we talk about it going viral along with some of the technical details. https://leetrout.com/fishtales/e1/ https://leetrout.com/fishtales/e1/ and links to the show's pages on the popular platforms is on the parent of that page.
- mumblemumble 4y agoConsidering what happened in 2020, I'll submit that a comparison of 2020 and 2022 doesn't necessarily tell us much about podcasting, per se. At least show me 2019, too, and then we can start hypothesizing.
- drusepth 4y agoI wanted to like podcasts, but never found one that wasn't either incredibly boring or incredibly grating to listen to. Maybe I'm not the target audience, but I'm rarely if ever interested in the speaker of whatever information I'm trying to consume, and podcasts' focus on guests (and hosts) always came off as self-aggrandizing and people speaking just to hear themselves speak. Especially with very little editing (uhs, pauses, and general dysfluency) and/or preparation (winding conversations with a lot of fluff instead of a structured outline), I'd almost always just prefer to listen to a narrated book or textbook on whatever topic I'm interested in.
- JauntyHatAngle 4y agoI think different formats have different propensities. Your problems with podcasts appear more related to propensity than inherent format issues - that is, books too can come off as self aggrandizing, fluff and winding, but you have found mode examples that don't do this perhaps? Perhaps one thing inherent to podcasts vs books is that you can simply skip sections and skim past the content you find not worth your time, where podcasts are harder to do this without missing your spot, etc. Podcasts like 99% invisible I find hit the right balance, but again, definitely have more emphasis on interviews than pure factual info compared to books. But I think that's kind of normal, as podcasts do suit discussion and interviews better than a more straight facts approach. Still, I feel the points you've listed, while valid, are not always the case and like most mediums, you can find examples that would suit your style.
- paulpauper 4y agoIt works if the guest is discussing a topic that interests you and the information cannot be readily found elsewhere, because it's his unique story or perspective.
- trog 4y agoI was like this until I found the NPR Planet Money podcast. I am not 100% sure why I found this so engaging but here are my guesses: 1. They cover a subject I was interested in (economics), but knew basically nothing about. This made it easier to listen to as I found I didn't space out when they were talking about things I already knew. 2. Nice, tight editing and good production. No hosts blathering on for hours - they keep it short and to the point. Most episodes are 20 minutes and easy to get through.
- 50 4y agoI don't listen to podcasts at all but oddly enough, I just came across the Hermitix[1] podcast today and found myself listening to it most of the day. > Hermitix is a podcast focusing on one-on-one interviews relating to fringe philosophy, obscure theory, weird lit, underappreciated thinkers and movements, and that which historically finds itself 'outside' the academic canon. 1. https://anchor.fm/hermitix/ https://anchor.fm/hermitix/
- TbobbyZ 4y agoTwitter Spaces will replace podcasts.
- chipotle_coyote 4y agoI'm assuming this is a bit you're using to promote your new comedy podcast.
- TylerE 4y agoWill Twitter even be around in 6 months?
- lost_tourist 4y agoIf they don't attract back the advertisers they lost they are likely a goner.
- Bukhmanizer 4y agoI don't think that this is a bad thing. There were way too many people putting out podcasts in 2020-2022 who obviously didn't have any interest in the medium. I mainly worry that a contracting field might hurt revenues for established podcasters. As a side note, I've found it harder and harder to find good podcasts. A select few seem to be able to game the metrics so they end up at the top of whatever lists I used to use to discover new content.
- squokko 4y agoThe market demand is satisfied by like ~250 podcasts the same way that there are about that many TV shows or fewer. The difference is that unlike TV shows, which cost a lot to make, amateur podcasts are very cheap to produce so there are a lot of people just doing it not because it's profitable but because they had nothing better to do during the pandemic. Now that we're past that phase people are over making new podcasts.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- spiffytech 4y agoI think the better comparison is to YouTube and Twitch: lots of folks make niche content that most people will never hear of, yet which pulls in tens of thousands of regular listens and devoted fans. As a point of reference, I've been an avid podcast lister since the beginning, and I've never subscribed to any of the high-profile shows.
- Blackthorn 4y ago[flagged]
- xeromal 4y agoDoes it bother you that white men do podcasts?
- Blackthorn 4y agoNot particularly.
- topkai22 4y agoA lot of creative outlets are faddish for production, even if they remain commercially viable. For a while podcasting was having a moment, with big names like Serial making a splash. Now TikTok and short form videos are having their moment. Something else will come again.
- WheelsAtLarge 4y agoIt's impossible to keep up the pace. Not because people can't create them but because most can't find an audience. If you create one you want a sizeable audience. That's not possible if the number falls in the millions. My bet is that a few hundred, if that, will eventually be successful enough to create a viable business. Most others will be hobbies but there won't be 100's of thousand of them. We've hit peak podcast numbers.
- reidjs 4y agoThere may be fewer, but there are still people making new podcasts, though! I really like this one weird local podcast called Bay Area Weekend, for example.
- paulpauper 4y ago--too much competition. How many more productivity podcasts, nutrition, or fitness podcasts does the world need? --too much expenses such as production, audio, set-up, etc. --hard to get good guests unless you are part of the clique/network , although I don't think this matters too much. It's not like you need top gusts to have a good podcast.
- sagivo 4y agoLike the app store, we had a gold rush but it quickly became oversaturated and dominated by few players. It's also very hard to get discovered. Only way to get to top 10 is to spend a lot on marketing. I don't know people who build new apps anymore as a result
- lofaszvanitt 4y agoYeah, I don't get it why the same 10 results come up for a search when for a given topic there exists 1000 good results? What about mixing those good results, so more people would get the opportunity to shine.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sien 4y agoWow. It's just staggering. From the article : 219,178 new podcasts were created in 2022 as opposed to 337,063 in 2019. 2022 saw the publication of 26.1 million new episodes, up from 18.1 million in 2019. Yet, those numbers fare poorly compared to 2020 and 2021 figures (30,130,431 and 29,513,070 respectively). Even if it's declined it is a mind bogglingly large number of new podcasts. It's like book publishing but arguably even easier. Who knows, perhaps 100K new podcasts per year is enough....
- Nursie 4y agoPodcasts have become professionalised IMHO as well. With the likes of the BBC creating tons of them which are written and recorded by professional journalists, the quality is pretty high and I can see these capturing the market from the amateur "I just recorded some crazy stuff and threw it out there" sector. It's also very different from the podcasts I think other posters are talking about, which have a host and guests, all of whom bloviate about whatever the topic of the day might be. That's just like an old-school radio show and not really very interesting to me.
- osigurdson 4y agoMost podcasts I listen to these days consist of someone interviewing someone interesting. Since the supply of interesting people is limited, Pareto distributions start to dominate.
- dredmorbius 4y agoThere's also a bandwagon effect, which means that once someone Becomes Known they are Suddenly Everywhere. A terrific antidote to this has been the New Books Network, an audio universe of literally hundreds of channels and many thousands of episodes on the back-catalogue. Topics, content, technical quality, interviewer quality, and recently advertising intrusiveness are all over the map, but despite all that, there are in fact many excellent episodes, a huge back catalogue, and a selection of interviewees and topics which I'd otherwise have entirely missed. There are of course some well-known (or at least known) names, but many I'd otherwise never have come across. Note that a specific episode may appear on multiple channels, but you can also focus or diversify your interests and discovery by picking topics with which you're both familiar and unfamiliar. <https://newbooksnetwork.com/ https://newbooksnetwork.com/>
- kzrdude 4y agoRegrettably, it seems like the once great 99% invisible has passed into covering the long tail. So yes, maybe they have covered all and done their best work and don't have that many ideas for great episodes left.
- gcanyon 4y agoOne question not asked is: how many podcasts can there be? If regular years recently have seen ~250K new podcasts, and 2020 saw a million, that means that there might be as many as 5 million podcasts created throughout history. Do that many people have that much to say? Or looking at it from the other side: are there that many people who listen to podcasts? If you take 500 listeners as a bound of "podcasts with such low listenership that they are at risk of ending" and suppose that the average person listens to 5 podcasts regularly, then you need 100 million podcast listeners just to sustain 1 million podcasts. Again, are that many people listening? Slicing it yet another way, if the average podcast lasts for 3 years, then at present rates that means there are ~600K active podcasts at any one time. There should obviously be a flow of old podcasts ending and new ones springing up to take their place. But it seems unlikely that 600K individual podcasts is sustainable.
- lotsoweiners 4y agoIn 2018 I was subscribed to like 20+ podcasts. Most of these were either tech news or "popular" podcasts. Lots of once or twice a week in that group and it really felt like a chore to keep up with them. I also felt that there was dwindling actual information or entertainment that I was getting out of them so by 2019 I had already unsubscribed from about 1/3rd of them. The pandemic hit and I no longer had a 30-45 minute commute so I stopped listening to most of my podcasts. I unsubscribed to the rest and only listen to 2 regularly (while running) and have a few others that I listen to if the topic/guest is intriguing. All of this is to say that most podcasts seem to exist in an effort to make podcasts rather than having anything worthwhile or entertaining to say. Also, none of the podcasts I am still subscribed to are tech related.
- sumtechguy 4y agoI personally never really got into podcasts. I just get bits here and there from them. They remind me of the old AM late night radio shows. There are a tons of interesting items out there. Sometimes they get someone who is actually interesting to listen to. But many I see they are talking to themselves and/or reading tweets/blogs/other articles then reacting to that. There is an audience for both types. But I am not sure it is that big. Big enough for a small production crew to care about, but not big enough for any meaningful sized audience. There are of course exceptions out there of the 'big names' but most are very small audiences that enjoy that niche content.
- fomine3 4y agoYouTube has better analysis support, profits from ads and premium, recommendation, and far more big user base. So it looks natural that people just post YouTube videos. A cons is that background playback needs Premium.
- Exmoor 4y agoOne useful thing about the incredible number of podcasts that I've only recently discovered is that you can often find in depth interviews with relatively obscure people or about niche subjects which contain a ton of information that's hard to come by other places. For instance, a couple weeks ago I was listening to an 20+ year old album I've always loved that doesn't get much attention. I searched in Spotify and sure enough I found a podcast that was doing a multi-hour series just on that album and broke down its history, production, etc. Another example is that yesterday I was out training for a race I'm running in a couple months and managed to find multiple interviews with the race director, past winners, etc. to put me in a great mindset for a tough day training.
- lofaszvanitt 4y agoOh, 99% of podcasts are just terrible. A fav show of mine started quite good, but now... 3+ hour interviews? Why? Because the interviewer just sits there like a sloth and listens to whatever the other party has to say, never interrupting. And from a 3 hour interview there is only (at best) 15 minutes of relevant information, the rest is filler. Even TED talks lately became terrible, I have nothing to tell or I tell you this basic thing packaged as some earth shattering insight in 10 minutes videos, like relevant information is somehow suppressed and just the nothingspeak stays. good curated content is needed, but goog's search is just plain terrible in this regard. seo optimized pages everywhere with useless recommendations. Sometimes I find a lot of shows with great content in some forgotten part of the Internet, but these cease to exist after a few episodes... maybe because they saw the initial numbers. and these good people will never come back to create more content, only the brave idiots stay in the arena :(. Common problems: - zero editing (respect your audience by cutting the slack and interrupt your interview subject if the discussions veers towards personal things). at least timecode topics in the description. the subject's personal life is only interesting if the person is well known, in the mainstream, or a good story teller, but most of them just like to talk and talk and talk. the interviewer's job is to interrupt the person and make him/her stfu and bring forth another, interesting subject. - interviewer sometimes is just an idiot, and just regurgitates what the other party has said with different words... mind boggling - interviewer can't ask proper questions, hard questions. the subject just sits there, like he paid for 3 hours of time and talks about offtopic things. - good shows drown after a few years or become routine for the creators. There is a podcast about security... it was also quite good in the beginning, but lately it's now all about all kinds of political shenanigans, geopolitics and the like. To be honest it's dead boring, the hell do I care about these high level shit stirring things? I want to hear some insights, expert opinions about the topic.
- 8note 4y agoI still just want roz to talk the whole time for "well theres your problem" The dry engineering humor still works best without any response, and even without a pause for laughter or remarks
- kzrdude 4y agoI think you described the problem with the Lex Fridman podcast :). I've only ever tuned in if the guest was exceedingly interesting. Not that Lex hits all your points, but it's some of them.
- Herodotus38 4y agoHere's my experience with podcasts, as a mild-moderate user, and it may explain part of the drop off. The first time I tried podcasts I listened to ones about my work (internal medicine, hospital based physician), I started with a few. Some were outgrowths of already established medical journals and they were very formal, posted rarely, and usually had bad audio quality but pretty good density of information. Then I found The Curbsiders, which was a much more down to earth podcasts of guys that sounded like they worked with me. More laid back but still informational. But over time they got successful and started having commercial backing and then that legal rapid voice-over and the honeymoon was over, it wasn't something that was "average joe" like me anymore, it was establishment and I stopped enjoying it and would rather just read medical literature or journal blogs because it's similar. Around the same time I also started listening to podcasts about spaceflight. The first one I listened to regularly got put aside when my wife couldn't stand the hosts. After listening to her reasoning, I was respected that it was not something that she enjoyed listening to because the hosts really turned her off by being stereotypical white male nerds that would interrupt guests to show off their knowledge and really gave off mansplaining vibes. That led me to look at other podcasts and then I found one (and by extension a set of three) that I really enjoyed them to the point where I decided to support it on Patreon. When I supported it, I found out there was a side benefit of joining a "members only" Discord. I didn't intend to use it and had never used Discord before but it happened right when COVID hit so I gave it whirl. That discord became a fun distraction and place to talk socialize online (probably amplified by the COVID isolation situation everyone went through). Now, I usually get spaceflight news from people there, and if I listen to the podcast it is behind the news, so I don't tend to listen to it as much. In summary for me: One successful podcast became big and something I didn't want anymore. Some were just not good quality and found better ones out there. And some are good and still going but the evolution in social media disrupted and replaced the podcast.
- snthpy 4y agoIt's because Lex Friedman and Andrew Huberman now create these 2 - 3 hour episodes that there's no time to listen to anything else anymore.
- dredmorbius 4y agoLex Fridman has consistently failed to meet expectations. He snags many big names and interesting topics ... and utterly mangles the result. I'm boggled that he is as frequently recommended as he is, particularly on HN.
- timeon 4y agoIt is hard for me to listen to Lex Friedman. Even if he has interesting guests he sounds so naive.
- aliqot 4y agoIt's a little above the reading level for some folks and can wander into deeper discussions.
- affgrff2 4y agoAlso, he sounds like Todd Chavez from Bojack horseman...
- rg111 4y agoI appreciate Lex because of this. He throws in extremely open ended questions. And the guests can answer any way they like. I like the freedom Lex offers his guests, as opposed to traditional media interviewers. Lex does open ended questions and the guest can answer it anyway they like- any depth they are comfortable at speaking. Traditional media is not only narrow in scopes but questions, and hence, answers are bound by the intelligence level of the host and the audience.
- jrochkind1 4y agoI wonder if spotify will suceeed in monopolizing spotcast distribution, as they are trying to.
- kzrdude 4y agoHow can they succeed, they'll have to pay everyone?
- jrochkind1 4y agoBy making more off of ads and subscriptions than they pay, the same way they are profiting off of music? That's how their business works, right? About a year ago Spotify surpassed Apple for monthly regular podcast listeners. https://www.aakashg.com/2021/12/14/spotify-podcasts-apple/ https://www.aakashg.com/2021/12/14/spotify-podcasts-apple/ Some portion of spotify podcasts are "spotify exclusive" (that they pay the creators for, and that can only be listened to on spotify app) -- they bought Gimlet and several other podcast publishers. But I think they also distribute podcasts that are not exclusive? (not totally sure, I don't use spotify). I think the spotify-exclusive podcasts, along with their existing customer base used to using spotify app to listen to things, are probably crucial to their success in market share. They want to be the (or one of the) only way to reach listeners with a podcast, so they can take a cut. They're working on it. While right now I think even their exclusive podcasts can be listened to on free spotify accounts (they still make money off ads), if they can get to this dominant position they will of course have subscription-only podcasts too. More on the efforts of Spotify and others to get in a chokepoint position on podcasts: https://fair.org/home/the-new-podcast-oligopoly/ https://fair.org/home/the-new-podcast-oligopoly/
- kzrdude 4y agoIt was a contributing reason to me quitting spotify. But it's inconvenient to make do without, for some music things. (Never tried podcasts in spotify and never wanted though)
- KomoD 4y agoI liked some podcasts a while ago, but the ads were killing me so I just couldn't bother anymore
- dredmorbius 4y agoI'll note that there's nothing that quite kills my appetite for listening to a podcast as the knowledge that there will be a slew of annoying, intrusive, poorly-contextualised, and abrupt advertising breaks within the segment. My list of strongly preferred podcasts slews strongly to those without any commercials. A patronage pitch by the creator is acceptable. This in particular hits numerous media-organisation and radio-adapted podcasts particularly hard, with NPR, BBC, CBC, Vox, and NYTimes being particularly notable for this. Academic-organisation podcasts avoid this very nearly completely, and are far more appealing simply on this basis. ("History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps" being probably the examplar of good content devoid of any advertising.)
- randomifcpfan 4y agoSome good history-related podcasts that I recommend: History of Rome Revolutions History of Japan And the podcast-like YouTube video series “Computer History Museum Oral Histories”.
- hutattedonmyarm 4y agoInterestingly enough, the source for this post talks only about the number of podcasts, not the number of creators. I'm not sure if we should be worried. 2020 and 2021 seem like outliers. While the number of new podcasts is below 2019 levels (roughly at 2018), there's still plenty of new episodes. Still below 2020/2021 but above 2019, so I think nothing bad is happening
- pram 4y agoJan 2021 was the high water mark for a lot of internet stuff it seems. It’s all downhill from there. The normies have logged off now.
- imgabe 4y agoThis was bound to happen as the percentage of people who have podcasts approached 100.
- par 4y agoI still have never listened to one full podcast in my life.
- college_physics 4y agoPodcasts face similar problems as any other digital content creation mode in this brave new world: discovery and funding on the one hand (to support creators) and information overload on the other (complicating the attraction of steady populations of listeners) In a sense they are the perfect enhancement to the radio of yesteryear which served people reasonably well and was loved for many, many, decades. But the good guys don't always win.
- dav_Oz 4y agoAfter a while I realized that a fairly amount of podcasts/episodes have pretty low density information throughout say a 3 hours talk. There are those gems where sufficiently good preparedness of the interviewer (e.g. read the book and came prepared with a set of well thought-out notes) is met with a suitable rhetorical skill/confidence of the interviewee. But, alas, I would lie to myself if I believe podcasts are driven by the above. Personally, I like to hear interesting people talk, it became much a tilted board, so for some time, now, I've cut down my consumption considerably and try to appreciate it as a digital social treat rather than actually knowledge building (very limited). For that there must be some large enough "active" part involved and as a mere listener I get too comfy too easily. It is a bit like not writing down your ideas, the moment you commit them to "paper" most of the time they are not so "great" anymore and you realize there is more nuance to it ;)
- mythhouse 4y ago> try to appreciate it as a digital social treat rather than actually knowledge building (very limited). I really struggle with this, driven by this anxeity that I am "falling behind" in terms of knowledge if i don't consume it all the time.
- brainchild-adam 4y agoI can relate, even if it's not specifically about podcasts for me, but rather any source of information. How I try to cope is by striving for contextualizing decisions. Everything I do or could do and every value I attach to something depends on and is influenced by context. Every choice I make affects more than just one area or part of my life. My life consists of more than one thing. Yes, I could spend all day doing X. How would this affect different areas of my life? Is this the single most important thing in my life right now? How will this benefit me? At what cost? Is it worth the cost? Striving for a more holistic view of my life helps me balance my tendency to lose sight of the whole for focusing in too much on one single thing without context. Plus, dealing with the roots of my anxiety rather than the outgrowths alone.
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- rsynnott 4y agoI found myself listening to podcasts _way_ more during the pandemic (multiple hours per day), as a coping mechanism. I'd just walk for hours and listen to something. My podcast consumption's definitely dramatically down with a return to some sort of normality.
- mythhouse 4y ago[dead]
- overthemoon 4y agoI think podcasting is at its best when it's niche, weirdo content made by nobodies. I mainly listen to comedy podcasts, and the best ones aren't established celebrities barging into the space. See: Conan O'Brien, who I like quite a bit, but I was annoyed when he announced his show. They take up a lot of oxygen and discoverability is worse because of it. On the other hand, they probably roll up a lot of people who wouldn't be listening to a podcast at all otherwise, so it's not like they're sucking up audiences, but there's only so much room for promotion and ranking. There's also a pool of topics which everyone has an opinion on that are saturated and you really have to have an interesting angle to stand out.
- etrautmann 4y agoAny recommendations for niche comedy podcast?
- causi 4y ago"Plumbing the Death Star" is pretty good. They discuss absurd questions like "What if Professor X ran Hogwarts?" and the like. "Hello From the Magic Tavern" is an improvisational comedy show set in a fantasy world. "Mad at the Internet" is fun if you like learning about and laughing at real-life batshit insane people.
- overthemoon 4y ago- Hollywood Handbook: two guys with an extended bit about how they're clueless, arrogant celebrity chasers and they interview comedians - Rude Tales of Magic: easily the best D&D podcast out there. Has a real insane, cartoon quality to it, cast is great, production values are through the roof. Always funny, sometimes surprisingly affecting. They have another one called Oh These Those Stars of Space, similar thing but in space. - Seeking Derangements: In the "funny people chatting with no structure" genre. Either you like that or you don't, I happen to think they're hilarious, but wouldn't blame anyone for not liking it. - High & Mighty: This one I tune in when there's an interesting guest. Jon Gabrus is hysterical, though. I suppose the premise is that Gabrus and guest get high and talk about the topic of the guest's choosing, but usually it's just funny to hear him riff with his friends - Most everything on CBB World, including everything on CBB Presents. If you're not familiar, Comedy Bang Bang is, IMO, the original comedy podcast. Been going on for like 14 years, Auckerman started his own platform recent called CBB World with fan favorite characters and comedians getting space to do extended bits and explore ideas. They don't always hit, but there's some gold there. - ALAB: A bunch of lawyers chat up law topics. Funny, sometimes unbelievably grim, depending on the topic - What A Time to Be Alive: 3 NYC comedians pick goofy stories in the news to riff on - E1: Premise is that each episode is the first episode of some other podcast. I think Andy Daly did this concept, as well, but these guys are killing it. - bigsofttitty.png: Australian comedians riffing. I just recently found this one, pretty good so far but I've only heard part of one ep. I've heard good things about The Teacher's Lounge, but haven't listened to it much yet. Dan Lippert has been on Comedy Bang Bang a lot and he's really funny, though. Less niche: - Comedy Bang Bang: the GOAT. A zillion years now and still going strong - Chapo Trap House (polarizing, I know, but I've been a listener since the beginning, big fan) - The Neighborhood Listen (Paul F Tompkins is simply the funniest man alive IMHO)
- ergonaught 4y agoI do not understand people who have the time to create these, nor people who have the time to listen to these, nor people who believe people should take the time to listen to these, where "these" is informational audio or video content on any single topic exceeding 15 minutes in length. Toss in the people who think they need 2 minutes of intro, or spend 30% or more of their time greeting/acknowledging/whatever people who aren't present/involved when the audience actually consumes the content, and I just don't know why these things ever became so widespread. That's my mileage, anyway.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago> I do not understand people who have the time to create these, nor people who have the time to listen to these, nor people who believe people should take the time to listen to these, where "these" is informational audio or video content on any single topic exceeding 15 minutes in length. I like to listen to podcasts while I run. I listen at double speed and my shortest runs last a half hour minimum. I also listen for the entertainment, not necessarily solely because I want the information, so I don't mind listening to the hosts be people (though they can drag on too long, and don't get me started on "podcast network" ads).
- ergonaught 4y agoMost of my runner friends mention listening to audiobooks or podcasts while they're out, and I listened to NPR when I had a commute to the office. The downvote storm I received has made me grumpy, though, so I'm just going to pass on.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI think the downvote storm is due to your first statement here, which to me says you don't understand how people don't have time for podcasts: > I do not understand people who have the time to create these, nor people who have the time to listen to these, nor people who believe people should take the time to listen to these, where "these" is informational audio or video content on any single topic exceeding 15 minutes in length. When your comment now is saying you know people who do listen to them. It's a bit confusing and could use some clarity I think.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoI think for a while a lot of podcasts sort of got started because there was a low barrier to entry. Most of those podcasts are kinda vacuous though. Not that there aren't the odd gems, but a huge proportion of small podcasts consists of just 2-3 people gossiping for 45 minutes, usually reinforcing the same general ideas over and over without really thinking them through.
- ubermonkey 4y agoThis seems predictable, though, no? I sorta figured that it'd go like blogging, and here we are. What surprises me is how many podcasts are INSANELY long -- like, 2+ hours. Where do people find the time to listen? (Granted, I say this as someone with a zero podcast diet. I'm not opposed to them or anything; I just don't have a place in my life for listening to them. I have no commute. I prefer music when cooking or cleaning or whatnot. My exercise is usually biking, and I don't listen to anything for that.)
- skizm 4y agoI listen to audio books anywhere from 2 - 2.5x speed these days, so I assume people do that with podcasts too. 2 hours becomes 48 minutes then.
- kzrdude 4y agoI always listen at regular speed. Well, if the story is engrossing enough (The Fall of Civilizations podcast's episode about the Aztecs/Mechica, for example), then one episode turns into a week-long series of listening sessions and sets a great mood for the whole week. If it all works out well.
- rg111 4y agoSame here. I find 2+ hours of podcasts episodes way to long to listen. I simply cannot find the time. After work + learning + side projects + social life + friends and family + hobbies (both creative and consuming types), I don't have the time for 2+ hours podcast episodes. I have found 20-30 minutes lengths as the sweet spot. Like: Darknet Diaries, History of Philosophy without Gaps, BBC in our Time Science, etc. Shorter than that, I feel it doesn't penetrate my mind enough, like: Moments of the American Mathematical Society, Developer Tea. Larger ones, I simply can't fit into my day: Huberman Lab podcast, some episodes of Lex Fridman's, etc. I simply can't find the time.
- niek_pas 4y agoIf you have the time to listen to four 30-minute podcast episodes, you have the time to listen to a single 2-hour podcast episode. Working my way through the back catalogue of my current favorite podcast, Reconcilable Differences (200 episodes at 1.5-3 hours each), took me around 12-15 months.
- bilsbie 4y agoCan someone build an AI tool that you give it a link to a podcast and it gives you the keys insights?
- oldstrangers 4y agoI was wanting something like this, using Whisper and ChatGPT to summarize Huberman podcasts for me.
- telotortium 4y agoGood news - this already exists: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34030389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34030389
- oldstrangers 4y agoAmazing!
- dredmorbius 4y agoThese are called "transcripts", or occasionally "show notes", and better pods will have these. See: On the Media and the Ezra Klein Show (both offer transcripts), or Santa Fe Institute's Complexity and History of Philosophy both of which have amazing show-notes. HoP also releases a book series based on the podcast. I'd argue that you want the programmes which perform this through human means, as the work-product (shownotes, transcript) a signifier of the process, which is what produces a high-quality podcast in the first place. AI-based post hoc highlights or transcript ... won't fix a poorly-planned, poorly-conceived, poorly-edited mess. Which is what many podcasts are.
- mcemilg 4y agoI built a transcription and dictation app for Mac [0] using whisper. There is a feature to transcribe a podcast through search and through RSS link. You can try it if you have a mac, then feed it to ChatGPT to get the key insights. [0] https://apple.co/3j2k8E7 https://apple.co/3j2k8E7
- exabrial 4y agoMy commute is too short for a 2 hour podcast... I wish there were more in the 8-20m range :/
- jononomo 4y agoThere were still over 200,000 new podcasts created in 2022. So the number may be down, but it is still overwhelming.
- andrewclunn 4y agoYouTube made two important changes to their algorithm over the past decade: - Newer content listed over "best fit" content. - Time of viewing prioritizing longer videos over shorter ones. Both these were done for advertising purposes. Both result in more drawn out, less dense content (both from an information and entertainment perspective). This is the result of the ad driven model. People would rather waste time than buy things. Want quality content in audio format that doesn't waste your time? Buy an audiobook. You get what you pay for.
- jononomo 4y agoI am a voracious podcast consumer, probably listening to an average of 5 hours per day. Over the last 2-3 months, however, I've noticed my interest in podcasts rapidly decreasing. Now that the election is over and Trump is fading I guess I've lost interest in the political stuff. Also, I think I'm realizing how useless it is to my life to just hear about politics. As for people being outraged for or against the woke stuff, it is just the same talking points being rehashed over and over, so I'm tuning that out as well. I've also noticed that when someone has something interesting to say, such as Richard Reeves recently, then that person appears on all the podcasts in my feed, so it becomes a bit repetitive for me. Even podcasts related to the carnivore diet, which I follow closely, have basically beaten the subject to death over the last 2-3 years. I know the diet works and I've been convinced from every angle and there just isn't much more to say beyond that. The only podcast that I really look forward to anymore is The Rest is History with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. They have a great rapport and the historical episodes they recount are fascinating. It is the only podcast I would recommend to almost anyone.
- LarryMullins 4y agoThat's because the parasocial simp herders all moved to twitch. Most podcasts were being used as friend simulators, and twitch is better at that.
- reubenswartz 4y agoIt's wonderful that anyone can create a blog, YouTube channel, podcast, etc. At the same time, the math means that at some point you'll have so many creators that it's hard to get the attention of an audience. And a lot of the folks who created some kind of content channel because someone promised that it would be an easy way to make a lot of money then realized that they bought a shovel that they really don't want to use to dig.
- aaaaarg 4y agoLooking at the dates I suspect a bunch of people started making podcasts because they suddenly had spare time from activities they couldn't do due to the covid pandemic (ongoing but less restrictions) and were looking for ways to connect to people. Personally I think good podcasts are more like zines than radio programs. Poorly slapped together, maybe short lived, but often containing something unique and special.
- rchaud 4y agoWhat's happening to podcasts now previously happened to the WWW. In the 1.0 era, websites were hand-crafted and made for no other reason than curiosity and time. Then businesses got into the game, and personal websites disappeared. Today, unless you are a developer or have something to sell, chances are that you wouldn't even think of creating a website. It seems that podcasts followed the exact same path. As late as 2012, podcasts were niche things that most had heard about, but few actually considered doing. Today, like websites, podcasts are just another arm of marketing at best, or an ad delivery vector at worst.
- nkotov 4y agoI listen to two types of podcasts - short form news (under 20 minutes) and long-form educational/interesting (over an hour). Discovery is a big problem with podcasts - and when I do end up finding something, if I can't click with something in the first 10 minutes, I end up turning it off. I only listen to perhaps 6-7 different podcast creators.
- kderbyma 4y agono Agenda....one of the best and no ads!!!!
- blockwriter 4y agoI don't really like the time I spend listening to podcasts. My dad, though, had talk radio playing constantly. Part of me thinks I have a genetic proclivity for listening to inane chatter. It is comforting.