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I hate Spotify Podcasts with a passion. The UI is lackluster, since it's just the same one from the normal Spotify Music experience. Because they bought Joe Ro

by gempir 3y ago

I hate Spotify Podcasts with a passion. The UI is lackluster, since it's just the same one from the normal Spotify Music experience. Because they bought Joe Rogan they had to add video too and video is horribly implemented. There isn't even an obvious way to turn it off. I consider myself tech-savy but I gave up trying to turn off and just switched to Apple Podcasts. Podcasts and Music are not the same. Please if you really want Podcasts to happen then, Spotify, make a separate App for it.

the_snooze 3y ago
Spotify podcasts were what made me jump ship to Apple Music. At least back then, Spotify would heavily prioritize their podcasts in the UI. Podcasts were front and center on the main screen. I don't just mean the desktop or mobile UI, but in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too, where screen space and attention are at a premium. I had to keep fighting the UI to get to what I was paying Spotify for: the music. When I tried out Apple Music and saw that it was music only, it was easy to leave Spotify because their priorities were no longer aligned with mine.
prmoustache 3y ago
> Podcasts and Music are not the same. Not a spotify nor Apple Music/Podcast/itunes user here. Aren't both audio stuff where you press play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward? The only difference I can think of is that you might sometimes want to accelerate playback of podcasts but that doesn't mean it can't exist in the same player.
- sleepybrett 3y ago
  Podcast apps, good ones, have many features you don't need in a simple app like a winamp or vlc. 1) An online catalog of series that is searchable (probably both by name and topic and participants). 2) That catalog must contain metadata both at a series level and an episode level. 3) That online catalog must also be navigable without search, of course. 4) Ability to subscribe to any given series and for the app to have an option to pre-cache an episode for offline use. 5) Several content controls that aren't really required for music listening but are must haves for podcasts such as timed skips (30s, 60s) and playback speed adjustment (only useful in a music player where you probably want to do beat matching). I think the biggest differentiator though is the episode/series catalog. It makes podcasts actually discoverable.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    There are audio players that allows you to find radios by various criterias: genre, bitrates, location, etc. I don't think it is hard in term of UI nor does it justify a different app when you can have an additionnal tab that allows to find podcast. You just have to change the criterias. Subscription to podcast is done via rss right? I don't think that is a huge deal either.
    - sleepybrett 3y ago
      But it wouldn't make a lot of sense to add this to a generic music player .. whatever the modern winamp is. It just comes down to that management/browse/search task dwarfs the playback code. I'd rather have small apps that do one thing well, not a megaapp that does all things badly.

by gempir 3y ago

the_snooze 3y ago

Spotify podcasts were what made me jump ship to Apple Music. At least back then, Spotify would heavily prioritize their podcasts in the UI. Podcasts were front and center on the main screen. I don't just mean the desktop or mobile UI, but in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too, where screen space and attention are at a premium. I had to keep fighting the UI to get to what I was paying Spotify for: the music. When I tried out Apple Music and saw that it was music only, it was easy to leave Spotify because their priorities were no longer aligned with mine.

prmoustache 3y ago

> Podcasts and Music are not the same. Not a spotify nor Apple Music/Podcast/itunes user here. Aren't both audio stuff where you press play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward? The only difference I can think of is that you might sometimes want to accelerate playback of podcasts but that doesn't mean it can't exist in the same player.

sleepybrett 3y ago
Podcast apps, good ones, have many features you don't need in a simple app like a winamp or vlc. 1) An online catalog of series that is searchable (probably both by name and topic and participants). 2) That catalog must contain metadata both at a series level and an episode level. 3) That online catalog must also be navigable without search, of course. 4) Ability to subscribe to any given series and for the app to have an option to pre-cache an episode for offline use. 5) Several content controls that aren't really required for music listening but are must haves for podcasts such as timed skips (30s, 60s) and playback speed adjustment (only useful in a music player where you probably want to do beat matching). I think the biggest differentiator though is the episode/series catalog. It makes podcasts actually discoverable.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  There are audio players that allows you to find radios by various criterias: genre, bitrates, location, etc. I don't think it is hard in term of UI nor does it justify a different app when you can have an additionnal tab that allows to find podcast. You just have to change the criterias. Subscription to podcast is done via rss right? I don't think that is a huge deal either.
  - sleepybrett 3y ago
    But it wouldn't make a lot of sense to add this to a generic music player .. whatever the modern winamp is. It just comes down to that management/browse/search task dwarfs the playback code. I'd rather have small apps that do one thing well, not a megaapp that does all things badly.