19 ms·

NPR One

446 points by antr 12y ago

rglover 12y ago
Super cool. Only thing, though, is that they should be charging for this. Seeing as how NPR stations rely on listener donations, this seems like a missed opportunity to earn some extra revenue and bolster the budget for stations.
- TwiztidK 12y ago
  I have a strong feeling that they will charge for it eventually. Maybe the app will ask them to donate as they use it?
  - twoodfin 12y ago
    I don't know if their funding/production model is flexible enough to allow them to do it, but it seems like some great opportunities for IAP here. For example, if Planet Money produced a monthly bonus episode for, say, $5, I know I wouldn't think twice before tapping "Buy".
    - ch4s3 12y ago
      I could get behind some premium long form content from NPR, especially Planet Money.
  - gee_totes 12y ago
    I have a strong feeling that when your local station's pledge drive begins, the app will use your location data to generate notifications about donating, which you'll be able to do through the app. At least, that's how I would do it. NPR is missing out on a big donation opportunity by not taking advantage of an app store's built-in in-app purchase/donation infrastructure.
    - jfeser 12y ago
      It already includes a donation link under the station name. Right now it just sends you an email with donation info. Hopefully they can streamline that in the future.
    - sdillingham 12y ago
      Unfortunately Apple's ToS explicitly forbid charitable donations inside of apps, which is exactly what an IAP donation would be. Public radio's hands are tied unless Apple changes it's policies.
- tormeh 12y ago
  But it's NPR... It's government-owned, right? A public broadcaster? Can they legally charge for anything?
  - mesh 12y ago
    fyi, NPR is is publicly and privately funded, but is not owned by the government. There is a good article here on its status: http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2001/011228.html http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2001/011228.html "Legally speaking, NPR is a private, not-for-profit corporation chartered by the District of Columbia and qualified by the Internal Revenue Service as a "501(c)(3)" organization exempt from taxation. "
  - MBCook 12y ago
    They're not government owned. They're get a subsidy through the appropriate government agency (don't remember the name at the moment) but it's only about 10% of their budget and they are free to act however they wish. NPR is not state media. That would be Voice of America, which is not allowed to broadcast in the US.
    - tormeh 12y ago
      I just looked it up and it is allowed to broadcast domestically since 2013. Anyway it kind of seems a bit quaint in the face of BBC world service.
  - gee_totes 12y ago
    No, it's not government-owned. "According to the 2009 financial statement, about 50% of NPR revenues come from the fees it charges member stations for programming and distribution charges."[0] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npr#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npr#Funding
  - theg2 12y ago
    They are not government owned. They take grants but they are prohibited from taking money directly. A large part of their income comes from member stations who pay for access to shows, content, and support.
- lukeschlather 12y ago
  This isn't really any different from the streaming player on npr.org. It's got a slightly fancier subscription mechanism. At the end of the day, it's not that useful because I can't rely on my phone's 4G to remain connected without buffering while listening to an hour long news program on a trip. What would be worth charging money for is an app that could cache a configurable number of hours of new curated content when connected to wifi. Even so, that's not really any different from podcasts. I feel like the world is still very much in a transitional state with regards to how we think about apps. NPR offers its stuff over the air for free, but you write some code to do the same thing with a computer, and suddenly people are saying it should cost money.
  - paulito 12y ago
    New York's public radio station, WNYC, recently revamped its app to incorporate this feature, which I agree is very useful: http://www.wnyc.org/mobile/ http://www.wnyc.org/mobile/ A lot of the available content categories aren't specific to New York, so it might be worth checking out regardless of where you live.
- eddieroger 12y ago
  I imagine most of the local fees go to very tactical things like keeping the transmitter on, which is non-trivial. Not that streaming should exclude local affiliates from funding, but it should be the local channel's responsibility to handle the cost of things it can't share (transmitters, office space, staff, etc), and share or get money for content and such which it can share back.
- bullfight 12y ago
  When I started listening, the first thing it did was play a bump for my local station, I am really hoping this fully incorporates local content.
- TylerE 12y ago
  There actually isn't any such thing as an "NPR Station". NPR is not a broadcaster. They are a content-producer. There are stations that are NPR members that carry lots of NPR content, but they are free to also carry local content they produce, content they license from other syndicates (e.g. PRI, American Public Media, PRX)
- johnnymonster 12y ago
  but you are able to donate. The app actually tells you how to donate to your localized station by clicking on the "How to Donate" link in the menu area.
- garretruh 12y ago
  At least during the beta, a "Donate" segment would occasionally be interspersed between programs/segments; the app displayed a button that linked you to the start of their online donation process.
hodgesmr 12y ago
Xbox One. Pandora One. Ubuntu One. NPR One. Stop it!
- imcn 12y ago
  Nexus One. OnePlus One. LG Optimus One. HTC One. Even Apple's got One!
  - freehunter 12y ago
    What One does Apple have? I searched it but only got an employment agency with no relationship to the computer company.
    - mikeash 12y ago
      I'd assume it was a joke on the Apple I, their first computer.
- spindritf 12y ago
  Ubuntu One. They stopped this one.
x1798DE 12y ago
I don't understand why this needs to be an app. I listen to many things that aren't NPR, and I don't want to switch between BeyondPod and NPR One just to get some sort of curated list. This reminds me of a few years ago where a bunch of podcasts were offering personalized apps that just downloaded the archives and maybe some extra content. I might have paid for the extra content, but I didn't need an app on my phone for every podcast I listen to. Assuming the killer feature here is that it's curated or somehow personalized, and not just something that plays all NPR shows (the page is a bit vague), it seems like you could replace this with a service that generates personalized RSS feeds on the fly, server-side. That way it can integrate directly into your own podcast-listening workflow, where you might have plugins or some specific setup that you prefer to use.
- netcan 12y ago
  Podcasts (especially on android) is still remarkably broken for most people. I have installed an app and subscribed to several podcasts for a number of people who are below average in their tech literacy. They all fail at being able to consistently manage the app and get the content they want. Finding and subscribing to a new podcast, even if they know which one they want and can get to the website is an almost 100% fail rate. Even for me, discovery is broken. I'm sure there is interesting stuff out there that I can't find. In any case, I think that between an app that people know to install and and click on an RSS feed that they have no idea what to do with, the app is the better choice.
  - jclos 12y ago
    It's a bit offtopic but have you tried PocketCasts? I have been using it extensively on Android and recommended it to many tech-illiterate (the kind of people who think facebooking makes them computer literate) friends with relatively good success.
  - x1798DE 12y ago
    I suppose you could offer an app in addition to an RSS feed, but honestly I've never encountered someone who didn't know how to download a podcast. If they are primarily worried about people having trouble downloading podcasts for whatever reason, it seems like they could have saved themselves a lot of work by just contacting some of the biggest podcast apps on the market (BeyondPod I think is the biggest) about making it easy to subscribe to this particular feed. They could make a custom-built plugin that just installs the feed, they could potentially license a special distribution of the app that has the feed pre-installed. Fragmentation of the audio listening market is really not justified and is not really going to help anything.
danielweber 12y ago
Scroll down broken here. First I have to click on the page to get scrolling to work. Then as I use the space bar to scroll down, the dots change but often the text does not.
- cake 12y ago
  Broken for me too on the second dot, I can't scroll more and have to click on a dot. I really dislike this new "Powerpoint slide" presentation trend.
- bduerst 12y ago
  Are you using NoScript or some other javascript killer? Usually these are driven by some custom js.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    Not on this machine. Plain Google Chrome on Windows.
dctoedt 12y ago
If this catches on, it might disintermediate (EDIT: or accelerate the existing disintermediation of) the local public radio stations, which will then lose donations, which will then be less able to do local reporting. (Of course I'm not sure our Houston public radio station does all that much local reporting to start with.)
- msluyter 12y ago
  I think this has happened in part already. Although I try to listen to my local station (KUT) via their app, I also use the NPR app to time shift programs like All Things Considered that I tend to otherwise miss. (If you miss a program by an hour or so, the NPR app won't let you listen to a program that's within some window of its broadcast time, but you can listen to it any public radio station currently broadcasting it.) I also listen to shows that aren't carried locally, and of course, time listening through the NPR app is time not spent listening to KUT directly (which I probably would do if there weren't alternatives, because I'm pretty much an NPR junkie).
- colanderman 12y ago
  Perhaps with the local content it promises to play, it will play local pledge drives?
- mschaef 12y ago
  I think you're on to something. When our local public radio stations start their pledge drives, I almost immediately switch over to the podcasts for the duration. There's more latency in the stories, but you also miss the continual pledge advertising.
- 27182818284 12y ago
  >If this catches on, it might disintermediate the local public radio stations, Just glancing at the app, I don't think there is anything here that you couldn't currently do in the NPR app ecosystem. For example there is already an NPR app that lets you choose radio stations or just programs from around the world and a lot of local stations built their own, independent app (though in my experience those are lower quality)
- 12y ago
grrrando 12y ago
Anyone else find the concept a little weird? NPR is already like this in many ways (heavily left-leaning) so this argument is already somewhat moot, but: hearing news stories tailored just for me sounds ignorant. News shouldn't be a thing which I am allowed to filter based on my biases.
- gress 12y ago
  Whose biases should your news be filtered by?
- rootbear 12y ago
  I'll have to see how this actually works, but it's not clear that the news itself will be tailored to the listener. For example, I might pick "Science News" and "Arts News" but not "Sports News" and I don't see that as putting myself in an echo chamber. If the categories were "News for Democrats" and "News for Social Conservatives", then that might be a concern. Also, NPR is more than just news. I regularly listen to NPR programming that isn't entirely aligned with my own world views.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- blueplanet 12y ago
  I think they mean tailoring in two ways: 1. Play stories local to where you live. 2. A lot of shows on NPR aren't straight news, so it'll remember which shows you particularly enjoy.
- cantankerous 12y ago
  NPR is loaded with programming that isn't just news-related. This includes musical programming, comedy, special interest programs, and topical shows. Listeners to NPR already know this. They filter what they want to hear by turning the radio on and off. NPR's news segments are top notch journalism. You'd be hard-pressed to find another media institution as large as NPR in the US that does nearly as good of a job in my opinion.
- tomjen3 12y ago
minivan 12y ago
Cool, hopefully it will replace the All Songs Considered audio stream (which is great). Side note: Is it just me, or this "scroll to reveal stuff in steps" is a bit frustrating? It seems to be used more and more often and I am sometimes puzzled by the fact that I'm missing the scrolling step. I try scrolling and get either too far (which shows half an image coming from above) or don't get anywhere (which makes me scroll more and skip steps). Here's an example: http://www.spendeeapp.com/ http://www.spendeeapp.com/ Am I doing something wrong?
- stronglikedan 12y ago
  It's not just you. It's an annoying trend. Perhaps it's good for phones and tablets (that's arguable), but I don't think it's good for mouse input. At least this landing page (NPR) has optional buttons on the right side, unlike most pages I've seen like this (Spendee). It's turning "mobile first" into "mobile only", and I am being dragged kicking and screaming into it.
  - mbesto 12y ago
    As always, the general rule of the desktop is "don't break my browser functionality". Browser functionality = scroll bar, back/forward button, refresh, bookmark, etc.
    - drewblaisdell 12y ago
      A better rule is that these browser functions should do what the user expects. I don't think this page violates that rule (and it might not even violate yours: the scrollbar's movement has not been altered on this page like on Apple's product pages).
      - JetSpiegel 12y ago
        No, because what the user expects can be customizable, app developers can't just guess it.
      - gnarbarian 12y ago
arcticfox 12y ago
I was hoping that I could say: "Yes, I like Radiolab" and "No, I don't like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", but that doesn't seem to be a feature. This would be perfect if they added it!
- ejfox 12y ago
  This is a feature of Swell: http://www.swell.am/ http://www.swell.am/
- jonesetc 12y ago
  I thought the same thing, but that's when I would say we're probably all better off just using a podcast. http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
- jim-greer 12y ago
  Hopefully they'll factor in what you skip and mark as "interesting"...
- mikeleung 12y ago
  check out the wnyc app (the local station in NY) it provides a feature to pick topics you like
tomjen3 12y ago
Beware if you use google or facebook to login to it (what the fuck do you need to login in the first place) it requires the right to get your friends lists and to post content on your behalf.
- hodgesmr 12y ago
  You log in to "thumbs up" content to get a personalized stream.
  - geekam 12y ago
    You can use NPR login.
- igonvalue 12y ago
  I tried using Google login, and it wouldn't proceed unless I created a Google Plus profile.
ruytlm 12y ago
This is all well and good, but why does everyone need to have their own damn app? This is the biggest problem with audio apps these days - you get everyone trying to make a similar thing, and because they're all competing they all try and lock each other out of their own products. What would be so much better is a content-agnostic platform, that'll let you play whatever the hell you want - whether it's music, talk radio, podcasts, whatever. Seriously - why does everyone assume that if I want to listen to e.g. NPR, I only want to listen to NPR?
- joekrill 12y ago
  I agree totally. The problem is, I haven't been able to find one single content-agnostic app that does any of this very well. Either it's iPhone only. Or Android only. Or iPhone and Android but no web app. Or it doesn't sync my last listening position, or sometimes even what I've listened to at all. Or any other number of very basic things I'd expect an app like this to have.
  - myko 12y ago
    > Or iPhone and Android but no web app Pocket Casts is awesome but there have been times when I really wanted a web version. Lately though I use Chromecast from the app when I'd normally want the PC to play the track.
- jessriedel 12y ago
  I agree with the annoyance of everyone and their mother wanting their own app, but NPR seems like a big enough piece of a lot of folks entertainment/news lives that it makes sense. (I say this as someone who never listens to NPR.) The question is whether the product is used frequently enough and can actually make use of a custom interface, compared to whether a more generic app would actually provide value. If I would use the generic app to listen to NPR 95% of the time, then it probably makes more sense to dedicate the app to NPR and just use a web browser for the other 5%. Reversing XKCD, it's probably better to think of apps as slightly heavy and custom websites. There's really not much loss in having lots more apps so long as they're lighweight. Throw them all into a folder on your homescreen. http://xkcd.com/1367/ http://xkcd.com/1367/
thekevan 12y ago
No browser version?
- rugbydev 12y ago
  Yes, http://one.npr.org http://one.npr.org
mikeash 12y ago
I love the idea. I listen to NPR a fair amount but it's always a bit hit or miss as to whether I'll catch it at an interesting moment, since my listening is basically "whenever I happen to be in the car, or possibly out for a walk where I don't want to enjoy quietude." I work around it to an extent with podcasts of shows I like, but that works poorly for anything related to news.
CapitalistCartr 12y ago
Every corporate/large organization Web site wants me to use their app. I already have an app! It's the Web browser. It already plays video and audio.
- giarc 12y ago
  Can a mobile browser continue to play audio when your phone is in your pocket? For example, YouTube stops playing when I put my iPhone to sleep.
  - dublinben 12y ago
    That's a function of Youtube primarily delivering video content. A website designed to deliver audio content (e.g. Soundcloud) can keep playing just fine with the screen off.
  - fsck--off 12y ago
    Yes, it can. Start the video and put the iPhone to sleep. When you wake the iPhone up a moment later the music controls on the lock screen allow you to resume playing the audio. You can then turn the screen off and the audio will still play.
    - giarc 12y ago
      That's a good work around, but I would not want that to be the instructions I give to people wanting to listen to my audio stream from a website.
  - fred_durst 12y ago
    I do it all the time, so yes.
m1117 12y ago
I really like using AGOGO that includes NPR too
jonmagic 12y ago
Why does the app need microphone access? I missed the blurb when you first open the app and can't seem to figure out how to replay it now.
- rsync 12y ago
  The app does not need microphone access. You know it, I know it, NPR knows it.
- johnnymonster 12y ago
  It has xapp ad integration, which requires microphone access.
- theg2 12y ago
  Certain ads will allow you to interact with them via your microphone for hands free driving or whatever. It's new and you'll probably start seeing it more in other apps but this is the first time I've seen it in an app.
  - rsync 12y ago
    To all current and future app developers using microphone-ad-interaction: die in a fire.
techpeace 12y ago
Rather than some aimless techie kvetching, I'd just like to pass along a hearty congrats to the folks who made this happen. Great work, and I'm excited to use it!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
mmanfrin 12y ago
I really appreciate NPR. They truly try to embetter their offerings. It's nice that we have a source of news that is not beholden to advertisers or corporate interests (although the number of 'This content was made possible by donations from...' I hear at the end of the larger shows is a bit worrying). I just wish Says You would release their episodes as a podcast.
- FedRegister 12y ago
  >It's nice that we have a source of news that is not beholden to advertisers or corporate interests (although the number of 'This content was made possible by donations from...' I hear at the end of the larger shows is a bit worrying). Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a thing, ain't it? The vast majority of NPR's funding comes from advertisers, excuse me, underwriters. Edit: Well fuck me I'm wrong. Carry on, citizen.
  - VikingCoder 12y ago
    > The vast majority No, it doesn't. From what I can see, it's more like 17%. http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances
    - embolalia 12y ago
      17% from corporations, but also count foundations if you're looking for underwriters overall, not just corporate interests. Probably also universities and "other" for 41.6% That's still not even remotely close to a vast majority, of course. And I think there's a qualitative difference between getting funding from an organization that wants to increase its bottom line and one that wants to create a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.
      - ethbro 12y ago
        "a more just, verdant, and peaceful world" Well that sponsorship was obviously well-spent!
ForHackernews 12y ago
I hope it's better than the "This American Life" Android app. I'm still angry that I spent real money on a buggy mobile interface that freezes and crashes for podcasts that are free in a normal browser.
kbenson 12y ago
I'm relieved they have an android app. From listening to NPR, one could almost think andoid was some niche player, based on the amount of free press the iphone gets. That may have eased up some recently, but for a while it felt like they had some meeting where they decided to replace "smartphone" with "iphone" in everything they said.
- prawks 12y ago
  Nothing for Windows Phone, unfortunately. Though I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to market share.
- Nicholas_C 12y ago
  On the website for my local NPR station (91.7 KXT, Dallas/Fort Worth) they have a playlist that shows recently played songs and the only option to "Buy Song" takes you to iTunes. I'm assuming they get a share of the revenues from songs purchased and I wish they would link to Amazon or Google Play instead so I could help support. They've introduced me to a lot of good bands and I buy a couple songs I hear on the station a week.
ejfox 12y ago
I scrolled through this whole thread looking for a mention of Swell who have been my go-to app for this purpose for the past couple of months (feels like it's been forever though, can't imagine life without it). I pretty much get NPR hourly news updates, Fresh Air, interspersed with episodes of Marc Maron's WTF and some random stuff like A16Z and stuff from the BBC. It's pretty much ideal. I love NPR, and before Swell would just have the local station on all day, but I find that NPR doesn't make enough content to fill up a whole day of straight listening (at least not enough content that I like) - I wonder if the NPR One app would automatically find shows from their archive that I might be interested in to fill the time. I'd be curious if other users of Swell will be switching to this app, or if they, like me, see it as a slightly different and improved model to tie together content from a variety of different sources.
- covati 12y ago
  well, now that swell is shutting down it might make sense. But I'll miss the variety that I get from swell :( http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/apple-to-buy-swell-for-30-million-per-report/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/apple-to-buy-swell-for-30-m...
  - pbreit 12y ago
    Another option: http://anten.na http://anten.na
- jim-greer 12y ago
  I listened for about 20 minutes at lunch, and they did play a story from the archives...
brianbreslin 12y ago
My first thought was "I hope this is paid like pandora." I would love to be able to purchase content in app, or at least contribute through the app. Maybe split the proceeds with my local npr station so we can end those annoying fund raising drives.
anigbrowl 12y ago
Good stuff, but your feed will be 'hadcrafted'? No it won't. That specifically means a human being involved in structuring your feed at the other end I seriously doubt that's the case. Words have meanings beyond their emotional marketing value, subverting them for commercial ends will eventually erode the trust of your audience.
- mtinkerhess 12y ago
  You don't know that there's not a human being at the other end curating the list, do you? It's plausible that there's manual selection involved in each day's playlist.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    As I said already 'I seriously doubt that's the case.'
    - pbreit 12y ago
      You're probably wrong as there are almost definitely humans involved in sifting through the various available programs and influencing which get inserted into playlists.
- rugbydev 12y ago
  Fast Co has an interview that talks about this in more detail: http://www.fastcolabs.com/3033672/peeking-under-the-hood-of-nprs-new-mobile-app http://www.fastcolabs.com/3033672/peeking-under-the-hood-of-...
djhworld 12y ago
I love NPR and listen to a few of their podcasts via PocketCasts. Not sure if I'd actually use this app, but just wanted to say you guys in the states are fortunate to have NPR producing top quality radio!
zellyn 12y ago
On my Nexus 5, this went through the login/signup process, but now crashes on startup. Every time. Anyone else had better luck?
- pachydermic 12y ago
  Check for the update?
  - zellyn 12y ago
    Didn't help.
meandave 12y ago
This is pretty great, I actually hacked together a little terminal interface to search through all of their stations and stream straight to your shell. Started pulling it apart to also provide a webaudio interface. Looks like they have that covered now though
marineboudeau 12y ago
Shameless plug: WNYC is experimenting in this space as well with Discover [http://www.wnyc.org/mobile http://www.wnyc.org/mobile] - contains our local, national content but also others': NPR, PRX, etc. It works on the subway, while you're offline. We're really excited about NPR One, too and glad to be part of it as well.
chris_mahan 12y ago
National Personal Radio?
ck2 12y ago
Why not for my desktop browser too?
- rugbydev 12y ago
  It is, http://one.npr.org http://one.npr.org
jcburns 12y ago
Oh please, NPR, take the money you spend on developing fancy misguided apps that supposedly serve up "curated content" and spend it on more reporters' salaries. Lots more reporters. Lots and LOTS more reporters. The world is a big place, and the list of crucial, complex, reportable issues is growing by the day. Then we can enjoy the "curation" work of the producers of the fine programs you put on the air and online—have you heard them? They're really a pretty good example of curated content. (Of course, those programs used to simply be called good broadcast journalism.)
- npunt 12y ago
  To hire reporters you need $. To get $ in the digital age, you really should have some control of the distribution of your content. Therefore, an app makes sense, especially at NPRs scale.
  - jcburns 12y ago
    NPR has had INTENSE control of their content since the 1970s. They don't need an app for that. They also have staggering amounts of donations and endowment funds. They may, sadly, have more money than they know what to do with.

446 points by antr 12y ago

Super cool. Only thing, though, is that they should be charging for this. Seeing as how NPR stations rely on listener donations, this seems like a missed opportunity to earn some extra revenue and bolster the budget for stations.

TwiztidK 12y ago
I have a strong feeling that they will charge for it eventually. Maybe the app will ask them to donate as they use it?
- twoodfin 12y ago
  I don't know if their funding/production model is flexible enough to allow them to do it, but it seems like some great opportunities for IAP here. For example, if Planet Money produced a monthly bonus episode for, say, $5, I know I wouldn't think twice before tapping "Buy".
  - ch4s3 12y ago
    I could get behind some premium long form content from NPR, especially Planet Money.
- gee_totes 12y ago
  I have a strong feeling that when your local station's pledge drive begins, the app will use your location data to generate notifications about donating, which you'll be able to do through the app. At least, that's how I would do it. NPR is missing out on a big donation opportunity by not taking advantage of an app store's built-in in-app purchase/donation infrastructure.
  - jfeser 12y ago
    It already includes a donation link under the station name. Right now it just sends you an email with donation info. Hopefully they can streamline that in the future.
  - sdillingham 12y ago
    Unfortunately Apple's ToS explicitly forbid charitable donations inside of apps, which is exactly what an IAP donation would be. Public radio's hands are tied unless Apple changes it's policies.
tormeh 12y ago
But it's NPR... It's government-owned, right? A public broadcaster? Can they legally charge for anything?
- mesh 12y ago
  fyi, NPR is is publicly and privately funded, but is not owned by the government. There is a good article here on its status: http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2001/011228.html http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2001/011228.html "Legally speaking, NPR is a private, not-for-profit corporation chartered by the District of Columbia and qualified by the Internal Revenue Service as a "501(c)(3)" organization exempt from taxation. "
- MBCook 12y ago
  They're not government owned. They're get a subsidy through the appropriate government agency (don't remember the name at the moment) but it's only about 10% of their budget and they are free to act however they wish. NPR is not state media. That would be Voice of America, which is not allowed to broadcast in the US.
  - tormeh 12y ago
    I just looked it up and it is allowed to broadcast domestically since 2013. Anyway it kind of seems a bit quaint in the face of BBC world service.
- gee_totes 12y ago
  No, it's not government-owned. "According to the 2009 financial statement, about 50% of NPR revenues come from the fees it charges member stations for programming and distribution charges."[0] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npr#Funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npr#Funding
- theg2 12y ago
  They are not government owned. They take grants but they are prohibited from taking money directly. A large part of their income comes from member stations who pay for access to shows, content, and support.
lukeschlather 12y ago
This isn't really any different from the streaming player on npr.org. It's got a slightly fancier subscription mechanism. At the end of the day, it's not that useful because I can't rely on my phone's 4G to remain connected without buffering while listening to an hour long news program on a trip. What would be worth charging money for is an app that could cache a configurable number of hours of new curated content when connected to wifi. Even so, that's not really any different from podcasts. I feel like the world is still very much in a transitional state with regards to how we think about apps. NPR offers its stuff over the air for free, but you write some code to do the same thing with a computer, and suddenly people are saying it should cost money.
- paulito 12y ago
  New York's public radio station, WNYC, recently revamped its app to incorporate this feature, which I agree is very useful: http://www.wnyc.org/mobile/ http://www.wnyc.org/mobile/ A lot of the available content categories aren't specific to New York, so it might be worth checking out regardless of where you live.
eddieroger 12y ago
I imagine most of the local fees go to very tactical things like keeping the transmitter on, which is non-trivial. Not that streaming should exclude local affiliates from funding, but it should be the local channel's responsibility to handle the cost of things it can't share (transmitters, office space, staff, etc), and share or get money for content and such which it can share back.
bullfight 12y ago
When I started listening, the first thing it did was play a bump for my local station, I am really hoping this fully incorporates local content.
TylerE 12y ago
There actually isn't any such thing as an "NPR Station". NPR is not a broadcaster. They are a content-producer. There are stations that are NPR members that carry lots of NPR content, but they are free to also carry local content they produce, content they license from other syndicates (e.g. PRI, American Public Media, PRX)
johnnymonster 12y ago
but you are able to donate. The app actually tells you how to donate to your localized station by clicking on the "How to Donate" link in the menu area.
garretruh 12y ago
At least during the beta, a "Donate" segment would occasionally be interspersed between programs/segments; the app displayed a button that linked you to the start of their online donation process.

hodgesmr 12y ago

Xbox One. Pandora One. Ubuntu One. NPR One. Stop it!

imcn 12y ago
Nexus One. OnePlus One. LG Optimus One. HTC One. Even Apple's got One!
- freehunter 12y ago
  What One does Apple have? I searched it but only got an employment agency with no relationship to the computer company.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    I'd assume it was a joke on the Apple I, their first computer.
spindritf 12y ago
Ubuntu One. They stopped this one.

x1798DE 12y ago

I don't understand why this needs to be an app. I listen to many things that aren't NPR, and I don't want to switch between BeyondPod and NPR One just to get some sort of curated list. This reminds me of a few years ago where a bunch of podcasts were offering personalized apps that just downloaded the archives and maybe some extra content. I might have paid for the extra content, but I didn't need an app on my phone for every podcast I listen to. Assuming the killer feature here is that it's curated or somehow personalized, and not just something that plays all NPR shows (the page is a bit vague), it seems like you could replace this with a service that generates personalized RSS feeds on the fly, server-side. That way it can integrate directly into your own podcast-listening workflow, where you might have plugins or some specific setup that you prefer to use.

netcan 12y ago
Podcasts (especially on android) is still remarkably broken for most people. I have installed an app and subscribed to several podcasts for a number of people who are below average in their tech literacy. They all fail at being able to consistently manage the app and get the content they want. Finding and subscribing to a new podcast, even if they know which one they want and can get to the website is an almost 100% fail rate. Even for me, discovery is broken. I'm sure there is interesting stuff out there that I can't find. In any case, I think that between an app that people know to install and and click on an RSS feed that they have no idea what to do with, the app is the better choice.
- jclos 12y ago
  It's a bit offtopic but have you tried PocketCasts? I have been using it extensively on Android and recommended it to many tech-illiterate (the kind of people who think facebooking makes them computer literate) friends with relatively good success.
- x1798DE 12y ago
  I suppose you could offer an app in addition to an RSS feed, but honestly I've never encountered someone who didn't know how to download a podcast. If they are primarily worried about people having trouble downloading podcasts for whatever reason, it seems like they could have saved themselves a lot of work by just contacting some of the biggest podcast apps on the market (BeyondPod I think is the biggest) about making it easy to subscribe to this particular feed. They could make a custom-built plugin that just installs the feed, they could potentially license a special distribution of the app that has the feed pre-installed. Fragmentation of the audio listening market is really not justified and is not really going to help anything.

danielweber 12y ago

Scroll down broken here. First I have to click on the page to get scrolling to work. Then as I use the space bar to scroll down, the dots change but often the text does not.

cake 12y ago
Broken for me too on the second dot, I can't scroll more and have to click on a dot. I really dislike this new "Powerpoint slide" presentation trend.
bduerst 12y ago
Are you using NoScript or some other javascript killer? Usually these are driven by some custom js.
- danielweber 12y ago
  Not on this machine. Plain Google Chrome on Windows.

dctoedt 12y ago

If this catches on, it might disintermediate (EDIT: or accelerate the existing disintermediation of) the local public radio stations, which will then lose donations, which will then be less able to do local reporting. (Of course I'm not sure our Houston public radio station does all that much local reporting to start with.)

msluyter 12y ago
I think this has happened in part already. Although I try to listen to my local station (KUT) via their app, I also use the NPR app to time shift programs like All Things Considered that I tend to otherwise miss. (If you miss a program by an hour or so, the NPR app won't let you listen to a program that's within some window of its broadcast time, but you can listen to it any public radio station currently broadcasting it.) I also listen to shows that aren't carried locally, and of course, time listening through the NPR app is time not spent listening to KUT directly (which I probably would do if there weren't alternatives, because I'm pretty much an NPR junkie).
colanderman 12y ago
Perhaps with the local content it promises to play, it will play local pledge drives?
mschaef 12y ago
I think you're on to something. When our local public radio stations start their pledge drives, I almost immediately switch over to the podcasts for the duration. There's more latency in the stories, but you also miss the continual pledge advertising.
27182818284 12y ago
>If this catches on, it might disintermediate the local public radio stations, Just glancing at the app, I don't think there is anything here that you couldn't currently do in the NPR app ecosystem. For example there is already an NPR app that lets you choose radio stations or just programs from around the world and a lot of local stations built their own, independent app (though in my experience those are lower quality)
12y ago

grrrando 12y ago

Anyone else find the concept a little weird? NPR is already like this in many ways (heavily left-leaning) so this argument is already somewhat moot, but: hearing news stories tailored just for me sounds ignorant. News shouldn't be a thing which I am allowed to filter based on my biases.

gress 12y ago
Whose biases should your news be filtered by?
rootbear 12y ago
I'll have to see how this actually works, but it's not clear that the news itself will be tailored to the listener. For example, I might pick "Science News" and "Arts News" but not "Sports News" and I don't see that as putting myself in an echo chamber. If the categories were "News for Democrats" and "News for Social Conservatives", then that might be a concern. Also, NPR is more than just news. I regularly listen to NPR programming that isn't entirely aligned with my own world views.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
blueplanet 12y ago
I think they mean tailoring in two ways: 1. Play stories local to where you live. 2. A lot of shows on NPR aren't straight news, so it'll remember which shows you particularly enjoy.
cantankerous 12y ago
NPR is loaded with programming that isn't just news-related. This includes musical programming, comedy, special interest programs, and topical shows. Listeners to NPR already know this. They filter what they want to hear by turning the radio on and off. NPR's news segments are top notch journalism. You'd be hard-pressed to find another media institution as large as NPR in the US that does nearly as good of a job in my opinion.
tomjen3 12y ago

minivan 12y ago

Cool, hopefully it will replace the All Songs Considered audio stream (which is great). Side note: Is it just me, or this "scroll to reveal stuff in steps" is a bit frustrating? It seems to be used more and more often and I am sometimes puzzled by the fact that I'm missing the scrolling step. I try scrolling and get either too far (which shows half an image coming from above) or don't get anywhere (which makes me scroll more and skip steps). Here's an example: http://www.spendeeapp.com/ http://www.spendeeapp.com/ Am I doing something wrong?

stronglikedan 12y ago
It's not just you. It's an annoying trend. Perhaps it's good for phones and tablets (that's arguable), but I don't think it's good for mouse input. At least this landing page (NPR) has optional buttons on the right side, unlike most pages I've seen like this (Spendee). It's turning "mobile first" into "mobile only", and I am being dragged kicking and screaming into it.
- mbesto 12y ago
  As always, the general rule of the desktop is "don't break my browser functionality". Browser functionality = scroll bar, back/forward button, refresh, bookmark, etc.
  - drewblaisdell 12y ago
    A better rule is that these browser functions should do what the user expects. I don't think this page violates that rule (and it might not even violate yours: the scrollbar's movement has not been altered on this page like on Apple's product pages).
    - JetSpiegel 12y ago
      No, because what the user expects can be customizable, app developers can't just guess it.
    - gnarbarian 12y ago

arcticfox 12y ago

I was hoping that I could say: "Yes, I like Radiolab" and "No, I don't like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", but that doesn't seem to be a feature. This would be perfect if they added it!

ejfox 12y ago
This is a feature of Swell: http://www.swell.am/ http://www.swell.am/
jonesetc 12y ago
I thought the same thing, but that's when I would say we're probably all better off just using a podcast. http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
jim-greer 12y ago
Hopefully they'll factor in what you skip and mark as "interesting"...
mikeleung 12y ago
check out the wnyc app (the local station in NY) it provides a feature to pick topics you like

tomjen3 12y ago

Beware if you use google or facebook to login to it (what the fuck do you need to login in the first place) it requires the right to get your friends lists and to post content on your behalf.

hodgesmr 12y ago
You log in to "thumbs up" content to get a personalized stream.
- geekam 12y ago
  You can use NPR login.
igonvalue 12y ago
I tried using Google login, and it wouldn't proceed unless I created a Google Plus profile.

ruytlm 12y ago

This is all well and good, but why does everyone need to have their own damn app? This is the biggest problem with audio apps these days - you get everyone trying to make a similar thing, and because they're all competing they all try and lock each other out of their own products. What would be so much better is a content-agnostic platform, that'll let you play whatever the hell you want - whether it's music, talk radio, podcasts, whatever. Seriously - why does everyone assume that if I want to listen to e.g. NPR, I only want to listen to NPR?

joekrill 12y ago
I agree totally. The problem is, I haven't been able to find one single content-agnostic app that does any of this very well. Either it's iPhone only. Or Android only. Or iPhone and Android but no web app. Or it doesn't sync my last listening position, or sometimes even what I've listened to at all. Or any other number of very basic things I'd expect an app like this to have.
- myko 12y ago
  > Or iPhone and Android but no web app Pocket Casts is awesome but there have been times when I really wanted a web version. Lately though I use Chromecast from the app when I'd normally want the PC to play the track.
jessriedel 12y ago
I agree with the annoyance of everyone and their mother wanting their own app, but NPR seems like a big enough piece of a lot of folks entertainment/news lives that it makes sense. (I say this as someone who never listens to NPR.) The question is whether the product is used frequently enough and can actually make use of a custom interface, compared to whether a more generic app would actually provide value. If I would use the generic app to listen to NPR 95% of the time, then it probably makes more sense to dedicate the app to NPR and just use a web browser for the other 5%. Reversing XKCD, it's probably better to think of apps as slightly heavy and custom websites. There's really not much loss in having lots more apps so long as they're lighweight. Throw them all into a folder on your homescreen. http://xkcd.com/1367/ http://xkcd.com/1367/

thekevan 12y ago

No browser version?

rugbydev 12y ago
Yes, http://one.npr.org http://one.npr.org

mikeash 12y ago

I love the idea. I listen to NPR a fair amount but it's always a bit hit or miss as to whether I'll catch it at an interesting moment, since my listening is basically "whenever I happen to be in the car, or possibly out for a walk where I don't want to enjoy quietude." I work around it to an extent with podcasts of shows I like, but that works poorly for anything related to news.

CapitalistCartr 12y ago

Every corporate/large organization Web site wants me to use their app. I already have an app! It's the Web browser. It already plays video and audio.

giarc 12y ago
Can a mobile browser continue to play audio when your phone is in your pocket? For example, YouTube stops playing when I put my iPhone to sleep.
- dublinben 12y ago
  That's a function of Youtube primarily delivering video content. A website designed to deliver audio content (e.g. Soundcloud) can keep playing just fine with the screen off.
- fsck--off 12y ago
  Yes, it can. Start the video and put the iPhone to sleep. When you wake the iPhone up a moment later the music controls on the lock screen allow you to resume playing the audio. You can then turn the screen off and the audio will still play.
  - giarc 12y ago
    That's a good work around, but I would not want that to be the instructions I give to people wanting to listen to my audio stream from a website.
- fred_durst 12y ago
  I do it all the time, so yes.

m1117 12y ago

I really like using AGOGO that includes NPR too

jonmagic 12y ago

Why does the app need microphone access? I missed the blurb when you first open the app and can't seem to figure out how to replay it now.

rsync 12y ago
The app does not need microphone access. You know it, I know it, NPR knows it.
johnnymonster 12y ago
It has xapp ad integration, which requires microphone access.
theg2 12y ago
Certain ads will allow you to interact with them via your microphone for hands free driving or whatever. It's new and you'll probably start seeing it more in other apps but this is the first time I've seen it in an app.
- rsync 12y ago
  To all current and future app developers using microphone-ad-interaction: die in a fire.

techpeace 12y ago

Rather than some aimless techie kvetching, I'd just like to pass along a hearty congrats to the folks who made this happen. Great work, and I'm excited to use it!

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

mmanfrin 12y ago

I really appreciate NPR. They truly try to embetter their offerings. It's nice that we have a source of news that is not beholden to advertisers or corporate interests (although the number of 'This content was made possible by donations from...' I hear at the end of the larger shows is a bit worrying). I just wish Says You would release their episodes as a podcast.

FedRegister 12y ago
>It's nice that we have a source of news that is not beholden to advertisers or corporate interests (although the number of 'This content was made possible by donations from...' I hear at the end of the larger shows is a bit worrying). Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a thing, ain't it? The vast majority of NPR's funding comes from advertisers, excuse me, underwriters. Edit: Well fuck me I'm wrong. Carry on, citizen.
- VikingCoder 12y ago
  > The vast majority No, it doesn't. From what I can see, it's more like 17%. http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances
  - embolalia 12y ago
    17% from corporations, but also count foundations if you're looking for underwriters overall, not just corporate interests. Probably also universities and "other" for 41.6% That's still not even remotely close to a vast majority, of course. And I think there's a qualitative difference between getting funding from an organization that wants to increase its bottom line and one that wants to create a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.
    - ethbro 12y ago
      "a more just, verdant, and peaceful world" Well that sponsorship was obviously well-spent!

ForHackernews 12y ago

I hope it's better than the "This American Life" Android app. I'm still angry that I spent real money on a buggy mobile interface that freezes and crashes for podcasts that are free in a normal browser.

kbenson 12y ago

I'm relieved they have an android app. From listening to NPR, one could almost think andoid was some niche player, based on the amount of free press the iphone gets. That may have eased up some recently, but for a while it felt like they had some meeting where they decided to replace "smartphone" with "iphone" in everything they said.

prawks 12y ago
Nothing for Windows Phone, unfortunately. Though I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to market share.
Nicholas_C 12y ago
On the website for my local NPR station (91.7 KXT, Dallas/Fort Worth) they have a playlist that shows recently played songs and the only option to "Buy Song" takes you to iTunes. I'm assuming they get a share of the revenues from songs purchased and I wish they would link to Amazon or Google Play instead so I could help support. They've introduced me to a lot of good bands and I buy a couple songs I hear on the station a week.

ejfox 12y ago

I scrolled through this whole thread looking for a mention of Swell who have been my go-to app for this purpose for the past couple of months (feels like it's been forever though, can't imagine life without it). I pretty much get NPR hourly news updates, Fresh Air, interspersed with episodes of Marc Maron's WTF and some random stuff like A16Z and stuff from the BBC. It's pretty much ideal. I love NPR, and before Swell would just have the local station on all day, but I find that NPR doesn't make enough content to fill up a whole day of straight listening (at least not enough content that I like) - I wonder if the NPR One app would automatically find shows from their archive that I might be interested in to fill the time. I'd be curious if other users of Swell will be switching to this app, or if they, like me, see it as a slightly different and improved model to tie together content from a variety of different sources.

covati 12y ago
well, now that swell is shutting down it might make sense. But I'll miss the variety that I get from swell :( http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/apple-to-buy-swell-for-30-million-per-report/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/apple-to-buy-swell-for-30-m...
- pbreit 12y ago
  Another option: http://anten.na http://anten.na
jim-greer 12y ago
I listened for about 20 minutes at lunch, and they did play a story from the archives...

brianbreslin 12y ago

My first thought was "I hope this is paid like pandora." I would love to be able to purchase content in app, or at least contribute through the app. Maybe split the proceeds with my local npr station so we can end those annoying fund raising drives.

anigbrowl 12y ago

Good stuff, but your feed will be 'hadcrafted'? No it won't. That specifically means a human being involved in structuring your feed at the other end I seriously doubt that's the case. Words have meanings beyond their emotional marketing value, subverting them for commercial ends will eventually erode the trust of your audience.

mtinkerhess 12y ago
You don't know that there's not a human being at the other end curating the list, do you? It's plausible that there's manual selection involved in each day's playlist.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  As I said already 'I seriously doubt that's the case.'
  - pbreit 12y ago
    You're probably wrong as there are almost definitely humans involved in sifting through the various available programs and influencing which get inserted into playlists.
rugbydev 12y ago
Fast Co has an interview that talks about this in more detail: http://www.fastcolabs.com/3033672/peeking-under-the-hood-of-nprs-new-mobile-app http://www.fastcolabs.com/3033672/peeking-under-the-hood-of-...

djhworld 12y ago

I love NPR and listen to a few of their podcasts via PocketCasts. Not sure if I'd actually use this app, but just wanted to say you guys in the states are fortunate to have NPR producing top quality radio!

zellyn 12y ago

On my Nexus 5, this went through the login/signup process, but now crashes on startup. Every time. Anyone else had better luck?

pachydermic 12y ago
Check for the update?
- zellyn 12y ago
  Didn't help.

meandave 12y ago

This is pretty great, I actually hacked together a little terminal interface to search through all of their stations and stream straight to your shell. Started pulling it apart to also provide a webaudio interface. Looks like they have that covered now though

marineboudeau 12y ago

Shameless plug: WNYC is experimenting in this space as well with Discover [http://www.wnyc.org/mobile http://www.wnyc.org/mobile] - contains our local, national content but also others': NPR, PRX, etc. It works on the subway, while you're offline. We're really excited about NPR One, too and glad to be part of it as well.

chris_mahan 12y ago

National Personal Radio?

ck2 12y ago

Why not for my desktop browser too?

rugbydev 12y ago
It is, http://one.npr.org http://one.npr.org

jcburns 12y ago

Oh please, NPR, take the money you spend on developing fancy misguided apps that supposedly serve up "curated content" and spend it on more reporters' salaries. Lots more reporters. Lots and LOTS more reporters. The world is a big place, and the list of crucial, complex, reportable issues is growing by the day. Then we can enjoy the "curation" work of the producers of the fine programs you put on the air and online—have you heard them? They're really a pretty good example of curated content. (Of course, those programs used to simply be called good broadcast journalism.)

npunt 12y ago
To hire reporters you need $. To get $ in the digital age, you really should have some control of the distribution of your content. Therefore, an app makes sense, especially at NPRs scale.
- jcburns 12y ago
  NPR has had INTENSE control of their content since the 1970s. They don't need an app for that. They also have staggering amounts of donations and endowment funds. They may, sadly, have more money than they know what to do with.