4 ms·

I wish "podcasts" weren't a thing. What I mean is, a podcast is nothing but a regular file served from a web page. That's it. And yet, by maintaining this fa

by rsync 12y ago

I wish "podcasts" weren't a thing. What I mean is, a podcast is nothing but a regular file served from a web page. That's it. And yet, by maintaining this false category, the end user is funneled through all manner of ridiculous and frustrating extra steps and wasted time just to ... wait for it ... download a regular file. Every major media creator that has made their audio content available as a "podcast" makes it near impossible to simply grab the file. This has created a huge amount of confusion among non-tech folks who think some kind of special thing is happening when they click whatever weirdo pseudo-streaming "let's cycle through 8 different 250-character URLs before we feed the data to your browser raw" button ... "what app should I use to listen to this podcast ?" "how do I get this podcast onto my iDevice", etc. I should be able to fetch/wget any podcast without doing major surgery on a webpage, downloading an intermediate XML file and then wading through it until I see a link.

dbh937 12y ago
What's the difference between that and any other type of media on the internet? Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also "nothing but a regular file served from a web page," yet YouTube doesn't include a "download" link for any videos on their site.
- ptx 12y ago
  Right. So one has to install additional software to automate jumping through their hoops and download the MP4 file. In other words: no difference – I wish they would just give us the file in both cases. I already have a video player that works the way I want it to work. Same thing with e-books and audio. (Having an app to manage the library of media is convenient once the collection gets larger, but I'll choose the app myself.)
  - arrrg 12y ago
    Which podcast doesn’t just let you download the file? I just checked all I’m subscribed to and they all just let me download the file, no problem. Subscribing just makes it much more practical and persistent. There is no need for extra apps, they just make it more convenient.
    - ptx 12y ago
      This was in the context of "Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also ..." But there was a podcast recently that took me quite a while to get the real URL for because they only linked to iTunes. They seem to have fixed it now though (with a libsyn.com RSS link).
- mason240 12y ago
  Wait until that guy realized 99% of the internet is just databases with skins.
unethical_ban 12y ago
The Podcast ecosystem allows programs to automatically fetch, pre-download and archive specific subscriptions of content. It's not a stupid idea. Perhaps some implementations are poor, but I'd rather have a purpose-built format for pulling down content than clicking on an Apache index page for the .ogg I want.
- pbreit 12y ago
  Why isn't audio simply streamed like spotify and Hulu? The downloading drives me nuts.
  - ghaff 12y ago
    Perhaps because people often listen to podcasts in places where cellular may not be available? (planes, often subways, general dead spots) That said, I wouldn't object to a podcast app that updated the index but didn't actually download any titles; perhaps some can already do that. But the actual space taken up by the downloaded podcasts isn't usually a big deal.
    - ics 12y ago
      I've been using git-annex as a podcatcher (http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/git-annex_as_a_podcatcher/ http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/git-annex_as_a_podcatcher/) which is pretty nice and lets you update the index without actually downloading anything (using the --relaxed flag). It's set up to run periodically with launchd.
  - __david__ 12y ago
    That's your client's fault. I use the Apple's Podcast app and it lets you stream or download for later.
  - unethical_ban 12y ago
    You can stream if you want, but downloading is one of the highlights of it. I can download it at home and listen for hours at work or on a trip without dealing with poor or capped cell signal (or, like the majority of people in the US/world, without any data plan at all).
ForHackernews 12y ago
I agree with you. For Serial at least, their website has direct download links to an mp3 file for all of their epsiodes: http://serialpodcast.org/#episodes http://serialpodcast.org/#episodes
bliker 12y ago
I am honestly confused. I just checked RadioLab, Freakonomics and 99% Invisible and each one you can download as raw mp3s in <4 clicks.
- icebraining 12y ago
  Same with TAL, 99% Invisible, Java Posse, Hanselminutes... I wonder what OP listens to :)
icebraining 12y ago
Which podcast site doesn't let you simply download the MP3? I can't recall a single podcast I follow that doesn't. By the way, I can't wget a file from rsync.net either :P
- rsync 12y ago
  "By the way, I can't wget a file from rsync.net either :P" I'm not sure what you mean ... the very few binaries that we link to on our support pages are plain old file links that you can wget/fetch/curl. No, you can't wget files in an rsync filesystem, but we aren't a file hosting site - there's no public usage here. Actually, we do allow plain old ftp access for legacy systems, so technically you can wget/fetch a file in an rsync.net filesystem. We'd recommend you don't, of course...
  - icebraining 12y ago
    Just a dumb joke :)
gameguy43 12y ago
When I saw your username I was really hoping your comment was going to be about how back in your day you'd "subscribe to podcasts" by adding an rsync to your crontab (and hopefully something something FTP). Almost.
mikeash 12y ago
"Ridiculous and frustrating steps"? I can literally just tell my phone, out loud, "Play podcast Whatever" and it will play it for me, streaming it over the internet as required. If you prefer fingers, it's about four taps, two of which are to open the app.

by rsync 12y ago

dbh937 12y ago

What's the difference between that and any other type of media on the internet? Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also "nothing but a regular file served from a web page," yet YouTube doesn't include a "download" link for any videos on their site.

ptx 12y ago
Right. So one has to install additional software to automate jumping through their hoops and download the MP4 file. In other words: no difference – I wish they would just give us the file in both cases. I already have a video player that works the way I want it to work. Same thing with e-books and audio. (Having an app to manage the library of media is convenient once the collection gets larger, but I'll choose the app myself.)
- arrrg 12y ago
  Which podcast doesn’t just let you download the file? I just checked all I’m subscribed to and they all just let me download the file, no problem. Subscribing just makes it much more practical and persistent. There is no need for extra apps, they just make it more convenient.
  - ptx 12y ago
    This was in the context of "Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also ..." But there was a podcast recently that took me quite a while to get the real URL for because they only linked to iTunes. They seem to have fixed it now though (with a libsyn.com RSS link).
mason240 12y ago
Wait until that guy realized 99% of the internet is just databases with skins.

unethical_ban 12y ago

The Podcast ecosystem allows programs to automatically fetch, pre-download and archive specific subscriptions of content. It's not a stupid idea. Perhaps some implementations are poor, but I'd rather have a purpose-built format for pulling down content than clicking on an Apache index page for the .ogg I want.

pbreit 12y ago
Why isn't audio simply streamed like spotify and Hulu? The downloading drives me nuts.
- ghaff 12y ago
  Perhaps because people often listen to podcasts in places where cellular may not be available? (planes, often subways, general dead spots) That said, I wouldn't object to a podcast app that updated the index but didn't actually download any titles; perhaps some can already do that. But the actual space taken up by the downloaded podcasts isn't usually a big deal.
  - ics 12y ago
    I've been using git-annex as a podcatcher (http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/git-annex_as_a_podcatcher/ http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/git-annex_as_a_podcatcher/) which is pretty nice and lets you update the index without actually downloading anything (using the --relaxed flag). It's set up to run periodically with launchd.
- __david__ 12y ago
  That's your client's fault. I use the Apple's Podcast app and it lets you stream or download for later.
- unethical_ban 12y ago
  You can stream if you want, but downloading is one of the highlights of it. I can download it at home and listen for hours at work or on a trip without dealing with poor or capped cell signal (or, like the majority of people in the US/world, without any data plan at all).

ForHackernews 12y ago

I agree with you. For Serial at least, their website has direct download links to an mp3 file for all of their epsiodes: http://serialpodcast.org/#episodes http://serialpodcast.org/#episodes

bliker 12y ago

I am honestly confused. I just checked RadioLab, Freakonomics and 99% Invisible and each one you can download as raw mp3s in <4 clicks.

icebraining 12y ago
Same with TAL, 99% Invisible, Java Posse, Hanselminutes... I wonder what OP listens to :)

icebraining 12y ago

Which podcast site doesn't let you simply download the MP3? I can't recall a single podcast I follow that doesn't. By the way, I can't wget a file from rsync.net either :P

rsync 12y ago
"By the way, I can't wget a file from rsync.net either :P" I'm not sure what you mean ... the very few binaries that we link to on our support pages are plain old file links that you can wget/fetch/curl. No, you can't wget files in an rsync filesystem, but we aren't a file hosting site - there's no public usage here. Actually, we do allow plain old ftp access for legacy systems, so technically you can wget/fetch a file in an rsync.net filesystem. We'd recommend you don't, of course...
- icebraining 12y ago
  Just a dumb joke :)

gameguy43 12y ago

When I saw your username I was really hoping your comment was going to be about how back in your day you'd "subscribe to podcasts" by adding an rsync to your crontab (and hopefully something something FTP). Almost.

mikeash 12y ago

"Ridiculous and frustrating steps"? I can literally just tell my phone, out loud, "Play podcast Whatever" and it will play it for me, streaming it over the internet as required. If you prefer fingers, it's about four taps, two of which are to open the app.