
We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts - andrewacove
https://chartable.com/blog/golden-age-of-podcasts
======
blang
I'm actually worried that podcasts are going the way of the web. What, for a
while, was a weird world of enthusiasts talking about things that interests
them seems to be morphing into a world of a few big corporate entities calling
the shots.

I have two reasons for these worries.

1) The purchase of Gimlet by Spotify mentioned in the article. 2) The purchase
of Stuff Media by iHeart.

The purchase of Gimlet is problematic for a couple of reasons, but the biggest
is that a distribution channel now owns a large content company which could
lead to content bubbling. I don't want to have different players for different
shows, I want the shows to be available on all players. I believe this is
already happening, "Crime town" season 2 is only available on Spotify.

The iHeart purchase might be more troubling. Have you ever noticed that no
mater where you are in the US, the radio stations are extremely similar? This
has a few reasons, one of which is, that station is probably owned by iHeart
(formerly Clear Channel), they own over 400 radio stations are are in
virtually every US market [1]. I'm not saying iHeart is evil, but the chance
that shows get more homogenous increase when large corporate players have to
satisfy shareholders. I'm not sure I can take any more true crime shows.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_owned_b...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_owned_by_iHeartMedia)

~~~
intrasight
I tried some Gimlet podcasts but didn't find any of consistent quality. For me
"consistent quality" means I'm willing to binge-listen every episode and in
order.

~~~
jedberg
I always enjoy Science Vs. Also, Startup, which actually has featured a bunch
of YC companies. Reply all has good stuff too most of the time.

~~~
brailsafe
I wish Science vs. kept the sort of quality from earlier episodes when they
were either not on Gimlet or had just come to Gimlet. They lean pretty heavily
on narratives now, and while it may be entertaining, it's getting further and
further away from science—or even minimally analytic.

~~~
jedberg
I agree the format has changed a bit, but I still enjoy it. You're right
though, going back to basics would be nice.

------
Mister_Snuggles
Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all.

I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much
rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster,
it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other
references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm
interested in.

There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I've tried a few
times. The podcast is very well done, but each one is about an hour long. I'd
much rather have it as a blog post where I can skim through to find the pieces
that interest me. They've gotten a little better with their episode
descriptions where they tell you what topics they are talking about and when
they start, but it's only a minor improvement.

Podcasts are also completely inaccessible to search engines. If I want to find
the podcast where they talked about an interesting thing that I want to
revisit, and it's not in the episode description, it's basically lost forever.

~~~
otikik
> I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening.
> It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to
> other references, etc

My counterargument to that is that in order to do any of those things you need
to have your eyes engaged with the content. I can listen to podcasts (or
audiobooks) while at the gym, cooking, doing laundry, cleaning dishes, or
going to pick my kid from school. That means to me more than the advantages
you mentioned.

One additional advantage: getting to sleep. I don't enjoy sleeping. If i have
a light source near me, be it a lamp or a screen, I don't feel sleepy at all.
I can't fall asleep while watching a Netflix show that I like. I have done the
experiment. I can feel sleepy while reading a book, but an engaging one and a
night lamp will keep me awake: I read the first Harry Potter volume in a
single sleep-less night. Listening to podcasts with the lights off and my eyes
closed makes me drift to sleep much more easily.

~~~
hanklazard
A slightly different take on your “eye engagement” point is that podcasts
allow us to utilize time that would otherwise be spent listening to music,
talking to others, thinking, or just zoning out. Combined with Apples air pods
(a horribly great piece of technology), I find myself using lots of time for
podcasts that I wouldn’t otherwise (like when I’m doing the dishes). I find
all of this enjoyable overall but I do worry that the decreased time that I
spend in thought or present with others could be a net negative in the end.

~~~
ryandrake
Are there any studies on how good retention is when consuming books as a
background task while you're doing something else? Sample size = 1, but I
briefly tried listening to audio books while driving, cooking, etc. but
stopped when I realized I got all the way through a few books without even
vaguely remembering what they were about.

~~~
asnrk
Yeah IDK if I'm just way worse at focusing on spoken words while doing other
things than most people or what, but I can't get into podcasts or audio books
at all. If I do other things while listening I miss so much that I have no
idea what's going on, and even the supposedly very good ones are so dull that
if I'm going to spend focused time consuming them I'd rather read, or watch
something, or listen closely to some good music, or almost anything else.

I guess maybe if I got back into running they'd be good for that. Can't think
of when else I could possibly use them.

~~~
cpmsmith
I've found it extremely dependent on fine differences in the primary thing I'm
doing. e.g. I have no problem following if I'm going on an uneventful or
familiar drive, but will automatically tune it out if I don't know where I'm
going.

------
schnevets
Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and
infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows,
evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode
and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet
we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content
weekly. I also find it frustrating that we only categorize by topic. I'll
listen to something very different on a 5 hour car ride than I would on a 15
minute walk with my dog (beyond something "Comedy" instead of "News")

Most listeners see Apple Podcasts as "good enough", but I find it confusing,
and other applications follow the same approach with one or two "tweaks" that
are not worth sacrificing features or adjusting to a new UI. I'm still
optimistic that Spotify can get their act together (since they have the
resources and incentive), but they haven't done anything dazzling since
quietly adding a podcast section years ago.

It severely limits the capabilities of the medium, and yet no one seems to
think anything is wrong. I understand this structure is a result of RSS
serving as the backbone of "podcatchers", but everyone would benefit from a
bit of lateral thinking.

~~~
maxxxxx
Apple Podcasts has gotten worse pretty much every year. I have switched to
Overcast and I find it excellent. Lean and clean.

~~~
quantumhobbit
Overcast seems to bug out on me everytime I try to play episodes in the order
they were released instead of most recent first.

It also never removes played episodes no matter what my settings.

Seriously these should be simple things.

~~~
Avenger42
I had the same issue with it playing episodes in an awkward order because I
wanted it to _show_ me the episodes in "most-recent-first" order, but I wanted
it to play in the reverse order. I got around it by creating smart playlists -
I have some that are each for a single show, and I have a "back catalog"
playlist for a group of podcasts where I'm catching up on older episodes, and
it interweaves them all together based on their chronological release dates,
so that if there's news that each one discusses, they generally get played
back-to-back.

I've never had a problem with it not deleting episodes, so I can't help you
there.

------
spuz
I am surprised that higher capacity storage on phones was not mentioned as a
driver of podcast listenership. For me, when I upgraded to a phone that had
32GB of storage around 2014 I was finally able to store mp3s that would
download automatically ready for me to listen to along with all the music and
photos that we would otherwise fill up our phone storage with. Before this, it
was actually pretty hard to be an avid listener of lots of podcasts without
having to deal with the hassle of managing your data storage.

~~~
loudmax
I suspect you're correct. I find it surprising that people buy flagship phones
that don't include an SD card reader. It seems that there's a belief among
some handset manufacturers that storage capacity is only relevant for apps
since all media is stored in the cloud. Either that or they just want to
charge you for that extra storage. Being able to download hours worth of
podcasts on an SD card and not worry about storage is fantastic.

~~~
chooseaname
> I find it surprising that people buy flagship phones that don't include an
> SD card reader.

Because most don't come with an SD card reader and there are other features
people want besides that. Buying a $1000 phone is all about the trade-offs one
is willing to live with.

------
driverdan
While I agree there are plenty of great podcasts out there, I disagree with
some of the things in the article.

> When Netflix moved into streaming, they invested billions of dollars into
> original programming, helping usher in the “New Golden Age of Television”

The current age of TV started long before Netflix moved to original content.
This is not a model anyone should want to see in podcasts. Closed wall content
is bad for everyone.

> For listeners, there will be more amazing shows of all kinds. More media
> companies will invest in creating quality long-form audio.

I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. I listen to and enjoy some
expensive, high production corporate podcasts. But I greatly prefer
independent podcasts. So many corporate ones are overproduced (eg Radio Lab)
or are full of ads, begging for money, cross promotions, and other non-content
(eg 99% Invisible). I'm concerned that high budget shows will push out high
quality indie shows and make them harder to find.

> Spotify will create more exclusive content to aggregate and retain
> listeners.

This is terrible for everyone except Spotify. Closed wall content is bad for
everyone. Despite being a paid Spotify user I will not listen to any Spotify
exclusives. If you become a Spotify exclusive you're dead to me.

~~~
jacobmoe
> Closed wall content is bad for everyone.

You said that twice. It's not bad for subscribers. There's a good argument to
be made that ad-driven content is bad for everyone. In fact there's an
argument to be made that ad-driven content is ushering in the end of the
world. Who was it that said "we're building dystopia to maximize clicks." If
you pay for your media, you at least know what the product really is.

~~~
driverdan
> You said that twice.

Yes, intentionally.

> There's a good argument to be made that ad-driven content is bad for
> everyone.

No disagreement here. I donate to independent podcasts directly. They get 100%
of the money. Many of them have no ads or two versions, one that's free with
ads or one that's paid with no ads. It's the best of both worlds.

~~~
oska
> Many of them have no ads or two versions, one that's free with ads or one
> that's paid with no ads. It's the best of both worlds.

I disagree with this strategy. In my opinion, pushing advertising on anyone is
immoral and just because I can pay to get out of it doesn't absolve the
podcaster who's still putting ads in the 'free' version.

A good podcaster doesn't push ads, full stop.

------
blfr
I remember listening to EconTalk back when you downloaded it to your mp3
player using a computer. And maybe I'm a hipster but the golden age seems to
be over. It's all too mainstream now, too polished, too polite.

Nowadays, I scroll through the multiple new episodes of many shows I used to
enjoy to rarely find something I genuinely want to hear. Sure, you can
probably dig to something like Cum Town but even then it doesn't feel fresh
any more.

It's the same with binge watching TV (mentioned in the OP). Much more fun when
you pirated the show, when it wasn't intended than when you're just some
engagement metric. I haven't binge watched a TV show in at least three years.

Also, Google already had a podcasting app once (Google Listen?). I remember
using it in like 2012.

~~~
toasted
fellow econtalk/cumtown (well more red scare) listener here..

The latest feed refresh used to make me feel "Wow how will I have time to
listen to all of these!" whereas now its "God do I really want to listen to
any of these."

I guess previously we were all starved of interesting long form conversations
(or socialist edgelords) but now we're reasonably satiated and like anything
else it has to be good to hold our attention.

I still find a good econtalk pod is one of my greatest pleasures - russ &
munger episodes particularly.

~~~
BrissyCoder
People actually listen to red scare!?

------
DamnInteresting
As a long-time podcast listener, I have been steadily reducing my intake of
podcasts in recent months. For me, this is largely due to a few annoying
trends, such as Podcast A airing an episode of Podcast B, a new offering from
the same organization. These crossovers are becoming common, and they are
basically very long ads. I am seldom interested, but it's difficult to get
them out of the play queue, especially while driving.

As a long-time independent podcast creator, it feels as though the field is
becoming saturated, making it nearly impossible for a podcast to stand out
without the backing of a major podcast network. It is reminiscent of the
tipping point of blogs, where the quirky ecosystem of offerings mostly
congealed. That change was good for advertisers and a few big content
companies, but detrimental to the diversity of content.

~~~
jccalhoun
Oh I HATE the trend of corporate podcasts shoving episodes of other shows into
their feed. I look forward to a new episode of the show I like only to start
it and hear some other show. A close second is some podcasts have started
putting reruns into their feed. I guess someone told them that missing weeks
is bad so they just put a rerun in. Ugh.

~~~
DamnInteresting
Agreed, re-runs are another annoyance that is driving me away from many
podcasts. The concept is an obsolete relic of broadcasting.

~~~
scott_s
Yes, which is why I forgive This American Life for doing it - they pioneered
the format that many podcasts follow, and TAL started on, and is still
broadcast on, radio.

------
stupandaus
The writer made a pretty common finance misunderstanding mistake here:

"That may change soon: Spotify bought Gimlet Media, a premium podcast studio,
and Anchor, a podcast hosting platform, for $340 million earlier this month.
That's a lot of money for an industry that was sized at just $314 million in
2017."

Gimlet Media's $340M price tag reflects enterprise value which bakes in future
cash flows, while the industry market size of $314M is reflective of estimated
revenues in 2017. Apples and oranges.

------
jccalhoun
I hope that this leads to better podcast discovery. The categories on things
like pocketcasts are way too broad. For example, go into the news & politics
category and there are tons of true crime podcasts. I don't care about true
crime. I just want to hear the news or political talk. In education there are
tons of language learning shows and self-help garbage.

~~~
ehsankia
Absolutely. This is why I was hopeful at Google entering the Podcast scene. I
was hoping they would use the large amount of data to push podcast
recommendations forward.

I have yet to see anyone really doing anything like that, taking your list of
subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new ones. Seems like a
trivial and extremely useful service to provide.

~~~
BuschnicK
> taking your list of subscribed podcasts and using that to recommend you new
> ones

Google Podcasts does exactly that.

------
dontbenebby
If anything there's _too many_ good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep
the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to.

(I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people,
I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)

~~~
scottlocklin
I almost never listen to podcasts for this reason, and because it is vastly
more efficient to read than it is to listen to a couple of people talking who
may or may not be sticking to the topic.

It's funny the market effect, if you're, say, John Dolan, it's vastly more
time efficient to spend an hour and a half talking to your buddy and get paid
for it than it is to spend many hours researching and writing a 1000 or 2000
word essay on a topic that nobody wants to pay for. It's kind of interesting
the psychology here: people will pay for things which take hours out of their
week, but won't pay for the thing which takes 3 minutes to read, even if the 3
minute thing contains more information. From my perspective; the denser
information is more valuable!

~~~
michaelt
Most of the podcasts I listen to are while doing things like exercise and
housework that aren't compatible with reading.

The podcasts I listen to are all from the BBC, so they're scripted and
produced for radio, rather than just being people chatting. Listen to e.g. [1]
or [2] and it's all on topic (and being the BBC, ad-free).

[1]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066rd9t/episodes/downloads)
[2]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz/episodes/downloads)

~~~
drcongo
The BBC's Podcasting House podcast [1] is excellent for discovering new, high
quality stuff. They play you a single episode (often the first) of a different
podcast every week. I've discovered some great shows through it.

[1]
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05ltqxn/episodes/downloads)

------
socrates1998
I love podcasts. As a self-employed person who needs some light distraction
but can't walk to a water cooler and just kill some time, they are perfect.

I tried going back to the radio yesterday for a moment and almost threw up
with the quality.

Not sure if a "Netflix for podcasts" would work. Unless ad money dries up
because advertisers think people skip them too much, then I am not sure what
the advantage would be.

I do skip some of the commercials, but I feel like enough get through to make
worth their while. I have legitimately bought stuff because of them.

I saw an article about how much Joe Rogan's podcast makes and it was insane,
over tens of millions of dollars per year.

The guy does zero advertising and probably has less than 5 people working on
it. Fucking ridiculous.

~~~
jessaustin
The stuff Rogan advertises is so _bizarre_. It has been a couple of weeks
since I listened to him, but the one I can remember best was some sort of
payment app that supposedly paid the user to use the app. Then there have been
various AM-radio-type "nutritional" products. Maybe mainstream firms don't
want to be associated with him, but how do the goofballs he advertises come up
with 8 figures every year?

~~~
meowface
The Cash App is made by Square and they probably pay him a lot. And you'd be
surprised how much money pseudo-pharmaceuticals like Alpha Brain can make.
They usually put tiny amounts of different compounds (legitimate compounds,
but below their effectiveness thresholds) into each capsule. Their marginal
cost is very low, and they sell at extreme markup.

------
rchaud
The golden age has arrived, but for content aggregators and shovel-peddlers.

Aggregators like Spotify will buy up popular podcasts and start setting their
revenue percentages on the basis of "attention" or some other engagement
metric, that will eventually lead to podcasts diluting their content to appeal
to the largest possible base. It's already happened to their playlists.

The shovel-peddlers will be the usual ebook/video course sellers pitching the
2010s version of "How to blog your way to millions", but for podcasts.

------
b3b0p
I feel, at least for me, the golden age of podcasts is over already.

There was the early [0] Retronauts the new Patreon/Kickstarter version is only
same in name.

Then there was the [1] 1up Yours. All the hosts, co-hosts, and popular regular
guests have moved on.

Then there was the epic [2] A Life Well Wasted by Robert Ashley. This is
absolutely superb.

The only podcasts of similar I listen to now are Giant Bombcast and 8-4 Play.
I miss the good old days.

I've tried to branch out to other topics and areas, but podcasts are my way of
escaping and thinking and listening to something else outside work and study.

I have actually started to go back through these and re-listen to them. They
are timeless. I have a friend who does the same.

[0]
[https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100](https://archive.org/details/Retronauts1-100)

[1] [https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-
preservation.90...](https://www.resetera.com/threads/1up-podcast-
preservation.90181/)

[2] [http://alifewellwasted.com/](http://alifewellwasted.com/)

~~~
scott_s
We match up well in when we started listening to podcasts, and what we
listened to. But I still love Retronauts! I still like the more discussion-
oriented episodes that mix deep insights along with personal experiences, but
I'm still impressed by the consistent quality.

------
wenbin
If you want to explore what podcasts are out there, try Listen Notes, a
podcast search engine I built
[https://www.listennotes.com](https://www.listennotes.com)

You would be surprised how many unknown but interesting podcasts on the
Internet :)

~~~
mercer
That's an awesome thing that you made! So far I've just been doing very
limited searching from within Overcast. This is pretty much exactly what I was
looking for, plus a whole bunch of features I didn't even know I wanted :).

------
samstave
I love falling asleep to Jo Rogan Podcasts.

Also - to his credit, what I like about Joe Rogan, is that he brings on smart
people and just is inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them,
treats them with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity...

~~~
andrewstuart
>> inquisitive and asks questions, and never over speaks them, treats them
with respect and asks questions from a point of curiosity...

spot on - this is what I like about Joe Rogan podcasts too.

Most interviewers can't help talking or interrupting, just when the
interviewee was about to say something interesting.

------
ryanmcbride
I'm terrified that Stamps, MeUndies, and SquareSpace will go out of business
and all podcasts will be left with no stream of revenue. /s

------
api
Podcasting is probably the closest thing right now to the authenticity,
diversity, and creativity of the early web. There's a massive diversity of
podcasts out there on every subject and even many of the purely amateur ones
are of very high quality.

~~~
teekert
I agree wholeheartedly! With my podcasts I feel I know the hosts, I look
forward to the content, they may have ads but they pick them to match the
content and they are still honest about the products they present in those
ads. I don't know what it is, but it feels much more personal (I mainly listen
to Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts (no more ads since recently) and some related
ones but also Twit and NoAgenda (no ads at all) from time to time. Looking
very much forward to the continuation of Stephen Fry's Great Leap Years...

I even feel personal interest in the lives of the hosts. Some I've been
listening to for over a decade.

------
dzohrob
Cofounder of Chartable here, happy to answer any questions.

And, if you're looking for podcast recommendations, I recently analyzed 522
recommendations from 25 different critics' best-of lists to find the best of
the best podcasts of 2018, also on the blog: [https://chartable.com/blog/the-
best-podcasts-of-2018](https://chartable.com/blog/the-best-podcasts-of-2018)

------
ProAm
I disagree, I think we have reached peak Podcast and are now entering the
walled garden, _possibly_ over-sponsored/advertised age of Podcasts.

------
atoav
The golden age of podcasts is now, from here on I predict much much corparate
efforts to destroy the free and decentralized thing the podcast scene is
compared to other media.

Relatively little ads, relative many people self hosting, very direct
connections between producers and listeners, not limited by my Plattform or
patent – from now on it is going downhill.

------
intrasight
I consume these types of media in order of consumption volume

1\. Podcasts 2\. The Economist (text and audio) 3\. Youtube

Podcast listening dominates. I had started listening to podcasts when I was
having trouble sleeping and wanted to stop using drugs (Trazodone) to help me
sleep. I still use podcasts for that purpose, but I also now listen to them
any time that I am able - like driving or doing chores or yardwork. It's just
amazing to have some well-spoken, interesting person or persons in my head
while I do something that doesn't require the higher cognitive centers.

My rule for podcasts is quality over quantity - meaning quantity of channels
in my app, not quantity of hours consumed. My "binge podcasts" are those by
Mike Duncan - "The History of Rome" and "Revolutions". Other favorites are "In
our Time". If anyone know of other podcasts of the same quality as those by
Mike Duncan, please do share.

~~~
athrun
Note that you can add The Economist's audio feed to your Podcast app. So your
1 and 2 can be the same :)

------
bane
One of the things that seems really interesting to me is how personal podcasts
seem to be to listeners. People really spend time custom curating their lists.
Many of the problems with podcasts pointed out below don't bother me in the
least, but its because of what I tend to listen to, whereas I have entirely
different problems I don't see reflected in anybody else's issues.

I think this really speaks to how customizable people's listening habits and
needs are.

For example, I mostly listen to podcasts when doing dishes and cooking. And I
focus on topics that don't really have a timeliness component, so it doesn't
matter if the podcast doesn't release new episodes or I discover it years
late.

------
wenbin
Podcasts are ubiquitous.

There are high quality productions like shows from gimlet media. But most
podcasts are more like twitter / Instagram accounts. Podcast becomes a channel
for marketing (companies) or self expression (individuals) or exploring some
kind of long tailed interests.

There’s strong demand of accessing podcast contents from listeners, pr
agencies, ads agencies, app developers, teachers & students in k12 schools.

Ps, if you want to build a podcast app or a service that needs to access
podcasts, you can try out our API:
[https://www.listennotes.com/api/](https://www.listennotes.com/api/)

~~~
baby_wipe
I'm building an app on listennotes right now. It's a fantastic API and wenbin
provides amazing support!

------
chrxr
Can anyone tell me if young people listen to podcasts? Like people under 16? I
found something that suggests 7% of listeners are under 17*... I just wonder
with an audience split like that, is it expected that young people will
suddenly pick up podcasts when they reach a certain age? Or is it an indicator
that the format doesn't appeal to the youngest generation?

[https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/new-
demo...](https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/new-demographic-
research-shows-who-really-listens-to-podcasts/)

~~~
alexhutcheson
Teenagers mostly don't have long commutes, which is where a lot of podcast
listening seems to happen.

~~~
saagarjha
There's also much less content for teenagers. Not all of them are interested
in politics or news, for example, which rules out a significant portion of
podcasts.

------
iagooar
I work for a German podcast hosting company and what's been happening in
podcasting in 2018 here in Germany is pure madness. There's been an explosion
of different companies and producers that have gotten into the space, bringing
really high-quality content.

Also, Spotify grew into the second largest platform bringing in a lot of fresh
air and slowly but steadily eating into and breaking up Apple's monopoly. Now
we're all kind of wondering what's gonna happen next after the acquisition of
Gimlet and Anchor.

If this isn't the Golden Age of podcasts yet, we're sure pretty close.

~~~
scrooched_moose
Offtopic, but do you know of any good German fiction podcasts? I'm looking for
something like LeVar Burton Reads in German. I'm somewhere around B1/B2 and
trying to improve a little.

I listen to a lot of IQ Wissenschaft und Forschung, but need a bit of variety.

I've had a lot of trouble searching due to localization services.

~~~
0XAFFE
There is [https://fyyd.de/charts](https://fyyd.de/charts) if you want a good
overview of the german podcast scape.

For fiction maybe something like that
[https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/hoerspiel-
speicher/wdr_h...](https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/hoerspiel-
speicher/wdr_hoerspielspeicher150.html) ?

~~~
scrooched_moose
Even that seems to have localization unless Mike Missanelli - Philly's First
FM Sports Station is the 6th most popular podcast in Germany. Everything
showing on the charts (for me) is English language.

Hörspiel-Speicher looks interesting though, thanks!

~~~
0XAFFE
Indeed, I changed my locale to en_US and I got whole other bunch of podcasts.
Change your locale to de_DE and it will have all of german podcasts.

------
subjoriented
I started listening to "Serial", "This American Life", "Hardcore History" and
a large number of other programs. Podcasts are generally easier to consume,
reconsume, and schedule. That said, recently (several years) I've moved off of
podcasts because there was a surge of podcast content, and no good mechanism
to find quality programs. That and I was never able to find consistently good
podcast software.

------
meowface
For anyone who isn't aware of it, the YC podcast is pretty good:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-
uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-
uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi)

A few episodes I liked:

Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered
Questions in Physics - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-
uHSnFig...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQAcLW6qdQY&list=PLQ-
uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=102)

Office Hours with Michael Seibel \-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-
uH...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ2BWOT4hfs&t=0s&list=PLQ-
uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=86)

Peter Reinhardt on Finding Product Market Fit at Segment \-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-
uH...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0&t=0s&list=PLQ-
uHSnFig5PACZiyiDk1O24Zm9wxAEUi&index=89)

------
lbacaj
I believe behind much of this success with Podcasts is that we are actually
entering a golden age for Audio content that isn’t music. So I don’t think
this is limited to just podcasts but podcasts are riding this wave.

I think the Apple AirPods, gaining extreme popularity and removing so much
friction, the home speakers and the incredibly busy lives of people today all
make audio easier to consume while doing other things. I think we will see
more and more interesting content in this space and it’s not limited to
Podcasts or Audio books. I think we may even get to a point where we see audio
go viral, which has never happened to my knowledge.

As an example of alternate sources for gaining knowledge on the go, and a
little self promotion, I have built an App that uses AI/ML models to read any
article to you.

You check it out here at [https://articulu.com](https://articulu.com)

Generally I’m incredibly motivated by the non music Audio space and I think
there will be even more interesting things coming.

------
40acres
HN is fully of early adopter types so I'm not surprised to see the pessimism
about the future of podcasts but this industry still has a long ways to go.
Podcasting will probably never be as big as video (streaming, TV, YouTube,
etc.) but it's a natural 21st century transition for radio to make. Podcasts
have the same advantage as Spotify and Netflix in the sense that programming
is not limited to a specific radio station or a specific time. The medium is
also diverse enough to support a wide array of content.

The worst thing about podcasts is the ad reads, but with the right platform
I'm sure it will get better. Another criticism is that many "professional"
podcast are edited with the same cloth, they have that "NPR hipster" feel with
a banjo and some strings in the background. But as more podcasts come up this
too will be remedied.

------
avar
I've been a dedicated podcast listener for years, but have recently started to
shift towards a larger portion of books on Audible instead where I'd
previously listen only to podcasts.

I wish I'd have done so earlier, at some point you start bottoming out on the
depth podcasts on a given topic can give you.

------
protomyth
So, how is this different from the previous attempts to turn unpaid podcasts
into paid podcasts? Given the amount of content in the podcast space, people
seem to find other shows.

Plus, the whole idea really suffers when you talk about people like Joe Rogan
or any other big name. They can get money from advertisers themselves. We see
some of this with YouTube and how "networks" are working or not working. An
honest business person willing to create a low-overhead agency to hook
creators up with sponsors would probably go far. This whole thing reminds me
of the MC Hammer story about the economics of a record deal versus selling
records out of the trunk of his car.

~~~
spuz
> Plus, the whole idea

What idea are you referring to? The article I read talks about why podcasts
are becoming more popular but doesn't present any new idea around advertising
(unless I missed it).

~~~
protomyth
the whole idea from the article about buying up all the podcasts ala Netflix.
How did you read the article and miss the Spotify part?

~~~
spuz
As I understand, Spotify podcasts still contain ads. It's not clear from the
article that they intend to provide ad free podcasts for a monthly
subscription either.

------
rhacker
I have a serious question:

For those of you that like podcasts, did your usage go way down (or even stop)
when you got married?

I listened to them all the time back in the day, but mostly because they were
tech oriented. For husband / wife activities only video/youtube/netflix seem
to work.

Is there any notion that Podcasts are better for people not in relationship
thing? I mean you have to either play it for the house or listen on your
headphones and it just doesn't make sense to try to tune out the wife for
multiple hours.

Also my favorite podcast, Java Posse is done anyway. It's weird to actually
hear someone calling this the golden age when it was, for me, 10 years ago of
listening to them non-stop.

~~~
rsanheim
I've been listening to podcasts for something like 15 years, since early days
of TWiT & Java Posse, but I think my usage has remained the same over that
time when I've been in long term relationships.

My current partner and I will listen to more 'general' podcasts when we are
both in the car - so things like This American Life, Akimbo, Heavyweight, How
I Built This, or Dan Carlin's HH and Common Sense.

When I'm driving or walking around solo, I'll listen to more tech / niche
things. Podcasts like the Accidental Tech Podcast, Ruby / React / startup type
things, etc.

There is honestly so much good content out there that my 'to-listen' queues in
Overcast are overflowing for both types of listening.

------
burger_moon
I'm a huge consumer of podcasts, almost entirely comedy podcasts, which are
just comedians bs'ing for a couple hours about nothing. However I watch all of
them on Youtube, they all record the podcast with video and upload them. I
find it to be a much better experience being able to see the person and many
use the video aspect to pull up images and video. I guess it's basically just
watching tv at that poi

I've even started my own yt channel to comment on these podcasts because I
enjoy it so much. Plus there's so much content being created there's always
something to talk about.

------
king_magic
Are we? Podcasts are pretty overwhelming - there’s so many of them, it’s so
hard to catch up, and I’m so tired of Blue Apron ads read by the hosts of
podcasts.

Personally, I’ve pretty much stopped listening to anything outside of NPR One,
which does an okay-to-pretty-good job of simplifying the experience of
listening to podcasts (at least aligned to NPR). Even then the ads are super
annoying.

~~~
scriptkiddy
The ads may be annoying, but consider that ad reads in podcasts are a much
more ethical and sustainable advertising model than almost any other model out
there. In addition, ad read time takes up at most 5% of the total run time of
your average podcast.

People who do podcasts as a living or companies where podcasts are their
primary revenue source need to make money somehow.

Take How Stuff Works for instance. They have some great informational podcasts
like "Stuff you Should Know", "Stuff to Blow your Mind", "Stuff they don't
want you to know", and "Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe". These podcasts
cover very interesting, and sometimes, very important topics. How stuff works
makes their money from selling ad reads in their podcasts and ad space on
their blog. They are providing a valuable service and paying people to
literally do nothing but research and produce podcasts. These people need to
get paid.

My point is, while nobody actually likes ads, the model which podcasts employ
is at least tolerable; especially when compared to something like ads on
Youtube.

~~~
mrweasel
The most inspiring form of monetization in podcasting currently comes from
Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Their No Agenda podcast is "value for value",
where the fans contribute. They have actually been debating the Gimlet
purchase, and have apparently turned down a similar offer.

I think both Curry and Dvorak are right when they say that you can actually
hear the distaste for reading the ads, and that only very few people are able
to do it well.

The concept of value for value put forward by No Agenda is fantastic, there's
no fixed price, no paywall, but you are encouraged to donate. I can't explain
it as beautifully as Adam Curry, but the gist of it is: What value did you
derive from listing? Was it $5, $10 or maybe $100 dollars, then please donate
that amount. I also think there's a point to his idea that people love being
mentioned during the donation segment of the show.

It not clear how much Curry and Dvorak make from No Agenda, but I have the
feeling that it much more than they care to admit.

Sort of an aside: The audio quality of No Agenda is in my opinion the very
best in podcasting. Even much bigger productions, with more resources and
better equipment sound much worse.

------
mukeshsoni
My guess is most people will end us listening to a lot of rehashed mediocre
stuff. People will get addicted to listening to random conversations and won't
even know what else to do. It will be like twitter but without any feedback
mechanism. It will replace people's song listening time with a less melodic
medium. Scary.

------
drdeadringer
Tech Dirt recently dropped a podcast episode about podcasting.

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techd...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190219/12502141633/techdirt-
podcast-episode-200-big-business-podcasting.shtml)

------
iamwil
> But unlike text-based news and blogs, which have gone through waves of
> centralization and disruption thanks to Facebook and Google, the podcast
> industry has remained stubbornly decentralized.

Anyone know why podcasting has remained stubbornly decentralized? What are the
market forces that lead this to happen?

------
m3kw9
I think is a bit over hyped looking at just the extra time you have and use
that to listen to podcasts: driving, gym on the go. But if you have choice
between that and the other medium it compete against a for you attention, it
isn’t a win as they hype sugggests

------
ahje
Honest question here: How do you guys get the time/focus to listen to
podcasts?

I can't focus on people talking while doing something else so I either have to
put down whatever I am doing in order to listen, or I'll miss most of what is
being said.

Maybe it's just me?

~~~
selckin
There are a lot of daily activities that don't require your full attention

    
    
      - commuting (driving, bicycle, public transport)
      - getting ready for work (shower, getting dressed) 
      - cooking, eating
      - laundry, dishes, vacuuming, ...
      - shopping
      - gardening
      - exercise/working out
      - ...

------
EamonnMR
We already entered it. Serial was the tipping point - a crime podcast with NPR
quality production, got hugely popular, people who didn't even like podcasts
where talking about it. Also, Gimlet media's production quality is very high.

------
zhynn
If Radiotopia sells out to a conglomerate or publisher, I will be extremely
sad. And I am worried that I will eventually need N different apps to listen
to the podcasts I like instead of just one. I don't like where this is headed.
:(

------
djhworld
I have my regular podcasts that I listen to pretty much every week and some
others that I dip in and out of.

I just hope podcasts don't fall to the walled gardens, it's already happening
with Spotify, BBC Sounds etc. They hate the idea of RSS

------
jotjotzzz
Really? It felt like the golden age of podcast was a decade ago. I haven't
listened to podcasts in a while. With YouTube premium, you can just listen or
watch YT videos instead, so maybe it's golden age for videocasts?

~~~
Dowwie
Joe Rogan said that roughly half of his audience is watching his videocasts
rather than listening to his podcasts

------
billpg
Time was, you had to be very careful where you hosted your RSS files because
there were so many badly written players that polled the website every few
seconds without any caching. Is this still the case?

~~~
adambyrtek
I guess CDNs and services like S3 made it a non-issue.

------
c4dna
The number of podcast creators keeps increasing, and with that, they are
getting harder and harder to find, even the ones you already know.

The search tools and search directories need more advanced search options.

------
pmart123
This could be a dumb question, but is there any service that lets you:

1\. Bookmark a time in a podcast 2\. Highlight/tag a section or snippet 3\.
Contextually search for phrases or words in a podcast

?

~~~
elwesties
Overcast (iOS app) does the first of your points.

~~~
pmart123
Awesome. Thanks. I'll check it out.

------
tokyodude
There is practically no podcast market in Japan yet and with an average
commute of 80 minutes it seems like it's ripe for someone to make something
happen.

~~~
Sargos
That's when they sleep so it might be hard to break into that market.

------
Causality1
There's a lot more content out there now but the ratio of content to
advertising has absolutely plummeted. Good for podcasters bad for listeners.

------
ceceshao1
I'm truly grateful for podcasts as a medium where I can learn something and
not have to stare at a screen anymore

------
k__
Somehow I never found podcasts interesting.

I was special guest in one last year and liked to talk, but I never liked
listening to them.

------
blunte
There's simply no way that "23-25% of US adults listen to podcasts daily or a
few times a week."

------
dweekly
Crazy idea, but what if Twitter spun off a subsidiary called Odeo to
capitalize on this novel trend‽

------
godelmachine
Which podcast will help me improve my communication skills? Especially
listening and speaking?

