
Show HN: Echo Podcasts – Goodreads for podcasts - dannylmathews
https://echopodcasts.com
======
dannylmathews
Hey, I am the founder and developer behind this app.

Aside from joining the app because you love podcasts, it may interest you
because it has some cool tech behind it. ie) Echo is not a podcast player, but
we connect to your podcast player. We give every user their own unique podcast
feed, generated with a list of every episode that they want to listen to. This
feed can be added to your podcast player just like any other podcast feed.
When a user finds an episode on Echo, they just have to tap a button and it
will be ready in their podcast player from them to listen to it. Try it out,
it's pretty slick in my opinion.

Similar solutions have been built, for instance, Patreon generates custom
feeds for podcasts which include episodes available only to paid users.
However, this is the first time users have the ability to generate a custom
podcast feed, for themselves.

~~~
jonny_eh
Are you associated with Amazon? Because you're using two of their trademarks
(Echo + Goodreads)

~~~
rdslw
What???

You can not trademark echo for different areas. And podcast _is_ different.

This way of reasoning makes me speachless.

P.s. goodreads might be a case though.

~~~
dannylmathews
Hey, I am not affiliated with Amazon. Fair point on using Goodreads. I'm just
using that name so people quickly get an idea of the product ex) how people
pitch their ideas as Uber for X

~~~
epicide
Amazon won't see it that way. If not now, then when you get big.

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alexandercrohde
Almost upvoted this, but then it seemed to be an App not a website. I'm
probably a minority in this preference.

~~~
dannylmathews
Thanks, good to know. I can definitely add a frontend web app as an option as
well. The reason I started with an app is because it was makes it easier (from
the user's perspective) to import your podcast subscription from your existing
podcast app ie) one or two button clicks vs having to save the file on your
device and import into the web app.

~~~
zodPod
I say using it like a "staging" area would be awesome. A lot of stuff just
isn't fun to manage from a phone it would be awesome if I could go to the
site, do the things that I need to do to manage everything and find stuff,
then move to my phone.

------
pdabbadabba
I'd think twice about whether "Echo" is a wise thing to call a new app right
now. When I read this I immediately thought it was some sort of podcast
integration for Amazon Echo, which might tend to suggest Amazon will have a
problem with it. Without getting into the merits of any such dispute, I would
think that unnecessary litigation with Amazon would probably be something
you'd want to avoid!

~~~
bgun
Ditto, the more so because Amazon's Goodreads was mentioned.

~~~
tantalor
Where?

~~~
aroman
the title of the post and the subtitle of the website

~~~
tantalor
Oh, I was confused because I was not aware that Amazon owned Goodreads. Their
homepage makes no mention of Amazon.

------
phirschybar
The is a concept SORELY needed.

There is another app called "Breaker" which I think is similar which I have
tried. Breaker is a bit buggy and there isn't enough of a network yet to up-
vote episodes and make the discovery valuable.

Whoever can get a big network of users and some solid auto-suggestion
intelligence included will win this space.

~~~
gman83
Also Podchaser

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dingoonline
Just installed. Everything seems to be stable enough. A few little niggles, on
Android, the OPML export is a bit finnicky. I was using Pocket Casts and it
pops up a Share menu for you to export so I had to export to my file manager
first before then selecting it. The app's interface is functional but could do
with some polishing, for example, you can't rearrange your set of favorite
podcasts.

Biggest annoyance for me thus far is loading speed. It always takes at least a
second or so to load up a page. Seems like a small thing but it has an impact
overall.

~~~
zukken
I'll go ahead and second this. I'm going through and echoing my all time
favorites which is painfully slow without caching. On a related point that
others have already mentioned, a PWA would likely not suffer from this
performance issue.

~~~
dannylmathews
hey zukken, are you using Android as well? just looking to confirm it is an
android only issue. Also saw your other comment, just tried emailing myself
using my second email and it worked. (just to confirm it's
dan@echopodcasts.com)

------
daveambrose
I'm excited to try.

I started something similar, almost a "Book Club for Podcasts" that stemmed
off this Twitter thread
([https://twitter.com/daveambrose/status/918124906092597248](https://twitter.com/daveambrose/status/918124906092597248)).
We organize discussions in a Google Group but this looks like it's much more
automatic than the manual curation piece we use.

~~~
dannylmathews
hey Dave, send me a link to the group or email it to me dan@echopodcasts.com

~~~
zukken
Email is bouncing from that address.

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r3bl
If it's an app, it's not like Goodreads.

~~~
benoror
Exactly!

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DapperFox
It's pretty difficult to search for this. What exactly do I type in google to
find it? `Echo Podcasts` will give me results with the Amazon Echo. It's a
great idea, when I saw it, it seemed like a no brainer. If you can rebrand
this and release a web app I would be all over it. (If you need help with the
web app reach out to me)

------
adventured
Am I the only one that's extremely disappointed there's no Web site to use and
only an app?

I would have given the site a spin. Maybe it makes a good impression, maybe
not; that'd influence whether I then sign-up. I'm not downloading an app just
to see if it's any good.

~~~
zodPod
You are not alone, friend. I too was disappointed. I was excited for something
like this because I frequently have trouble finding worthwhile podcasts but
it'd be much more convenient if I could use it from a browser to "stage"
things for my phone.

~~~
wenbin
You can try out my project, a podcast search engine:
[https://www.listennotes.com/](https://www.listennotes.com/)

~~~
zodPod
First impressions are this is fast and awesome! Thank you!

------
konz
Reminds me of the Hacker News but for podcasts from last year:
[https://podcastrank.co](https://podcastrank.co)

Thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11509835](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11509835)

------
tdevito
This is clever idea. From my first look it appears to be an Instagram-like
social network, but with no user generated content. While social graphs
themselves have value, I think we have hit an inflection point with users
getting tired of sharing their personal content. Personally, I am much more
interested in what other people like and have to say about mass media content
rather than their selfies or wedding pictures, frankly I just don't give a
damn about user generated content and I think I'm not the only one. We need
more platforms like this for other types of content such as movies, TV, music
and vetted news publishers. Just curious, is the news feed 100% reverse
chronological? Do you have any ranking/recommendation algorithm for the
discover tab?

~~~
dannylmathews
Yes the news feed is 100% reverse chronological except for one row which
suggests podcasts to you based on a friend that has a podcast in the same
iTunes genre as one of your podcasts. I do want to do a smarter
ranking/recommendation system but it pretty simple recommendations for now.

------
code51
Negative aspects:

\- Twitter auth requests the ability to send posts, an easy no

\- signing up with email, you require an avatar picture. just use a
placeholder

\- can't test drive anonymously

------
dogruck
I want an IMDB of podcasts.

More specifically, I want to:

1\. Enter (or click on) a person’s name, and see every associated podcast
episode,

2\. For any podcast, and podcast episode, see every associated person,
including their role (host, guest, producer),

3\. Search a speech-to-text corpus of the conversations,

4\. List of sponsors for every episode.

~~~
dannylmathews
Hey, I have plans for some of those, but you might also be interested in
podchaser.com, their tag line is the IMBD of podcasts so check them out as
well.

~~~
dogruck
Oh I hadn’t seen podchaser. Thanks.

Unfortunately, the value is in the execution. I don’t want to bash podchaser,
which is clearly labeled as being in beta, but:

1\. I don’t like its emphasis on the user community — interacting with other
podcast listeners feels like a dud

2\. Its search results are poor, IMHO.

I hope you make good progress!!

------
icebraining
Good job OP, looks slick. The idea of using a custom feed for integration is
nice.

Unfortunately I can't install it right now (my Android version is too old,
eh), but when I finally upgrade I'll definitively try it.

~~~
dannylmathews
Are you using Android 4.X or lower? I believe it should be compatible with
Android 5.X and higher but haven't checked it on a 5.X

~~~
icebraining
The About screen says 6.0, maybe some other incompatibility?

------
clydethefrog
That pesky RSS 0.92 is frustrating for digital entrepreneurs, isn't it? There
is a reason the number one paid podcast on Patreon has an anti-capitalist
theme. Podcasts are one of the last pieces of media that have not been fallen
to algorithms and data collection, but the clock is ticking.

~~~
icebraining
_There is a reason the number one paid podcast on Patreon has an anti-
capitalist theme._

That means nothing, capitalists are happy to take your money by selling you
propaganda against themselves. Those shirts with the Che made some people very
rich. It's what makes it so resilient, compared to other systems, and why it
won world dominance.

------
weego
I don't need or want this to be an app

~~~
akoncius
very constructive

------
sampl
Love this idea!

Echo doesn’t appear as a share option when I export from Pocket Casts,
anything I can do about that?

~~~
dannylmathews
Hey sampl, I'm working on a fix atm. Will post an update asap.

~~~
sampl
Thanks Danny, can’t wait!

~~~
dannylmathews
Fixed! Please update to the latest version to see the fix.

------
CPLX
The description on iTunes says "Top Epidodes" which you might want to fix. I
like the concept a lot, but you should probably explain it a little more
clearly in the description and documentation on your own site.

~~~
dannylmathews
hey, thanks for pointing that out! Will update the screenshots.

~~~
tazard
Play store says that to FYI. App looks interesting, thanks!

~~~
dannylmathews
Thanks, will fix as well

------
swapsmagic
Allowing duplicate podcast episode in the list. Looks like bug.

------
spazzpp2
I just want to point to [http://gpodder.net](http://gpodder.net) (opensource
with api)

------
XR0CSWV3h3kZWg
So far I only see # of echos. I am not interested in finding the most popular
podcast or episodes, but rather the highest quality podcast/episodes.

------
oun111
Want to use other sql languages (like oracle) to access MYSQL? You may need
this : www.github.com/oun111/zas

------
myth_drannon
There is also a new out of beta podchaser.com but it's web only. Somewhat
active.

------
dominotw
whats a good podcast player for an underpowered android device?

~~~
gman83
I use my old Galaxy SIII just for listening to podcasts, I use Pocket Casts,
works fine.

------
zodPod
I started looking at Amazon's Trademarks for the word Echo and here are a few
I found. I'm not sure if they apply or not but some of them sound very close
to podcast related:

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.1)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.2)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.3)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.4)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.5)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.6)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.7)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.3.236)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.8)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.9)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.10)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.11)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.12)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.13)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.14)

[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3pl...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:3plkpo.5.15)

~~~
zodPod
Apparently these searches expire... Sorry.

~~~
dannylmathews
Hey, could you send me a email of what terms you were searching for zodPod?
Curious to see them. dannyl.mathews@gmail.com

