
Show HN: Podflix – Like Netflix for Podcasts - shrikar
https://podflix.app
======
bastijn
The reason why netflix became big so fast is not because of their suggestion
service or categories but because they made accessible content that was
otherwise not available to them at a reasonable price except from illegally
obtaining it. I.e. The content versus the small monthly fee is the power.

Ratings are actually something Netflix has proven to be bad at. They even
want(ed) to remove the stars system and replace it for thumbs up. In other
words, suggestions, while nice, are not why it became so big.

In the podcasts land most content is free. The shows are usually already
containing the category in their title or else in their tags. This means a
simple search works very well in opening a series of podcasts in any category.
To know if it's any good from your app would be great but again, even netflix
sucks at this. Googling for reviews is still your best shot both for series as
well as podcasts.

I cannot see yet what Podflix brings over using my Overcast app and simply
using the search functionality. I'm already getting all the content I want in
a single search and at a great price you cannot hope to beat: free.

So I guess my question is: what problem are you solving? I would have a good
session thinking about this and than broadcast very clearly on your landing
page what problem you solve that I have today. This can be a problem I don't
even know I have right now. However, it is not availability of great podcasts
at a great price. I already have that. Overcast also gives me playlist and
downloading for a ride.

~~~
shrikar
Hi Bastijn: 1) I think recommendation play a critical role in any customer-
facing app. It's also powerful when we can start recommending episode instead
of a podcast 2) The categories or topics are pretty strict on itunes. Have
more subtopics will certainly make it lot easier to consume content. 3) I am
also not planning on competing with any existing app. If possible I will even
allow methods to subscribe using their favorite app.

~~~
bastijn
I'm not denying that proper suggestions is a great service. I am questioning
if it is enough to build a product around. Especially when people do not yet
know they have an issue or are missing it. Netflix, Spotify, Apple music, they
all share a common thing that made them great: give access to content not
previously available for a fixed price. Your service doesn't. That doesn't
mean there isn't a product here, it does mean you need to market your product
completely different than "a netflix for podcasts". People probably feel they
already can get all the podcasts they need for free so they do not easily see
the value in a netflix for podcasts.

In any case I wish you all the best and hope you find good product market fit!

~~~
toyg
I think it's a bit cruel to compare multi-billion-dollar businesses with a
lone guy doing his thing. None of those services started small. It's a fact
that there isn't yet a good recommendation engine for podcasts out there.
There are tons of clients relying on a few (relatively dumb) directories. The
first service that can crack that particular nut, could easily become a
lifestyle business or even get acquired. Not everything has to be a unicorn.

~~~
bastijn
I'm not criticizing the current state. Sorry if it felt that way. I'm
suggesting to change the communication of what the product is about and have a
good thought about what is the USP of the product. This is why I said that
there may be a product but the way it is brought now is not what triggers me
to use it or feel I need it. Maybe suggestion is enough to build a product
around, who knows, but right now I came in expecting a service like netflix
and it wasn't which made me close the product after a few seconds.

The title literally suggests me to compare the product to netflix.

~~~
chrisweekly
"what is the USP of the product"

USP?

~~~
toyg
unique selling point.

~~~
chrisweekly
ty

------
loteck
Clicked through hoping to find a company that is going all out spending big on
a vast array of podcast creators and content with hopes to dominate the space
through sheer numbers and low subscription fees.

I think we may have differing views of what makes Netflix Netflix.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
But it is laid out in titled rows like Netflix is. /s

An aside: I really wish we could find another word for "best". So tired of
seeing that all over the web. Oh, and "modern" also, but at least I don't see
that here.

~~~
gitgud
Side note: Is the '/s' from the comment above a sarcasm directive?

~~~
dguo
Yes. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation)

------
bdcravens
If you're going to appear to change state, save state. Nifty on the fly search
is nifty I suppose, but when I click through, then use back arrow, you
shouldn't take me to beginning, losing all of my search results. Stop breaking
the browser people. (this is as much a rant about this same pattern I've seen
elsewhere as it is a knock against your site)

~~~
diegoperini
Slightly irrelevant but twitch.tv loses some state too if you scroll down too
much in their directory page then navigate to a stream. Since their sorting
algorithm compare viewer counts maybe it's undoable to fully realize proper
back button UX.

------
wenbin
Or you can just search any podcast episodes:
[https://www.listennotes.com](https://www.listennotes.com)

Nowadays I don’t subscribe to any podcasts. I just find interesting episodes
and add to playlist — like pocket/instapaper — episode-centric, instead of
podcast-centric.
[https://www.listennotes.com/listen/](https://www.listennotes.com/listen/)

And if you want to build an app, you can use podcast api:
[https://www.listennotes.com/api/](https://www.listennotes.com/api/)

~~~
pbreit
I have a thesis that the download-orientation of podcasting has held it back.
Just stream, like every other medium.

~~~
krrrh
The download-orientation is exactly what makes it popular for anyone without
unlimited mobile data.

That said, I don’t know of any current podcast app that doesn’t handle
streaming if that’s what you want.

~~~
pbreit
Doubt it. Audio is tiny compared to video and many/most have virtually
unlimited data.

They sort of have streaming but tend to be more oriented around "subscribing"
which is unnecessary and frictiony, IMO.

------
drewg123
The feature that I'm looking for in a podcast service (especially one that
calls itself "Like Netflix") is ad-free content. I'd be happy to pay a monthly
fee not to hear yet another ad for the same darned things over and over and
over again on my favorite podcasts.

~~~
dreamcompiler
Agreed. I'm thoroughly conditioned not to tolerate commercials any more and
when one comes on, I turn off the source. This is why I don't listen to
podcasts any more. If Netflix had commercials, I'd drop my subscription
yesterday.

~~~
fokinsean
It's not too difficult to hit the "Skip forward 15 seconds" button a few
times.

~~~
oliveshell
It’s even easier now that the iOS podcast app lets you choose a skip duration
for the forward and backward buttons— I’ve got mine set to skip 45 seconds
forward and 15 back.

------
brujoand
What I don't like about these "discovery" apps in general, is that they tend
to show you the best of "topic x" based on some algorithm. The algorithm is
usually using some type of user provided data. But they usually fail to take
into account my level of knowledge about this topic. So I end up only finding
good podcasts in the form "topic x for people who have no idea how x works". I
want the opposite.

~~~
garysieling
I built a search engine for talks
([http://findlectures.com/](http://findlectures.com/)), and one of the
explicit goals was not to collect user data for privacy.

The content is selected by recommendations - e.g. someone on HN say a speaker
was good, so bring in all the conferences they spoke at, then there are some
filters to exclude things (e.g. terrible audio).

There are also facets to explore different ways, and my experience has been
that this approach works well for researching new technology, in that I can
typically find a small number of highly relevant talks on a subject I'm
researching.

------
illcollins
Nice idea. Doesn't seem to work if the category has spaces in it's name
though.

Works:
[https://podflix.app/category/Technology](https://podflix.app/category/Technology)
Doesn't work:
[https://podflix.app/category/Management%20&%20Marketing](https://podflix.app/category/Management%20&%20Marketing)

~~~
shrikar
Fixed!

~~~
avinassh
Doesn't look like fixed, cos I am still seeing empty page

~~~
helb
It seems to be case–sensitive:

    
    
        /category/Management & marketing
                               ^
    

works, but

    
    
        /category/Management & Marketing
                               ^
    

does not…

------
mxuribe
Congrats on the launch! After many, many years of my not being into podcasts,
I recently returned, and am loving podcasts. The challenge has been both in
finding a decent player/client, and discovery of podcasts. I'm most recently
using Stitcher, and so far its not so bad. My favorite feature is the ability
to automatically download episodes for offline listening. So...for now, i
think I've got a decent player/client. On the discovery front, I sure hope
your app/service begins to grow, because i think it would help in the
discovery of new podcasts. Kudos and good luck to you!

~~~
shredprez
Try Overcast! I use Stitcher to avoid ads on some of my favorite podcasts
(Stitcher Premium feature), but using Overcast is unquestionably a better
experience. More focused and intuitive interface, tons of control over
downloads, and the ad-free version (ad-free app, not ad-free shows) is a very
affordable $10 per year.

~~~
toyg
I honestly don't understand what people see in Overcast. It was already less
feature-complete than Downcast, and now there is Pocket Casts with every
feature under the sun, an android version, and a modern interface too.

All of them more or less suck at recommending/discovery, but apart from that,
Pocket Casts is a clear winner for me.

------
nibbleshift
That's pretty interesting. I think there are some downsides to taking the
Netflix-style of discovery. I find it buries obscure content and it creates a
limited view of content. It creates a bubble of specific content which has its
upsides and downsides.

There are several other tools for podcast discovery. There is FluidDATA that
has transcribed almost 11 million podcast episodes and it lets your search all
of the episodes and channels by phrase or mention. The search page is
available here: [https://fluiddata.com/](https://fluiddata.com/)

------
russian_bot
Pedantically - would rename "best" to "most popular".

Also, your favicon needs to be changed from the Vue.js

Great product, best of luck

~~~
shrikar
Agreed multiple people have told that. And yes the favicon change should be
coming soon.

------
feniv
Congrats of launching!

Some suggestions: Would be useful to see the descriptions for each episodes.
The save feature you mentioned, as well as some basic history of which
episodes I've already heard, would be great as well.

I currently use the Stitcher podcast app and my favorite features are the
offline-downloads and the "play this next" button for queuing up episodes.
I've payed for Stitcher premium once since I use the product daily, but did
not find much value added from it - if you can find some ways to offer value
beyond what the existing apps are doing, there is a market to be had, though
you certainly have some tough competition from Apple, Google, Spotify & the
other apps, so I wish you the best of luck!

~~~
shrikar
Yes, I am planning to add the save feature. Also would love to know what you
think about the recommendation aspect of it

------
jonnytran
You realize that "flix" is a synonym for "movies", right? Have you heard of a
chick flick? That's why "Netflix" makes so much sense. So you're basically
calling a podcasting app "pod-movies".

~~~
adam12
Flicks is also synonymous with "skip through" or "flip through" or "click".

[https://www.freethesaurus.com/flicks](https://www.freethesaurus.com/flicks)

------
joshstrange
Interesting thought but while you can listen to the podcasts on the website
you still need to use a normal player to actually subscribe to it. So it's
more like a account-less netflix. I'd suggest putting subscribe links in for
multiple podcast players (Apple, Google, Pocketcast, Overcast). I'll take this
moment to plug my favorite iOS podcast player: Overcast [0]. Don't let the
website throw you off, the app is where it's at and Marco just released
Overcast 5 alongside iOS 12.

[0] [https://overcast.fm/](https://overcast.fm/)

~~~
shrikar
Hi Josh, I will be adding a feature to login, save your favorite podcasts as
well as start generating recommendations like Netflix / Amazon. Mainly like
people who like this also like this other podcast.

Also, there is RSS feed link if you go to the podcast page itself(RSS feed,
URL, Ratings, Recommendations and episodes) Let me know if you are not able to
find it.

------
natex
This site doesn't work. Searched for "baseball" and one related podcast was
suggested along with 2 non-related.

I searched for "film" and 3 mental health podcasts were suggested.

------
zarriak
This service seems to promote a very odd consumption of podcasts. Most people
don't have a problem finding new podcasts to listen to if they want another
one to listen to. The much bigger issue they have is finding which of the
previous episodes to listen to. It would be much nicer if this let you review
each new episode release of a podcast and send you an email if the new episode
of a podcast you were kind of interested in is highly reviewed relative to the
other.

------
anonytrary
How do you source the podcasts? Do you consider YouTube interviews as
podcasts? A lot of great content on YouTube is functionally equivalent to
Podcasts (two people talking, interviews, etc.). I tried looking up the viral
interview where Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk (searched "joe rogan" and "elon
musk" separately to increase my chances) and nothing came up in your search
engine.

~~~
shrikar
Not looking at youtube. But if that something people want I can look into
adding that as well. Currently there are crawled on itunes, spotify and
soundcloud.

~~~
anonytrary
Might be interesting to do; lots of stuff on YouTube (even though it has
video) make for wonderful podcasts. Even if you project out the video content,
they're still worth listening to. Not sure if they make it easy to distinguish
between videos where the video part matters.

------
halfastack
This is pretty awesome. Is there any way to help?

By the way, it'd be nice if you could add Late Night Linux [1], esp. since you
have linux luddites, which is their previous show.

[1] [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/late-night-
linux/id11899...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/late-night-
linux/id1189978971?mt=2)

~~~
shrikar
Done!

------
supernovae
Make a PWA webapp of this available on the Windows store, you will find a
niche to fill devoid of good podcast apps. Make service workers that allow for
download/offline sync and i think you will do well. Obviously put it on
ios/android as well but i think you'd find a good home with your simple design
on ms store. Announce your app on neowin, mspoweruser and such too.

~~~
tehbeard
lack of CORS headers on most podcast file stores (making cross origin fetches
a black box of mystery errors) and the lack of a background audio API puts a
damper on any sort of PWA podcast app currently.

------
KSS42
Interesting that Hypercritical is listed in "Best News Podcast" even though
the last episode was in 2012.

It was a great podcast but slightly mis-categorized.

~~~
shrikar
These categories are currently coming from Apple. In a week or two I will be
generating topic/categories based on the content. Stay tuned.

~~~
slg
Are you only populating those specific categories because I noticed what seems
to be an intentional ignoring of comedy podcasts. Almost none of the Apple's
top comedy podcasts are available through search and it doesn't appear to be
divided by network. For example, there are plenty of NPR podcasts listed but
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me isn't on there.

It is fine if you are planning on sticking to the "HN topics" type niches of
tech, business, management, etc., but I am not sure I would use the Netflix
comparison if you aren't aiming for a general audience.

~~~
shrikar
I am planning to add more categories and topics. Stay tuned.

------
Torakfirenze
But I don't _want_ another service :/

I get podcasts on Spotify or Apple Music already. Why should I open another
app to get another audio form?

------
donohoe
The lack of Categories beyond whats on the main page is the big issue I have.
I want to find podcasts for my kids and there is no way to do that other than
search - but that returns mostly adult podcasts ('how to talk to your kid
about x', 'financial planning for expectant parents' kind of stuff)

That said, I'll check back later in the hopes that this improves over time.

A great start!

~~~
shrikar
Hi Donohoe, If you click on any podcasts you can see a bunch of tags. Those
are all clickable categories. If you provide me an email I can email you once
I add kids related topics

------
busterbooth
So I have a small content producing company and have three podcasts that I
host and track user interactions. Create a lightweight curl (possibly oath)
API that lets my server send your server real-time play information and stream
refresh info. You will get better data that way, it’s like a Facebook pixel or
whatever.

------
jeena
Is there a reason why I can't find my podcast there?
[https://jeena.net/pods](https://jeena.net/pods)

It shows up in iTunes search and gPodder search too, but not on that website.
I also can't seem to be able to find out how to make it find my podcast.

~~~
shrikar
Can you provide me your itunes link?

~~~
jeena
I have a rss link for you
[https://jeena.net/pods.rss](https://jeena.net/pods.rss) and I guess this
would be the iTunes link: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jeenas-
excellent-encount...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jeenas-excellent-
encounters/id1140551697?mt=2)

------
jordache
one big flaw. The first page thumbnails do not re-appear with a summary text
when I click View More. It seems like the View More view shows podcasts there
were not amongst the first page's thumnails. What if I want to read a summary
about one of those first page podcasts?

~~~
shrikar
Hi Jordache, Just a quick tip all the images are clickable on the front page
so you could just use that to go to the page. However, I agree it might not be
a good user experience. Will fix it soon.

------
miguelmota
Good UI but feature-wise it felt underwhelming because it's pretty much what
Castbox [1] has already been providing

[1] [https://castbox.fm/](https://castbox.fm/)

------
yakk0
The search is horrible. I searched for my podcast by keyword and by name, as
well as some other podcasts I listen to and none came up even related to any
of the shows I was looking for.

~~~
bdcravens
Yeah, I searched "Ruby" \- got almost a full page of results for random
podcasts (perhaps they had a guest named Ruby at some point?) until I saw an
actual podcast about Ruby.

"Docker" \- 1 result, about a personal brand podcast

From a quick inspect, looks to be just a SPA sending all search through
Algolia, as opposed to a search geared toward podcasts specifically. (my
understanding is that you can customize the indexes setup in Algolia, but with
podcasts, I assume the naive approach is to just throw all the RSS text at it
and assume that's adequate)

~~~
shrikar
Probably what you were looking for
[https://podflix.app/category/Web](https://podflix.app/category/Web) ?

~~~
bdcravens
Not really. That's too broad of a category.

------
dmcswain
Also access Podflix podcasts by voice command:
[https://is.gd/PodcastByVoice](https://is.gd/PodcastByVoice)

------
jaequery
I have a strong appreciation for these types of uber simple designs

------
MistahKoala
I've never used Netflix, so I've no idea what the comparison means. I'm
assuming there isn't a subscription fee to access free podcasts, though.

------
em-bee
to be the netflix of podcasts the selection surprisingly lacks any fiction
podcasts.

i wouldn't sign up to netflix for news but for movies and tv series, and
likewise i expected podflix to give me audio books and audio dramas.

for fiction podcasts it is also crucial to keep already released content
available (again, like netflix does).

i don't care much about rating, but i'd love decent categorizations that make
finding content easier.

greetings, eMBee.

~~~
shrikar
em-bee I am adding different genres as we speak

------
jordache
what index are you using?

I can't find my favorite podcasts

~~~
shrikar
Sorry guys I am indexing content slowly. If you can provide me the name of the
podcast I can index immediately. Also, will be providing feature to submit
podcasts on the site

~~~
erreJulian
I'm kinda surprised not to find the Accidental Tech Podcast in the Tech
section.

~~~
joshstrange
That was what I looked for first as well and was surprised to see so much Twit
garbage (really guys, your ad reads are HELLA long) above Relay.fm content.

------
daniel_iversen
Personalised recommendations would be outta this world! Even if it changes my
perception and make me try new podcasts :-)

~~~
shrikar
Coming Soon!

------
werber
I wish there was a way to navigate to weirdly specific categories and have 6+
podcasts on screen at once. Great idea!

------
Karliss
Where does review count and rating come from? I didn't see any way of rating
or adding a comment.

~~~
shrikar
Currently, its being fetched from Itunes. In coming weeks I will be adding
features to save/follow, add rating. Also there will be more sub-topics/genres

------
_raoulcousins
How does this compare to Pocketcast's Discover section? I guess being free is
a big advantage.

~~~
shrikar
I haven't heard of them will look into it.

------
woofcat
Pagination seems to be broken... I can never get to page 2 of specific
podcasts.

------
QML
Podcast lists don't load in Safari and in Chrome -- issue for anyone else?

~~~
shrikar
Is it solved or no? Do you have javascript disabled by any chance?

------
kranner
You should probably change the favicon from the default Vue favicon.

~~~
shrikar
Fixed

------
jordache
what makes this netflix ish? Just that lists of lists initial UI? That is a
very superficial aspect of what makes netflix netflix.

------
trqx
Every page comes up empty?

Terms, Privacy, Categories...

------
Svexax
So it’s Spotify without music?

------
gka
the font is awful

------
platz
exponent is dead

------
TickleSteve
(Pedantic)

The 'flix' in Netflix refers to 'flicks', i.e. films.... that is clearly not
the case here. Surely the name should have been something more like
'NetCasts'?

~~~
dsamarin
Funny though since a netcast is already another word for podcast according to
Wikipedia. Netpods, anyone?

~~~
lostlogin
I’m voting for PodFix.

------
dang
Using fake accounts to upvote things will get you banned here. Please don't do
it again.

~~~
shrikar
I am not doing anything :(

~~~
dang
A bunch of fake accounts upvoted the submission. I'll take your word for it
that you didn't do this and mark my comment offtopic.

If you really weren't doing anything of that nature, then I'm sorry for
suspecting you! Many people are trying to manipulate HN in this way, so we
have to guard against it.

~~~
shrikar
Is that also the reason it went from first page to 2nd?

