I got a bunch of names from network sites and a bunch more I entered manually. If you host a podcast you can use the contact form and I'll add you to the system!
I love the concept. There still seems to be some room for improvement, though. When searching for "Tom Merritt", it only shows podcasts that "mention Tom Merritt" as opposed to podcasts he's been in or hosted. I plan on checking back in a couple months to see how it has come along. Love the idea, though!
Seeing this post, I did the same for 'Bill Burr'. For Burr's profile it has him listed as 'Hosts:' for 'Monday Morning Podcast' under his profile picture; As well as the mentions in the center. So, I repeated this for 'Tom Merritt' and you're right, it only has the the mentions; no 'Hosts:' section.
Thanks, I tried to differentiate between hosts and guests early on but there are too many false positives so I switched verbiage. Working on this though!
Great idea and something that's missing with podcasts. I took a look at some names and noticed you have missing data. For example, Christian Finnegan is a regular on Keith and The Girl podcast but he's only listed twice https://www.podcat.com/people/zXNOK2
I noticed a similar issue with Comedy Bang Bang. The host (Scott Aukerman) and the main guest (Paul F. Tompkins) are missing from the most recent episode.
Off topic, but it's interesting to see that you're active on HN, as I certainly remember you on the forums and on the show. I used to be a big fan of KATG from about 2008 to 2012 but fell off the bandwagon.
As far as podcast communities go, however, it always did seem like you guys had a good handle on using the web for interacting with fans and established a decent setup for monetizing the product which a lot of other podcasts lack. So...good job.
From a technical perspective, I've been working on streaming live shows via YouTube and having that automatically embed on the homepage and throughout the site. It's displaying 4 cameras in a 2x2 layout similar to this NSFW clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLqRSwyqnU1WEECXxN3uN08G2...
I'm also working on a new app that uses Cordova/Ionic Framework that'll make it easier to listen for regular fans and premium VIP members. In the spirit of staying connected with the fans, I've been posting updates on that progress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C219o_6tzNk
As far as using the web for interacting with fans, it's been a challenge, so it's great to hear your compliment. Initially, we just had our own forums where fans would participate. Now, our community interaction is fragmented along Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and our forums. Of course, all those platforms allow us to stay in front of more fans but it's a challenge to keep posting across those platforms without just repeating the same exact thing on each site.
All very cool stuff. Let's just say that the reasons why I stopped listening to KATG were not tech related.
There was a point when I was beginning discussions with a former KATG guest to develop an app for his podcast, but that didn't work out. Similar to your work it would've involved going much further beyond simple RSS feeds and I would've needed to write an API, provision servers, and write a front end (I was looking at possibly Meteor/PhoneGap), and we didn't see eye-to-eye on time frame and compensation/profit sharing for such a project.
My point is that it does appear that there's a market for podcasts that can go beyond the simple RSS/iTunes feed, and I wonder if there's any developers doing any serious work on this front. Like a "podcast community as a service", where the fractured elements you noted are all combined in one ecosystem.
The biggest issue I see with podcasting is the complicated subscribe process and monetization of the show. The biggest fish (Marc, Joe, Leo) have a team behind them to help with monetization but subscribing is still problematic.
Without having a custom app for your podcast, you need to explain to people what an RSS feed is. You just lost 80% of your potential listeners.
Alternatively, you can suggest they use a 3rd party app, like Stitcher and search for your show. Now you're promoting someone else's product and it's impossible to create a sales funnel using someone else's app, if the customer even manages to jump through the hurdle of installing Stitcher and then finding your show.
From a developers perspective, there are the problems that you described and there's no white labeled podcast app. That means, most podcasters can't afford to have their own app.
Podcasting is a medium that's dying to be upended. I'm experimenting with some ideas to do just that. First step is getting the KATG app into production, so I can test some of my theories.
Sounds like you're an app developer as well. Working on any fun projects?
>Podcasting is a medium that's dying to be upended.
I couldn't agree more, specifically in the realm of comedy podcasts. I don't have the hands on experience you do, but I've followed a lot of podcasts that have grown to the point where they have a rabid fanbase that's dying to pay for more content, but existing means of doing so are clunky or otherwise unappealing (some podcasts that come out of a certain Mexican restaruant/comedy club in LIC come to mind). The closest thing (short of joining a subscription network like KATG's) is probably Patreon, which in my experience has been less than ideal.
Also, many comedians treat podcasts as means to an end (increased album sales, drawing bigger crowds on the road) where as I imagine many comedians could be earning more from their podcasts than any other single thing they do (short of maybe attaining that Louis CK/Kevin Hart/Amy Schumer level of fame). If there was an easy way to set it all up it would take minimal extra effort from the comedians and could turn into a really nice revenue source.
But enough of me blathering about things you're already well aware of, I'm sure. I work for a desktop software provider mainly handling integrations with other companies through our webservice -- mostly backend LAMP stack stuff. No fun side projects as of yet, but the more I think about this podcast stuff the more I think I should try to do something.
You mentioned LIC, are you local to NYC? If so, it'd be great to continue the conversation in person. Feel free to email me. It's michael@my HN username.com
SkipCast displays an in-app link to that location with the text 'Donate'. Uptake for this feature has been quite positive.
I'd love to expand support for this to other systems and tags. It's an interesting little feature, and as an avid Podcast listener as well as app developer, hope content creators find success with it. It's quite literally the least we can do as developers.
Finally: Quick shout out to KATG, I've spend hours staring at your cover art as it was one of my favorite test feeds used when developing the app!
No offense to you or your product, and I did read the description, but I still don't see how can you justify $25 for a podcast app. More importantly, I don't see how a regular user would even bother to read the description after seeing that price.
Goodness, no offense taken, it's a completely valid point.
The price point deserves a more thorough write up. For now:
I released SkipCast last July at $2.99. Considering I had video playback, advanced audio effects (including skip silence), and lots more, I thought this was a solid fit for the current marketplace.
The result: In the next 5 months I'd get just 6 sales, 3 of which were from family members (thanks mom!). Total app store revenue: $18.
Of course I did my best to market the little bugger, and even added features as the result of partnerships with the aforementioned RawVoice. Press releases went out, Nada.
And so after 6 months, out of sheer curiosity I went totally free and saw my downloads SKYROCKET to ... 5-6 a day.
--
At this point then I had a choice. I ain't getting sales and I ain't getting free downloads.
And so I did what anyone with a lick of pride would. Charge real money. I literally did it to not get sales, as I wasn't getting them anyway. At least this way I'm not whoring myself out. Honestly, for how many hours I put into this project it felt wonderful to jack that price up!
The kicker: Since the price increase I've finally had enough sales to cover my developer fee, and I've only recently renewed for another year.
The reason? I think it's easy to see why.
For one, it immediately sets you apart in the app store. You're scrolling around and see a $24 app and you're bound to take notice.
Of course most will scoff, but, apparently, enough have not. It at least gets someone on my app store page.
Second, I make specific mention of the price in the very first line of the description, and later, actually mention the fact that I'm trying something different.
Look, the bottom line is in my naiveté I thought that in a potential marketplace of 1 billion users there was room enough for 15 or so Podcast clients. Turns our I was wrong. I can't control that, but what I can do is add my voice to the ranks who should stand up to cheep bastards who expect all software to be free. You want SkipCast, you'll have to pay for it.
Interesting app. How do you think the price point is effecting the revenue? Are you following a model for higher priced apps or developing one as you go?
This is the main feature that I use on IMDb. Rate stuff myself and explore based on rankings. Thus IMDb would be pretty much the last thing I would compare podcat to personally.
Wow. Thanks for filling up such an obvious gap in content database. Loving the topic/mention based search, looking forward to great things in this aspect.
Although first requested feature would be ability to sign, make profile for listened podcasts and preferably add notes/review/ discussion about a specific episode.
Thanks for the product. Looking forward to its growth.
This looks great. It would be awesome if you could add a direct link to the XML feed for the podcast since it's a pain to pull it out[0] and super useful for those not using iTunes.
Since most of my podcasts are technical (as I assume many other HN readers' podcasts are) many of them also have video. Sometimes only specific episodes have a video component (e.g. Lately in JavaScript), and sometimes every episode has a video component (e.g. JavaScript Air).
All of the ones I listen to that have video versions also provide an audio-only version, but the host or guests occasionally still refer to something on the screen.
So, it would be nice to be able to filter on episodes that do or don't have a video version.
Something strange is going on with scrolling. When I scroll quickly down the page, it jumps back to the top. Looks like a great resource, looking forward to checking it out in detail later!
simple marketing 101 Use an email address at your domain... you can easily have it forward to gmail behind the scenes, and replies will look as if they're coming from your domain. Can you imagine people at IMBD having email addresses on the gmail domain?
I would love a way to browse through podcast categories. From the homepage, I was looking for a 'tech' link or something to find some that would interest me. Great start though. Good luck.
I agree. Search results seem to be limited to 6 and even more problematics is that I find myself at a loss for exactly what to search for. Lots of promise here, but as it is, it's pretty hard to discover new content. Keep it up!
I like how the people behind the podcasts, the hosts and frequent guests are catalogued. It's an interesting way to browse for episodes and podcasts that I haven't seen done anywhere else.
Shameless plug: I've been working on a similar project (https://podcast.party/) that also lets you subscribe to podcasts to keep track of which episodes you have played/unplayed.
Just spent a few minutes playing around with your site. Very nice. I really like how your discovery lists show the last time the podcast was updated, the number of episodes, and the average length. Filtering on those attributes would be an awesome feature.
Love the idea, but this seems like it would require a ton of work for it to be remotely comprehensive.
In addition to the missing data, the false positives are an issue. First podcast I checked was Second Captains, which incorrectly lists Rafael Nadal, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc as guests.
114 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 172 ms ] threadFeature request: Ability to see information on podcasts not currently in the RSS feed.
Sometimes podcasts start to discontinue old episodes and being able to see this information is a pain point for me.
It looks like the only way to contribute, currently, is through the contact form. https://www.podcat.com/contact
Here's his profile for our podcast http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guest/40/christian-finnegan
You can scrape our guest list here http://www.keithandthegirl.com/guests/
or you can use our API endpoints to pull json content. Here's the doc but I can make tweaks, if you need https://github.com/KeithAndTheGirl/API/wiki/Keith-and-The-Gi...
https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/QAgBjs-comedy-bang-bang-the-...
As far as podcast communities go, however, it always did seem like you guys had a good handle on using the web for interacting with fans and established a decent setup for monetizing the product which a lot of other podcasts lack. So...good job.
From a technical perspective, I've been working on streaming live shows via YouTube and having that automatically embed on the homepage and throughout the site. It's displaying 4 cameras in a 2x2 layout similar to this NSFW clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLqRSwyqnU1WEECXxN3uN08G2...
I'm also working on a new app that uses Cordova/Ionic Framework that'll make it easier to listen for regular fans and premium VIP members. In the spirit of staying connected with the fans, I've been posting updates on that progress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C219o_6tzNk
As far as using the web for interacting with fans, it's been a challenge, so it's great to hear your compliment. Initially, we just had our own forums where fans would participate. Now, our community interaction is fragmented along Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and our forums. Of course, all those platforms allow us to stay in front of more fans but it's a challenge to keep posting across those platforms without just repeating the same exact thing on each site.
There was a point when I was beginning discussions with a former KATG guest to develop an app for his podcast, but that didn't work out. Similar to your work it would've involved going much further beyond simple RSS feeds and I would've needed to write an API, provision servers, and write a front end (I was looking at possibly Meteor/PhoneGap), and we didn't see eye-to-eye on time frame and compensation/profit sharing for such a project.
My point is that it does appear that there's a market for podcasts that can go beyond the simple RSS/iTunes feed, and I wonder if there's any developers doing any serious work on this front. Like a "podcast community as a service", where the fractured elements you noted are all combined in one ecosystem.
Without having a custom app for your podcast, you need to explain to people what an RSS feed is. You just lost 80% of your potential listeners.
Alternatively, you can suggest they use a 3rd party app, like Stitcher and search for your show. Now you're promoting someone else's product and it's impossible to create a sales funnel using someone else's app, if the customer even manages to jump through the hurdle of installing Stitcher and then finding your show.
From a developers perspective, there are the problems that you described and there's no white labeled podcast app. That means, most podcasters can't afford to have their own app.
Podcasting is a medium that's dying to be upended. I'm experimenting with some ideas to do just that. First step is getting the KATG app into production, so I can test some of my theories.
Sounds like you're an app developer as well. Working on any fun projects?
I couldn't agree more, specifically in the realm of comedy podcasts. I don't have the hands on experience you do, but I've followed a lot of podcasts that have grown to the point where they have a rabid fanbase that's dying to pay for more content, but existing means of doing so are clunky or otherwise unappealing (some podcasts that come out of a certain Mexican restaruant/comedy club in LIC come to mind). The closest thing (short of joining a subscription network like KATG's) is probably Patreon, which in my experience has been less than ideal.
Also, many comedians treat podcasts as means to an end (increased album sales, drawing bigger crowds on the road) where as I imagine many comedians could be earning more from their podcasts than any other single thing they do (short of maybe attaining that Louis CK/Kevin Hart/Amy Schumer level of fame). If there was an easy way to set it all up it would take minimal extra effort from the comedians and could turn into a really nice revenue source.
But enough of me blathering about things you're already well aware of, I'm sure. I work for a desktop software provider mainly handling integrations with other companies through our webservice -- mostly backend LAMP stack stuff. No fun side projects as of yet, but the more I think about this podcast stuff the more I think I should try to do something.
You mentioned LIC, are you local to NYC? If so, it'd be great to continue the conversation in person. Feel free to email me. It's michael@my HN username.com
If your Podcast feed contains the tag:
<rawvoice:donate type="text/html" href="URL HERE">Label</rawvoice:donate>
SkipCast displays an in-app link to that location with the text 'Donate'. Uptake for this feature has been quite positive.
I'd love to expand support for this to other systems and tags. It's an interesting little feature, and as an avid Podcast listener as well as app developer, hope content creators find success with it. It's quite literally the least we can do as developers.
Finally: Quick shout out to KATG, I've spend hours staring at your cover art as it was one of my favorite test feeds used when developing the app!
The price point deserves a more thorough write up. For now:
I released SkipCast last July at $2.99. Considering I had video playback, advanced audio effects (including skip silence), and lots more, I thought this was a solid fit for the current marketplace.
The result: In the next 5 months I'd get just 6 sales, 3 of which were from family members (thanks mom!). Total app store revenue: $18.
Of course I did my best to market the little bugger, and even added features as the result of partnerships with the aforementioned RawVoice. Press releases went out, Nada.
And so after 6 months, out of sheer curiosity I went totally free and saw my downloads SKYROCKET to ... 5-6 a day.
--
At this point then I had a choice. I ain't getting sales and I ain't getting free downloads.
And so I did what anyone with a lick of pride would. Charge real money. I literally did it to not get sales, as I wasn't getting them anyway. At least this way I'm not whoring myself out. Honestly, for how many hours I put into this project it felt wonderful to jack that price up!
The kicker: Since the price increase I've finally had enough sales to cover my developer fee, and I've only recently renewed for another year.
The reason? I think it's easy to see why.
For one, it immediately sets you apart in the app store. You're scrolling around and see a $24 app and you're bound to take notice.
Of course most will scoff, but, apparently, enough have not. It at least gets someone on my app store page.
Second, I make specific mention of the price in the very first line of the description, and later, actually mention the fact that I'm trying something different.
Look, the bottom line is in my naiveté I thought that in a potential marketplace of 1 billion users there was room enough for 15 or so Podcast clients. Turns our I was wrong. I can't control that, but what I can do is add my voice to the ranks who should stand up to cheep bastards who expect all software to be free. You want SkipCast, you'll have to pay for it.
Man it feels good to say that : )
Interesting app. How do you think the price point is effecting the revenue? Are you following a model for higher priced apps or developing one as you go?
This is awesome!
Although first requested feature would be ability to sign, make profile for listened podcasts and preferably add notes/review/ discussion about a specific episode.
Thanks for the product. Looking forward to its growth.
[0] https://gist.github.com/aderyabin/4479240
The tech podcasts I listen to frequently end with recommendations.
One of the recommendations in the latest JavaScript Jabber is for a Taylor Swift album.
Podcat attributes the entire episode to Taylor Swift‽
JJ Episode Details: https://devchat.tv/js-jabber/202-jsj-donejs-canjs-with-justi...
Podcat Episode Details: https://www.podcat.com/podcasts/D13bdo-javascript-jabber/epi...
---
Request:
Since most of my podcasts are technical (as I assume many other HN readers' podcasts are) many of them also have video. Sometimes only specific episodes have a video component (e.g. Lately in JavaScript), and sometimes every episode has a video component (e.g. JavaScript Air).
All of the ones I listen to that have video versions also provide an audio-only version, but the host or guests occasionally still refer to something on the screen.
So, it would be nice to be able to filter on episodes that do or don't have a video version.
thank you for all the feedback and support!
Shameless plug: I've been working on a similar project (https://podcast.party/) that also lets you subscribe to podcasts to keep track of which episodes you have played/unplayed.
Nicely done.
In addition to the missing data, the false positives are an issue. First podcast I checked was Second Captains, which incorrectly lists Rafael Nadal, Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc as guests.