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Ask HN: What problems are podcasters facing?

4 points by anmolparashar ↗ HN
Hey, HN

I'm the founder of Castup, a startup that provides professional podcast editing services to indie podcasts and networks, starting at 40 cents per published minute.

Since it has been a while we've been successfully running this startup, I wanted to expand a bit and see if we could help Podcasters in other ways.

For example, a problem that I think a lot of Podcasters have is they don't want to spend $20-$30 each month for a website, and my team and I are currently studying whether we can provide mini website that costs $29 per year (we are currently working out on economies, how will things work etc.) but I'm sure there are other problems that we can attempt to solve with good design and code. So, let's hear them?

Our website: https://www.useCastup.com

11 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 44.6 ms ] thread
claudiulodro
This question seems like just a promo for your company, but I'll bite.

Discoverability is by far the biggest problem any media company faces (and podcasters are a media company). Millions of minutes of viewing, listening, and reading content are created every day, and the barriers to creating content have never been lower. The biggest problem podcasters (or anyone else in media) face is that created content goes into the void never to be seen or listened to. No ideal solution exists for this, as people have a finite amount of attention, and more content is created than can be consumed in a day.

anmolparashar
Now that I read it, it does come off as a promo, but I'm actually trying to do is get some product/service ideas (other than the one we are offering) like other similar HN threads

Wouldn't good targeting solve this problem, for Podcasters at least? When you record a podcast, you know what type of audience you are talking to, and based on that, you can target them via social channels.

randomvectors
Your post is an ad. You've also tweeted a link to this thread both from your company's twitter and your personal account. It's kind of desperate and embarrassing. Just don't.
anmolparashar
Tweeting a HN thread that I want people to be a part of is not embarrassing to me. Maybe we just have different definitions of the word?

Checking someone's post history, and Twitter just so you could have something to comment on an "ad" about is kinda sad though. But, have a good day!

[deleted]
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x0hm
how dare you try to create value for your customers by engaging with them

unbelievable

saluki
y, I'm not sure websites for podcasts are a problem.

If you host with castos.com or transistor.fm you get a mini site where your podcasts live on their domains. So I'm not sure having a website is an issue for most podcasts.

I think a podcast website offering would probably be easier coming from their podcast hosting company that way the website and podcasts are with the same company.

So it doesn't seem like a natural fit for the company doing the editing.

anmolparashar
I love the website Transistor comes with, and I think if every podcast gets a site like that, that'd be great for the Podcaster's community and should help with discoverability.
saluki
y, I'm a big fan of Transistor. They are doing a great job.I definitely get a better/more pro feel for podcasts hosted there vs their competitors.
wmil
YouTube demonetization? Most podcasters also post to YouTube and they've been hit by the various "adpocalypse" changes.
anmolparashar
Now that's a problem I hadn't come across, mainly because most of the Podcasts that we work with don't post to YouTube, but this is definitely something we can take a look at. Thank you!