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Ask HN: Why is it so hard to download podcasts?

3 points by ericra ↗ HN
I know it's not the most popular option for consuming podcasts, but I much prefer to download full seasons of podcasts when on wifi to listen to later. Why do some podcast sites makes it so difficult to simply download? There are always 100 options linking to Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, etc, and only sometimes is there a link to download the podcast. Even then, the podcast will typically autoplay in a new window, and you have to click again to right-click -> save as. Alternatively, you sometimes have to go to the RSS feed and manually pluck out the actual sound files.

Ideally, I would like to be able to just download every episode of a podcast all in one go since disk space is not an issue. Is there any possible automated way to do this from an RSS feed?

As an aside, is there an actual reason podcasters would prefer you use a third-party service to download their shows? The ads are embedded in the sound file, so you're not avoiding ad exposure. Is it mainly just for tracking metrics and the higher probability that you will consume more shows once "subscribing"?

19 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 87.2 ms ] thread
cranberryturkey
spotify has a "download" button.
ericra
This requires using a third-party app for no reason. Unless you meant viewing the episode list from the Spotify site, in which case I certainly can't find a download button anywhere (when not logged in).
JojoFatsani
You can use the first party Apple Podcasts app, it’s actually quite good now and has all the features I used to subscribe to pocketcasts for (Cross device sync, queueing, high speed playback etc) but it works better. You can tell it to download the podcasts.

Apple Podcasts also seems to natively support some paywalled/subscription podcasts from publications I am subscribed to. Personally I think podcast listening is juuuust different enough from general mp3/music listening that it’s invaluable to have a dedicated app. Especially if you’re like me and listen to like 4-5 hours a day of podcast content.

ericra
I appreciate the suggestion. I can see the appeal of using a specific app for podcasts, but it is not my preference.

A lot of this question is really just motivated by trying to understand the reasoning for not having a simple download option on (many) podcast websites.

stop50
I know im pulling a No true Scotsman, but i think a RSS feed and Podcast belong together. Of the 13 different podcasts that have currently an episode in my queue, only 2 of them have no webpage directly associated to them. Of the 11 i can access the audio file in all of them.
ericra
For reference, I made this post after trying to download episodes from this site:

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/hot-money/episode-1-murder-b...

I am given the option to either listen to the embedded podcast on the site (with no easy way to right-click/save as the actual mp3. Or I can get directed to one of the following:

Apple podcasts Spotify Stitcher (I don't think this even exists anymore?) IHeart RSS

So if I'm attempting to get the podcast using a browser, my options are to:

1) Click the RSS feed, search the feed for the episode, find the direct sound file link, and download it that way

2) View the page source and search the source for the link to the MP3 (this is possible here, but sometimes it is obscured depending on the site).

Just adding a simple "download" link among these which directly downloads the mp3 file without addition clicks would be great here imo.

cranberryturkey
try fountain.fm. you can actually earn sats for listening and boost your favorite episodes.
pwg
> Why do some podcast sites makes it so difficult to simply download?

Advertising.

ericra
I tried to address this in my question. Of all the examples I can think of, the ads are embedded in the downloadable episode MP3. Is there additional advertisement revenue going to the podcast creators from the third-party sites?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
pwg
The web page the podcast is embedded in likely contains a significant set of "ads" (of various types) that either directly produce revenue, or "increase engagement" (supposedly) to then further cause more ads to be seen.
zachwlewis
Many modern podcasts don't actually include any ads in their source audio, relying instead on dynamic ad insertion.

Many podcast hosts provide dynamic ad insertion functionality. Unlike baked-in ads, podcast creators mark the locations of where ads can be inserted and, when requested by a user, the host generates a new MP3 on-the-fly using the user's tracking data (geolocation, demographics, etc.) that is then downloaded to their device.

This allows old podcasts to continue to generate ad revenue by dynamically inserting ads from currently-running ad campaigns.

https://advertise.acast.com/news-and-insights/the-benefits-o...

ericra
This really addresses my question directly. Thank you. It makes a lot of sense.

I wonder if this ad insertion happens for downloading directly from RSS feeds as well. Typically, there is a link in the RSS feed directly to an .mp3 file, and I don't know if it would be possible to set the RSS link to a URL which would custom "build" a new mp3 for each download with dynamic ads injected. Is it just the case that some podcasts do not have "public" RSS feeds? I don't know if i've come across any...

ericra
The title should really be "Ask HN: Why is it so hard to download podcasts from their websites". Oops.
JNRowe
Many people have given their "why," but I'll give another "how".

castget¹ is a simple tool that does exactly what you want, just add a feed URL and it pulls all the episodes. It has a nice catchup mode so you can add feeds that you've listened to elsewhere without pulling all the old episodes too. hpodder² is another tool I've used in the past, but I can't remember why I switched.

Depending on how much you like cobbling together your own solution html-xml-utils³ makes it incredibly easy to script a solution. For example, "curl feed | hxselect -c -s '\n' 'enclosure::attr(url)'" would list just the URLs. feedparser⁴ is a battle tested solution for processing feeds if you'd prefer a proper parsing solution over a hacky shell script(it will correctly handle different formats without any extra work for example).

¹ https://castget.johndal.com/

² https://github.com/jgoerzen/hpodder/

³ https://www.w3.org/Tools/HTML-XML-utils/

⁴ https://github.com/kurtmckee/feedparser

ericra
Thanks for all your suggestions! You and others have provided a lot of solutions in this thread, and I appreciate it.

I was looking at feedparser last night, and it definitely seems like the go-to for rolling my own as a learning exercise.

Cheers.