Opinions on Podcasts

[Eclipse_31]

Just a place to discuss opinions on podcasts. Do you like them? Hate them? What are your favorite podcasts? Least favorites? How do you think Spotify should handle podcasts in the future?

Personally I find podcasts to be overhyped. I keep on getting ads on things I’m not even interested in. It’s always the same old 20-somethings with the creepy smiles and thick glasses who think they know everything about ‘science’ and ‘history’. Of course that’s just personal preferences.

One thing that would be interesting to see is artists uploading their songs as podcasts. Each episode would be a song, or maybe even an entire album, given how long podcasts can be. I think this would be a very interesting idea as it lets the listener at least get a clue on when the next song or album would drop. If this already happens on Spotify. I’d like to know!

[1WaywardSon1]

Yeah please raise the issue again.. the discussion mentioned above is created in 2018... 3 years and nothing is changed. At least make them change the "not right now" label. This is really frustrating.

[metal_man]

Really? greatly appreciate all our thoughts? Future development? Are you kidding, the thread about removing those stupid podcasts from the home screen that, apparently, nobody wants is over 3 years old and it is still forced down my premium member throat. But you really value our thoughts, however you don't act on them. So what do you exactly value about our thoughts then? Or do you just value the thought of the monthly fee a lot of us are paying and don't give rats bottom about what we (you know, the ones paying your salary) actually are saying?

[Julian]

Hi folks! 

We wanted to let you know that we moved this thread out of the Chat section to one of our Help Boards. Keep in mind that Chat is a section within the Community for users to talk about their favorite music and podcasts and create a discussion around that in the hopes that we as users can find new content that we might like!

However, we can see that most of the comments in this thread turn around technical aspects of the Spotify app that don't fit the purpose of our Chat section. Remember you can find more info about our Chat guidelines here. If you have any feedback to share about something specific of the Spotify app, please make sure to share it with us in the relevant Help Board. 

That being said, we understand that not all Spotify users are interested in podcasts, nor seeing podcast recommendations. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it on to the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Even though at the moment it isn't possible to hide podcasts nor edit recommendations, we invite you to vote for the following ideas and sharing your feedback over there:

• [All Platforms][Podcasts] Option to disable or hide podcasts entirely
• [All Platforms] Customize Start Screen

Once we have new info to share about those ideas, we'll make sure to notify all users who voted for it by posting the updates in there. More info on how your feedback reaches Spotify via the Idea Exchange can be found here.

We hope this helped to clarify some things and don't forget you're always welcome to post in our Chat section if you want to talk about your favorite artists and discover new music together with other people. 

Have a great week! 

[neanda]

You don't need to ask for opinions, you just need to look at the boards to see the frustration that podcasts are bringing to music lovers.  Podcasts are not music, they are recorded talk shows from people who bought an expensive microphone and paid a fiverr for a podcast cover design.  It's not music.

[All Platforms][Podcasts] Option to disable or hid... - Page 41 - The Spotify Community
or

Customize Start Screen

3,302 votes

Status: Not Right Now 

or

Remove or manage “Your top podcasts” from mobile home screen

2,550 votes

Status: Not Right Now 

[neanda · Accepted solution]

Why are you asking for opinions? You just need to look at the boards to see the frustration that podcasts are bringing to music lovers.  Podcasts are not music, they are recorded talk shows from people who bought an expensive microphone and paid a fiverr for a podcast cover design.  It's not music.

[All Platforms][Podcasts] Option to disable or hid... - Page 41 - The Spotify Community
or

Customize Start Screen

3,302 votes

Status: Not Right Now 

or

Remove or manage “Your top podcasts” from mobile home screen

2,550 votes

Status: Not Right Now 

[Humanmode]

I want to be able to keep podcasts off my homescreen and call them up if and when I want them. I HATE seeing podcasts on my homescreen that have nothing to do with anything I like. This is bizarre in an app that is based on the premise of being tailored to me.

Podcasts as a concept are okay, but highly variable in quality. I have searched for podcasts on topics of interest to me but most are just annoying meandering uninformative chats between people without anything original or pithy to say. I found one podcast I like occasionally (Martyn Ware, Electronically Yours).  I didn't find it on Spotify, but now listen to it there - and it seems to have made no difference to the random other podcasts Spotify pushes on me.

[neanda]

Yeah good one Julian, close this down as well.  You are obviously not a music lover, but a lover of suits and ties

[roelani]

---

@SpotifyPodcasts wrote:

Hi, all! 

We greatly appreciate all of your feedback for improving the app experience, and we've taken note of all of your thoughts for future developments. Please direct all of these constructive comments about the app to the App & Features section of the community chat so that they can be reviewed by the correct teams. 

---

As has already been mentioned in here by several other users, the Live Idea thread (and its predecessors) has been marked as "Not Right Now" by the Powers That Be.

Enjoy your pileup of dissatisfied users, Spotify team. This is entirely on you.

[Jazzchilli]

I don't want podcasts on my home screen. They're irrelevant to the reason I pay for Spotify. I don't care that one of your execs **bleep** the bed by agreeing to buy a free product for an exorbitant price. Stop trying to whitewash this with your investors by placing it where actual premium content should be, and get the costs written off across several years' accounts like any other business who screws up.

[Eclipse_31]

Wow! I honestly can’t believe how much this thread has blown up over the last few days! 

It seems quite a lot of people share my opinion on podcasts: they may be interested in a few, but are largely uninterested or annoyed by original and curated content Spotify keeps on churning out. I really do think Spotify should consider implementing a disable mode for podcasts.

P.S. Is it just me, or am I the only one that never seemed to get into ‘True Crime’ podcasts?

[robertvw]

---

@SpotifyPodcasts wrote:

We're always happy to hear your feedback. It sounds like you haven't found something you're interested in from your home screen-- let's start by chatting about some of the shows you ARE interested in! We wanna know 🙃

---

Do you even realise how ridiculous this sounds? Let's compare it to this  hypothetical discussion.

A vegan enters his favourite vegan store, to find that there is now a fridge of meat in this all-vegan store and all kinds of meaty ads try to grab his attention when he just wants to walk to his vegan products. He is baffled and asks the owner for an explanation, because this is not what you'd want to see in your vegan store. But the owner replies: "We're always happy to hear your feedback. It sounds like you haven't found the meat you're interested in, in our vegan store. Let's start by discussing about some of the meat you ARE interested in! We wanna know".

So now a music lover walks into his favorite music store, to find that the store now promotes podcasts and all kinds of pod ads try to grab his attenties. Etc etc etc...

[heheheheheheha]

They've heard us. But they won't listen.

They don't care.

Our only choice is to leave.

Wait, was that a haiku?  

[Eclipse_31]

Here are my least favorite podcasts:

ASMR: Why do these abominations even exist?! Who even listens to these?!

History: Basically accounts to “Waaah no fair what if I told you [insert thing here] was achieved by a/an [insert historically-oppressed group here]?! Anything that contradicts this was Nazi propaganda!” (Ignoring any other pieces of evidence and/or legitimate achievements by said person or group) 

Politics: Apparently Spotify seems to think that the only type of politics that exists are extreme-left wing stuff. Anything to the right of it seems to be entirely non-existent.

Science: Science says that common household items such as sporks are made out of many types of metals; human bones are also made out of many types of metals.  The Science says we are made out of spork stuff.

Literature/Culture: Let’s **bleep** on the graves of the past, because we have no need for their old-times and outdated advice from those yucky old men. The only “wisdom of the ancients” we need is some ‘prophetic advice’ of some random New Age shaman of questionable history.

True Crime/Supernatural: I can understand the appeal of these types of shows - the edge-of-your-seat suspense, the dramatization and mysteries of it all, and wondering what will happen next. What I don’t get is the obsession these people have. 

Movies/TV: HEY GUAIS MCU IS SOO COOL IT’S LIKE GREEK MYTHS BUT SOO MUCH BETTER PLEASE CONSOOM EVERYTHING MAHVEL WITH ME!  STAN LEE WHO’S HE?!

News/Psychology/Philosophy: Let’s get a bunch of people with fringe ideas together, and show us that this is really how people - ahem - HUMANITY really needs to live.