adding podcast by url ... why can't spotify answer this question?

[mike_kruger]

Users have asked many times how to add a podcast by url.  The only non-answer was this: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Closed-Ideas/Podcasts-Searching-for-particular-Podcast/idi-p/153199...

All other answers to this question simply point to this non-answer.  That's pathetic.  If Spotify can't provide basic customer service, then I'm going to ditch it.

This applies to using Spotify on all devices - premium version or otherwise. 

[SenseiJoe]

As responded in another one of these requests - "You need 100 kudos in a year" for it to be considered.

Such a bad response!

There needs to be a campaign for this natural feature of podcast players. 🙂

Maybe we'll have to keep adding these requests every day.

[Guido]

Hey @mike_kruger and @SenseiJoe,

Hit vote if you think it's a good idea. We go over all ideas regularly and update the Status when necessary. Inactive ideas can become active and who knows can get implemented some day 🙂

But what do you mean exactly by adding a Podcast by URL?

Looking forward to your reply.

Have a nice day.

[safetypinner]

Guido, adding a podcast by URL is a basic feature of any podcast app. You copy a podcast url from a podcast and most (if not all) podcast apps will let you subscribe to the podcast with that url. There is usually a button or menu option that provides a text field where users can type or paste a podcast url. It’s such a basic feature that it is mind blowing that Spotify doesn’t have it already. I am inclined to think that Spotify specifically doesn’t want to allow this because it would allow people to listen to podcasts that Spotify doesn’t have a relationship with. I have a feeling that Spotify wants to exercise complete control over “podcasts” that are available on its platform. This is evidenced by the fact that there are some “podcasts” which can only be subscribed to on Spotify.

[mihxil]

I concur completely. Lacking a feature to subscribe to a podcast by URL completely invalidates spotify as a podcast-app. This is a very basic feature.

[Zap4ick]

Google podcasts don't have this feature too though 🙂 it's a pity I have to get a separate app to listen to one link. 

[nipunajay3]

This is the reason why Spotify isn't my default podcast app, and I suspect it's the same for many other people.

Right now, to follow podcasts on Spotify you must find them in the Spotify catalogue and hit "follow". But there are several podcasts that I follow on another app which are not available in the Spotify podcast catalogue. So to keep following those podcasts, I must continue using the other app even though I'd much rather use Spotify. If Spotify had a feature where I could manually add the podcast URL in order to follow it, I could just ditch my other app and use Spotify for all my podcasting needs.

It's very frustrating because here I am, wanting to use Spotify as my go-to podcast app but responses I've seen in other threads make me feel that Spotify is completely ignorant of this absolutely basic feature.

[rahhb]

Very basic feature is an understatement!

[rahhb]

Surely, if you have listened to a podcast ever, you know what "add by URL" means?

[ilchymis]

I'm in the same position. I'd love to use Spotify to play my podcasts. But I can't play some of my podcasts on Spotify, so I end up using another app for all of my podcasts.

One use case that absolutely requires this feature is playing podcasts with subscriber-only content. I pay a monthly subscription to a couple podcasts, and in return I get a subscriber-only RSS feed with ad-free or premium content. But that RSS feed is typically a unique-per-subscriber URL, and it cannot be used in podcast apps that don't let the user add a podcast by URL.

[PierreThibault]

This is a shame. For example, I would like to add a private URL podcast but I cannot. I have to use another app.

[safetypinner]

As far as I can tell, the only way to hope for this to change is to boycott Spotify as a "podcast" platform. They want to lock their platform down, and only allow us to listen to their narrative and journalistic audio content, then we have to stop using it, and refuse to listen to their content. I don't think it should be considered podcasts if it isn't open for everyone to listen to. I think the only thing that will convince them to open it up and allow us to add by URL is their revenue being affected.

But frankly, this is probably not possible. They bought Gimlet media, and although existing podcasts will not be made exclusive, all the new ones will. They have too many users who just don't care about this. Only we happy few who go just a little bit deeper than the mainstream podcast audience care about doing things like adding unique podcast URLs. Look, I don't even have a problem with them offering exclusive content, I want podcasters to get paid, and I know it's challenging. That's why there were networks like Earwolf and Gimlet. What I have a problem with is this issue; that we can't add podcast content to it (it's not a podcast if it's not available on other platforms, it's narrative or journalistic audio). I understand that Spotify wants to be the best audio content provider out there; they want to provide all kinds of audio content, but I don't want to be locked into their platform.

Also, in my opinion the UI is terrible. Not sure if they've changed it in the past year, but it's astonishing to me that a single developer made Overcast, which is a great UI, great functionality, and a multi-million dollar company like Spotify has a **bleep** UI. I  advise everyone to stop listing to non-music content on Spotify and use Overcast. Maybe if enough people stop, they will pay attention and pay some people to develop a good UI and add some critical features.

[georgewooly]

This is an extremely basic feature that any music player should (and most do) provide.

[Icarozz]

Basic feature that definitely should be added.
In my case, I support various podcast creators on Patreon. As a reward, I have access to separate rss feeds that contains weekly bonus episodes. I have to use other podcast apps to access these because Spotify doesn't support it...

[ithinkihaveacat]

One example of the poor user experience that results from not having this feature: if you search Google for "npr tiny desk" you get to https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510306/tiny-desk-concerts-audio. This page has buttons to subscribe via Apple, Google, etc. but not Spotify. However, there is a standard RSS Link which could be used with Spotify, if Spotify supported this.

Without this feature, users are likely to subscribe to some of the fake (fraudulent?) NPR Tiny Desk Playlists that come up in Spotify search such as:

- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VuyEZCqxmcwIteVyW2U1w?si=wZg-1H11QWe8wD2yGawyqw (43k followers)
- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7xdZTnxhZOL7la0gLvRG4k?si=8iQF_H5xRAe6fwga4ia9Dg (14k followers)

[anthony11111]

It’s August 2020, you still can’t add a podcast via url? This is silly....

[safetypinner]

It's not a mistake. It's part of their strategy. They want to be the number 1 audio platform. They just made a deal with one of the most popular podcast hosts to have his podcast be exclusively distributed via Spotify. The way they've decided to be number 1 is not to provide the best service, but to become the only way people can listen to the podcasts they want to listen to. I'm grateful that Gimlet media was able to cut a deal where most (if not all) of their current podcasts remained regular podcasts, but frankly, the fight is over. Probably the best thing we can do is to stop spending money and listening to ads on Spotify and actually spend money (patreon, just paying for content) or subscribing to other podcast distribution networks like stitcher. I'm not happy about Stitcher premium being only available inside their app, but you can listen to non premium stitcher podcasts anywhere, and i can understand that there are technical reasons why they can't officially support listening to premium podcast streams with other podcatchers. The problem is, I'm generally speaking pretty happy with the music streaming part of spotify.

[safetypinner]

If you want a really good podcast app experience, use http://overcast.fm

[anthony11111]

Yeah, I use Castbox which is similar. I was hoping to consolidate Apple Music and Castbox into one app. I’m actually pretty happy with the music side, much more intuitive, smoother, cleaner than Apple music, the podcast player works great too. But I have a couple premium shows I pay for and listen to regularly that I can’t.

[GeoffFFitch]

It's ridiculous, really, and I don't buy it. This the business model for premium podcasts and this is probably a day's work for a programmer. It's more likely a business reason they are not doing it, like they imagine themselves becoming the dominant player and wanting to capture revenue or something. It's an obvious choice when you are late to the game and you leave out an important feature that virtually every other player has and insist that your users 'vote' for it. So, no, I'll never consider Spotify for podcasts.