I’ve been experimenting with using Podcasting 2.0 apps for my recreational listening. I’d like to support creators, but boy it’s not easy.
Issue one: Funding my wallet so I can give you money.
TrueFans has the easiest route to funding a wallet. I’ll go further, Sam Sethi has solved it. True Fans has it so you can deposit via ApplePay. I added ten bucks to my wallet. Click. Done. Dollars became sats. Yay. Now I have sats to give someone!
On my quest to find the perfect app with my small brain, I’m still experiencing a learning curve on TrueFans interface, and since the service is a Web App and not an App App I don’t think I can download shows which is my preferred way to listen because airplanes, subways, dead spots, the woods, I marathon-train (HUMBLEBRAG) and want to queue things and let them rip, etc.
Issue two: I want to give you money but you won’t take my money.
As I listen to the podcasts I enjoy as a civilian, I notice that almost nobody has set themselves up for V4V payments.
James Cridland has. I think I gave him like six cents this morning when I remembered to use Podcast Guru. You are welcome James!
James has a second show enabled, this time splitting with Sam Sethi on Podnews Weekly Review.
Adam Curry has it on his podcast Podcasting 2.0 podcast. Last week I noticed one of our shows had gotten funky I the Podcast Index, and the Godfather himself fixed it within 2 minutes. So I threw him 60 cents (in sats) last week and will do again.
The rest of you? As far as I can tell, nobody has it enabled except the crypto-bros. Hey if you’re enabled, promote this post somewhere and let me know about your podcast, I’ll throw you some sats.
Issue Three: Ick, Crypto-bros.
So Fountain, let’s talk.
I like the idea of Fountain, and I like that Fountain has promotions where you get inbound sats to listen. What I can’t stand is the UX.
This is the homepage on the app (for me)
Yuck.
Tabbing over isn’t much better. This is the discovery part. Bitcoin, bitcoin, crypto, bitcoin, no thanks.
Also, Fountain - I see you have 3 or 4 ways to fund a wallet. I tried. I couldn’t figure out any of them. I even tried uploading my drivers license (which no normie is going to do. Let me know if you guys need Sam Sethi’s email) to whatever third party app handles the crypto stuff and that app wouldn’t scan my license. I moved on. So when my wallet runs out, I guess that’s it.
Issue Four: Will someone please hire the third best designer from Pocketcasts and put them in charge?
I like a nice clean interface. Guru gives me the below.
And they have pretty nice discovery - for example. I discovered that 80’s Movies one from their recommendation engine.
(PRO TIP - If you subscribe to over 225+ podcasts like I do, don’t import all of them to a new app, start from scratch, especially if you plan to bounce around.)
Guru is close to what I want in an app, but I don’t love their queuing feature. Pocketcasts is still my go to there, but Pocketcasts doesn’t have any value for value features.
The Pocketcasts main screen is similar to Guru’s. Clean.
But here’s the magical feature one of you 2.0’s needs. See the blue with the plus and minus (below)? Add to top of queue. Add to bottom of queue. Some episodes I want to listen to today (Sportsball Recap!) and some can wait (80’s movies). And when I flip over to my playlist I can drag shows up and down very easily, and they don’t disappear like they do on the fruity app.
Don’t even get me started on the amount of times I’ve lost a show (or added it four times) trying to make a playlist on the app I got at the fruit stand. Sheesh. Hire Pocketcasts’ third best UX designer.
So here’s my convoluted system for listening, until I get bored again and go back to Pocketcasts and poor James doesn’t get six cents from me:
MORNING COFFEE RUN: listen to Caloroga Shark Media podcasts on Apple Podcasts so we get Charts Credit for the listen. Although this week I a listening to the Caloroga shows on Guru to see how easy or not it is to get in their “hot” recommedation.
FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEO GAMES: TrueFans, throw James and Sam some money. Curry too if I play a lot of video games.
DRIVING AROUND: Pocketcasts. It just works. Did I mention that someone else needs to hire the third best guy from Pocketcasts and put them in charge of your app OR Pocketcasts needs to add value for value.
SHOWS ABOUT PODCASTING: whatever 2.0 app I am in the mood to use.
PLAYING ON MY PHONE: Right now, Guru just because it’s new to me.
FALLING ASLEEP: Pocketcasts. 20 minute timer. It just works.
SEVEN HOUR DRIVE TO CLEVELAND TODAY: Pocketcasts.
DISCOVERY: The best one right now is Apple Podcasts. I find a lot of their “if you like this…” recommendations are on point!. I usually sample a new discovery on Apple but if I like it I add it to Pocketcasts.
…
The Engagement people want me to ask you: So what podcast apps do you like? Answer in the comments!
FIVE YEARS?
Five years. If we’re lucky.
If you want 2.0, especially V4V to move it faster, I have two options for you.
Get Apple to do it in ios18, with Apple Pay one click and value for value in the Apple app.
Get Joe Rogan to start doing it and then have someone print an article about how much Joe and the other comedians who follow him start making.
Until then, the conversation is - well, you see, you download this other app, and load your wallet with sats, sats are satoshis which are a fraction of a bitcoin, and how it works is….
Forget it. In 2024, there are like 12 people doing this, and I somehow seem to be one of them.
…
For this article I simplified Podcasting 2.0 to just focus on sats. I understand there’s a lot more to 2.0 than just throwing money around.
As I wrote yesterday, we’re all in on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. I even did the math. I love the future of V4V, but my mortgage is due in 25 days.
And now it’s time to SPOT THE TYPO! Remember, Spot the Typo is a game we play where you read the newsletter closely to spot the typo. It’s not that I looked this over three times and missed it. It’s a game! Whoever spots the most typos by the end of the year wins. Yesterday I waited until I hit publish to spot the typo in the second sentence.
Just one more thing. Check out Ballot. Think Daily Show but podcast but ten minutes. I’m having fun writing for this one. You heard Trump’s nickname, right? As Larry The Cable Guy says, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.” He also says Get ‘er Done but I digress. (He’s my friend and an AWESOME dude. Story for another day.)