I want Apple Podcasts and Pocketcasts to have a kid
Sorry Tim, I just can't get your app to do what I want.
I’ve been a long time user of Pocketcasts since I started at Cadence13 in 2015. Big fan. I just counted how many podcasts I follow on there, and right now it’s an even 250, which sounds like a made up number and maybe I should have lied and said 249. Maybe a few are inactive, and 20 or so are the ones we make at Caloroga Shark Media, but anyway, I really like more than seven podcasts.
When we started Calroga Shark Media, I started using the Apple Podcasts more, especially for our in-house shows because maybe perhaps possibly the extra download maybe somehow helps the charts a bit, so why not.
I’ve come to really like the Apple recommendation engine. At CSM we have a very popular show about the British Royal Family called Palace Intrigue. Apple suggests I also might like…
…which is, as Mad Dog Russo might say, “That’s a good job outta you!”
Or this, if you like our series Ghost…
Again, great.
I also like Channels! Here’s a channel you might like!
Short Shows, Big Fun! And some shameless promotion by me, But hey, its a CHANNEL and that’s good for discovery.
Less great is the queuing on Apple Podcasts. I’ve more than once wiped out the entire thing accidentally. So have you, admit it.
I’m no Luddite, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to have the queue play me new episodes, and play me those new episodes ONCE. Not twice, and not never. Once.
I keep somehow adding things multiple times, and Tim, gonna be honest, it drives me nuts. I have no idea how to get rid of the duplicates other than playing them and dragging through it (which I guess would have a small negative effect on the metrics, so I don’t wanna do that to our own shows) or I can keep dragging it to the bottom of the playlist and eventually use the nuke option of CLEAR. Or maybe I am bad at podcasting.
OK, Johnny Mac, stop complaining. What do you want?
I want Apple and Pocketcasts to have a baby. The baby will have Apple’s recommendation engine, but keep Pocketcasts’ queue features and less Highfalutin-than-Apple’s front spotlight page. Like this.
I want to set some shows to “add to top of queue automatically” and some to “add to bottom of queue automatically” Like this..
I want to be able to just delete something (right swipe)
I want to be able shoot something to the top or bottom of the queue on the fly! I do this all the time. I have my “winding down at night” shows and I have my ‘morning drive” shows. There are a few that take the ride from the top of the queue to the bottom every morning, depending on how long it takes me to fall asleep (20 minute timer.
See below… Prof G, great for driving around this afternoon. Not so much tonight at 11pm.
And while Pocketcasts and Apple are having this baby, maybe a little Podcasting 2.0. We don't need to go Full Adam Curry here, but let’s start with a nice easy support option for superfans. Apple Pay meets Streaming Sats.
I think listeners would support micropayments, but right now we’re asking them to go to an App they’ve never heard of, and acquire some satoshis and then what you’re gonna do is……
….confused? Did I lose you? Yeah, that’s the problem right now.
But Tim, if you combined streaming sats with Apple Pay, and used it on the biggest app, boy that would be groovy. Some button where I can support a show and then click Apple Pay. Or set my Applecasts App to something like this (as seen on Fountain.)
Tim, you can even have your 30% cut.