Hi guys, first of all, I fully support Piracy. But Im writing a piece on my blog about what I might considere as “Ethical Piracy” and I would like to hear your concepts of it.
Basically my line is if I have the capacity of paying for something and is more convinient that pirating, ill pay. It happens to me a lot when I wanna watch a movie with my boyfriend. I like original audio, but he likes dub, so instead of scrapping through the web looking for a dub, I just select the language on the streaming platform. That is convinient to me.
In what situations do you think is not OK to pirate something? And where is 100 justified and everybody should sail the seas instead?
I would like to hear you.
I’ve been listening to A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs and let me tell you, the music industry can fuck right off. Small indie label? I’ll probably buy it, but one of the major record labels? Set sail mateys.
That intrigued me, but the shit design of the website turned me off. I can’t even find the first episode. There’s no list, it’s blurbs of each and every episode that you have to scroll through and it only loads like 15 at a time then you have to go to the next page.
I’m not going to spend ten minutes scrolling and clicking just to find the first episode so I can try it.
I found it via the Podcast Addict search. This is the feed link: https://500songs.com/feed/podcast/
Yeah, it’s never advised to listen to a podcast on its host site. 80% of them are terrible, just load the RSS up or find it on your preferred podcatcher. I say this just so you aren’t too hard on them about it. It’s very difficult to find a service that is good as both a website and as a podcast host and even “good ones” are not great UX.
It is very VERY simple to set up a functional website these days. And this is an abomination of UX. It would take hardly any effort at all to improve it with a simple chronological list of links.
I don’t think I’m being too hard on them at all.
Yes but that’s not the objective. Setting up a website that can serve a podcast is the objective, and let me tell you, rolling your own is not so simple. You also inevitably end up sacrificing the site’s UX for the podcast’s functionality. The venn diagram of what each needs does not overlap well. It’s why so many people use dedicated hosting sites, such as Libsyn, which have the site as an afterthought. The website isn’t a priority for a podcaster because the vast majority of their traffic simply isn’t going through there. Their audience is on their phones, maybe tablet and computers, using podcast apps they like. Because it’s an audio medium and the audio experience - and thus the apps - are the main point of interaction. RSS serving audio basically precludes the need for a site that’s designed for lots of traffic.
So unless you want to set up your own home server that can serve a podcast, which is no small matter, or pay a hosting service that doesn’t primarily do podcasts (which will charge you an arm and a leg the moment you get an audience worth a damn), you are going to use things like Libysn. It’s not as bad as what we see above, but it definitely isn’t pretty and modern either, and that’s just sort of how it is. Much to my chagrin lol
What kind of complicated UX do you think is necessary here? I literally said “a simple chronological list” is all they need to improve the experience enough to make me listen.
That should take ten minutes of coding. And it is applicable to every podcast ever.
This such an elaborate excuse for such a simple mistake that would be so easy to fix.
It’s not an excuse, it’s explaining the habits of a group of creators that are 1) surprisingly tech illiterate because it has become so democratized and so easy to serve a feed without the need for a website, and 2) creating audio content for an audience that 99.99% will never, ever visit their website.
I’m not sure why this is making you so hostile. I’ve been at this for about a decade, it’s just the reality, doesn’t mean I think it’s good or I personally condone it. But the fact is podcasting has become incredibly democratized and people who are just not good with computers are able to do it - so what would take you ten minutes of coding would take them hours if they’re even able to wrap their heads around it. Not to mention a real, functional website is a thing you have to keep maintaining. For many people it’s not worth it because their audience simply won’t engage with the site one way or another. I think the issue is you see the website as a high priority, but in the world of podcasting it generally isn’t even a tertiary concern, so it isn’t treated as such. The goal is record->maybe edit (sadly)->publish. The fastest route is what people take, regardless of the tech debt they incur later.
The shows I produce generally we put a lot of work into having a nice “storefront” as it were and then leveraging the site for blog content and other media. So I do not personally engage in this behavior.
Edit: Let me put it another way. Basically anyone can learn how to change the oil in their car. It’s not that difficult. But most people simply don’t because it’s not a priority and they don’t want to expend the extra time/energy to do it. They’d rather spend money, not think about it, and be done quickly at their convenience so they can go on to other matters that are more important to them. Now take this impulse and apply it here but with even lower stakes: I want to make a podcast. I am not good with computers, but I can stumble my way into recording and publishing a show. That is all I want to do. Managing a website, no matter how beneficial it may be though it’s questionable for many - and unlike an oil change which is required - is not is not required to run a good show, so many will just skip it and let the podcast hosting service accomplish the bare minimum for them. Which is usually just some garbage template from the 2000’s that the podcaster never, ever looks at again.