Ads Are Killing Podcasting
by mpugner on 1/31/2026, 2:28:53 PM
Comments
by: Apreche
There are tons of podcasts out there made by people with no extrinsic motivation. They aren’t looking for fame or fortune. They just like making podcasts, and do so for free. Usually Creative Commons Licensed. Yes, I am one of those people who makes a podcast that way.<p>The problem is you will never find our podcasts on the front pages of the directories like Apple or Spotify, but we are there if you search hard enough. If you are tired of ads, look harder.
1/31/2026, 5:32:14 PM
by: cm2012
Podcasts (and all other content) are supported one of three ways:<p>- Ads<p>- Subs<p>- Leadgen for some other business<p>You get to pick your own poison.
1/31/2026, 4:14:51 PM
by: 827a
The only platform where I consume podcasts anymore is YouTube, because some (but not all) podcast creators will remove their embedding advertising on the YouTube release of their show, but not Spotify/Apple/etc. And, YouTube Premium gets rid of the platform ads. Lex is one show that does this. And, realistically, I've dropped any podcasts that don't even do this.<p>There are some podcasters that release ad-free versions on Patreon or similar platforms; but the listening experience on those platforms is so bad that while I would be fully supportive of the concept of direct payment to remove ads, the only platform that functionally supports this at this time is YouTube.
1/31/2026, 4:35:55 PM
by: jfengel
You don't just skip over ads? My app lets me set a skip for the pre-roll ads automatically.<p>I actually feel a tiny bit guilty about that. The ads are why the podcasts exist. Too many might drive away listeners, but too few drives away podcasters. I'm kinda baffled that the economy of it works at all.<p>For a bunch of them I pay for the ad free version, though I'm curious about the economics of that. As someone with enough money to opt out, I'm exactly the person the advertisers want to reach.
1/31/2026, 4:18:17 PM
by: bshepard
I wish this was written by hand and not created by an algorithm that recycled cliches and presented single data points as decisive. But...it's 2026?
1/31/2026, 4:20:35 PM
by: mark_l_watson
I was going to agree with this sentiment until I realized that I listen to a few podcasts put out by individuals who spend a lot of time producing content. For me, it is pod quality vs. how many ads.
1/31/2026, 4:20:34 PM
by: GaryBluto
There are a <i>substantial</i> amount of LLM shibboleths in both the page design and text content.
1/31/2026, 4:17:06 PM
by: patja
I just wish I could still download all podcasts without needing an Apple or Google account to do so.<p>What happened to podcast RSS feeds? Many are still available but it certainly isn't universal like in the past.
1/31/2026, 4:30:03 PM
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1/31/2026, 4:59:22 PM
by: timpera
I can understand supporting a podcast by having the host read ads themselves, but dynamically inserted ads in audio podcasts are the worst. If you don't live in the USA, the number of advertisers is limited, so you end up with 1 to 3 different ads (mostly for other podcasts!) playing over and over on every episode for weeks, it's infuriating.
1/31/2026, 4:19:14 PM
by: hobofan
AI slop, or on a quality level with it.<p>For making such bold claims in a supposedly data-driven way the data is very flimsy and badly cited. The citations are not even discoverable via the stated names and contents possibly hallucinated.<p>If this were an undergrad essay it would be failed.
1/31/2026, 4:24:29 PM
by: christophilus
> YouTube now dominates podcast discovery.<p>This may be the part I like least. YouTube, and thus Google, have way too much power.
1/31/2026, 4:16:25 PM
by: carlosjobim
And how dead would podcasts be if the creators couldn't be paid for their work?
1/31/2026, 4:30:18 PM
by: SkyeCA
Is anyone surprised that advertisers damage yet another thing they touch?
1/31/2026, 4:21:08 PM