Podcast Ads Debate

Cluster discusses advertisements in podcasts, listener preferences for ad-free listening versus the need for monetization to sustain creators, including skipping ads, paid streams, and challenges in podcast revenue models.

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3,656
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#5488
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Activity Over Time

2007
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2011
28
2012
54
2013
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2014
76
2015
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2016
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2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2026
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Keywords

e.g AI OK DAI FWIW ARR YouTube listennotes.com URL TV podcasts podcast ads listeners ad content listen media book spotify

Sample Comments

kelvinjps10 Jul 12, 2023 View on HN

Podcasts are working without ads

chistev Dec 29, 2025 View on HN

Why are podcasts being affected?

ascorbic Sep 24, 2019 View on HN

Lots of podcasts have paid, ad-free streams

afarrell Sep 4, 2020 View on HN

Because many podcast listeners don't share your preferences

JumpCrisscross Aug 19, 2023 View on HN

Sounds like there is a niche for an ad-supported white-noise podcasting platform?

40acres Feb 1, 2018 View on HN

2017 for me was the year of the podcast. I came across podcasts such as The Daily from the New York Times, a 20 minute rundown of the day's biggest stories, and Hardcore History from Dan Carlin, 4-6 hour epics. Alongside podcasts on politics, tech, and more. Podcasts are consuming my TV, movie and music streaming time.My biggest issue are the ads, they are very generic and it seems the same types of companies dominate the space. Primarily services like zip recruiter, blue apron, and othe

yepthatsreality Feb 10, 2020 View on HN

Probably because podcasts have ad breaks.

xyproto Dec 5, 2019 View on HN

No loss here. I listen to several podcast, but I usually skip the ads. If that was not possible, I would not listen to podcasts. Podcasts can be nice, but there is an abundance of people that want their voices heard.

wenbin Feb 21, 2019 View on HN

Podcasts are ubiquitous.There are high quality productions like shows from gimlet media. But most podcasts are more like twitter / Instagram accounts. Podcast becomes a channel for marketing (companies) or self expression (individuals) or exploring some kind of long tailed interests.There’s strong demand of accessing podcast contents from listeners, pr agencies, ads agencies, app developers, teachers & students in k12 schools.Ps, if you want to build a podcast app or a service

duck May 22, 2020 View on HN

You do realize that most podcasts will go away if they can't make money via advertising, right?