[Podcasts] Split out podcasts into separate app

[pwilczynski]

There have been many posts about improving the UI for podcasts within the Spotify app. But the more reasonable architectural decision seems to be to use a separate app for podcasts / audiobooks. Trying to cram too much into the spotify music app is confusing; it bloats the experience and distracts the user.

As an episodic medium with repeat consumption and curation, podcasts are just very different than traditional music. In particular, once I've decided to listen to a podcast, the likelihood of me wanting to listen to music is extremely low - podcast-specific search, prioritization and discovery is much worse when mixed up with musical content. 

[Katerina]

Updated on 2020-05-01

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[jtheuser]

Ditto on this. I just can't listen to podcasts on Spotify until there is a separate app. Am I really supposed to have songs and podcasts episodes coexist on the same playlist? No way.

[blaz0036]

Couldn’t agree more. Spotify’s podcast UI itself leaves a lot to be desired - I only use it when I absolutely have to because it takes forever to find what I’m looking for. But I agree, having music & podcasts together overcomplicates things and weighs down the experience. As long as they’re in the same app, podcasts will be an afterthought... which is unfortunate when Spotify appears to be swallowing up large portions of the podcast universe. Music & podcasts belong in separate apps. There’s a reason Apple had them separate to begin with, just like there’s a reason YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV have separate apps, FB & Messenger, Amazon & Prime Video, etc. 

[Philipdev]

I do not agree with them having to create a new app. I love that I can have one app for both Music and Podcasts. It's I actually don't want another place to go for podcasts. That's the whole reason why I'm using Spotify for my Podcasts and not some other app.

All that needs to be done is just adding some new features to the Podcast part to make that work more like other podcast-apps with features like RSS Feed and what have you.

I think it is perfectly fine the way it is now. It's divided into two tabs in "Your Library" and that works great. The option to actually be able to have a playlist with both music and podcasts is amazing and what makes Spotify unique compared to other music and podcast listening services.

If you want a separate app for podcasts, then there are almost an infinite amount of different podcast-player-apps you can try.

[jackl123]

Another pro of having podcasts and music as separate apps (for me anyway) is that I will often jump between listening to podcasts and music. Having them as separate apps makes it much easier to quickly jump between them. 

[tuxx9pzrt56diph]

The recommendation or the home page gets cluttered up.

[b3astofthe3ast]

This is a great idea. Especially with Android Auto, it's super cumbersome and distracting to find your own playlists when podcast recommendations are taking up space. I would gladly move to a dedicated Spotify podcasts app that functioned more like Pocket casts. If people like their current set up, I don't see why both can't coexist. 

[exhuma]

I'm not sure about a separate app. But as it is right now I really don't like how music and podcasts are mixed. Having a clear separation between both would improve the user-experience.

I personally use a separate podcast app whichis pretty mature and has tons of features which make sense for podcasts (RSS support, auto-download of episodes, auto-archive settings per-podcast, variable playback speed, ...). As podcasts are still new in Spotify I'm not surprised that it's lacking in features at the moment. I see podcast support in Spotify as a good "enabler" for people that never listened to them before. But if you are already "set up" the new UI elements are just distracting.

For me Spotify is for music. Period. If it ever gets to a point where it's on par with dedicated podcast apps I might consider switching. But until then, having Podcasts pop up everywhere is just distracting.

I don't think supporting podcasts is a bad idea per se. Many people will surely use it. But it's currently too mixed with the music content.

[mattefy]

Separate app or the option to hide them; I have zero interest in podcasts.

[Jacob]

Updated on 2021-03-23

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