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I don't get it. You want the podcast, you value the work, you don't want them paid?


I wish there was a reality where content creators understood that ads just don't work on some people. I understand that they need money, and I listen to the ads when I can't fast-forward through them, but it's a complete waste of time on me.

And I do have a desire to block ads in every single part of my life, I just don't practically go any further than regular uBlock origin in Firefox.

I'd actually rather pay for good podcasts than get intrusive ads.


Sponsorship money is to my understanding pretty much always paid beforehand; the marketer gives a sum of money and just for doing the ad read, the podcaster gets paid.

Actual payment on clickthrough/conversion rate is pretty uncommon. The podcaster isn't harmed by anyone skipping the ads.


The more people that use this, the less that ads will be worth.


Why wouldn't they get paid? You download the whole episode, it's not different than downloading it to your phone. They don't know if you listened to the ad any more than if listening via an app without this step inbetween.


Exactly. If you are going to use this, I believe you should also become a patron* of the podcasts you do it to. And, in that case, you often have access to an ad-free version anyway.

*or "tip" or whatever other monetization channel they have. Very few rely solely on ads.


Ding ding ding.

A lot of podcast authors offer ad-free versions as a paid feed to members, which to me, invalidates the ethically dubious “but the podcaster has already been paid” argument.

They should be given the choice to do this.

I feel like the slippery slope is immensely dangerous as it always is with these products.


How do you feel about just fast forwarding past the ads in your audio player? Is that unethical too?


Cue silence.


Because there's nothing to say really.


How about answering the question? I don't see why not do that and instead reply to my comment.


The question at its core is a whataboutism and I don't have time for those. It doesn't change the core tenet of the point being made, which is that this prevents publishers from monetizing something they tend to charge money for.

And given that most publishers are small and just scraping by and this directly harms them, I think that sucks.

Stop free-riding on absolutely everyone like they're a Hollywood studio.


Don't they have a day job?




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