[HN Gopher] Show HN: Spodcast, a Spotify podcast to RSS proxy
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Show HN: Spodcast, a Spotify podcast to RSS proxy
Author : Ourgon
Score : 93 points
Date : 2022-02-14 14:08 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| bleachedsleet wrote:
| I was preparing to just manually rip shows and privately host my
| own RSS feed of the audio, but now I'll be looking into this
| first. Thank you for exploring this problem in depth!
| ericboehs wrote:
| Man, I wish this did video too.
|
| I tried pulling the video from the Safari web client as it gave a
| giant data: uri in the <video> element that I thought I could
| save but couldn't figure it out.
| Ourgon wrote:
| Adding video support is rather easy, it is just something I
| never felt the need to do given my preference for audio - which
| I can listen to while working on the farm etc. - over video. I
| can have a look at adding it if there is enough demand.
| Ourgon wrote:
| Given all the brouhaha around Spotify hosting "controversial"
| podcasts I cobbled up a tool to actually listen to those things
| using my favourite podcast listening devices: old phones. They
| support RSS but have long since fallen off the radar for app and
| web developers. Question and suggestions welcome, may the source
| be with you.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| I threw out Spotify a few years ago, and used the fact that you
| can easily find RSS feeds for most podcasts to build a simple
| replacement. Fun and easy project.
|
| UI is in swedish, but this is how I listen to podcasts these days
| (it's completely non interactive and only lists my
| "subscriptions" with a basic audio tag)
| https://www.marginalia.nu/podcast/new.html
| swyx wrote:
| Spotify should be ashamed at their attempt to ruin podcasting by
| denying their basic foundation in RSS. Great project but why
| support Spotify exclusives at all.
| Ourgon wrote:
| For the same reason that I sometimes run Windows applications
| using Wine on Linux even though I dislike Microsoft's PC
| hegemony: because the podcaster is supposed to have something
| interesting to say, because the application is needed to
| perform a task for which no native or cross-platform
| alternative exists. As long as I can use the tools at my
| disposal to create a door in the wall around Spotify's garden
| I'll use them.
| Karsteski wrote:
| Hmm this seems a bit involved but maybe I'll check it out. I've
| mostly stopped listening to Joe Rogan's podcast simply because
| Spotify is a terrible podcast platform and I don't really want to
| support podcasts moving to platforms over RSS.
| Ourgon wrote:
| I stopped listening entirely when he moved to Spotify because
| a) I don't use Spotify and/because b) their app nor web will
| run on the "old clunkers" I use for these purposes which tend
| to be off-line when I'm out in the woods or fields. The recent
| brouhaha around Rogan piqued my interest to find out why what
| he and his guests said that was so deplorable as to cause a
| media storm. Spotify still won't run on my potato, hence the
| need for this tool.
|
| If you already have an environment capable of running Python
| and PHP setting this up comes down to the following command:
| $ tar zxf spodcast-0.3.1.tar.gz $ cd spodcast $
| pip install . $ spodcast -c
| /mnt/audio/podcast/spodcast.json --root-path
| /mnt/audio/spodcast -p -l /home/exampleuser/spotify.rc
| Karsteski wrote:
| That's pretty straightforward actually. I mostly just skimmed
| the GitHub. I have a server already at home so why not add
| this small feature to it right? :)
| Ourgon wrote:
| Indeed.
|
| Start here:
| https://github.com/Yetangitu/Spodcast/releases/tag/v0.3.1
| jackjeff wrote:
| I was looking at doing something similar a while back. But all
| the "Spotify Podcasts" I saw were using DRMs and just getting rid
| of this (legally by calling the same stupid Widevine plugin to
| ask it to decrypt it) was a huge task... and I basically gave up
| on all the Gimlet shows.
|
| I wonder how this project gets around this? I see no mention of
| it. So I assume there's still a way to access the files without
| DRMs or maybe Spotify stopped encrypting their podcasts? I feel
| like an idiot for giving up.
| Ourgon wrote:
| This project uses _librespot-python_ to access Spotify, it
| takes care of whatever is needed to access content. Can you
| give me a link to one of those DRM-encumbered "podcasts" to
| test? Thus far I have not come across anything like that.
| jtbayly wrote:
| Or, you know, just refuse to support Spotify's destruction of
| podcasts by not listening to any podcasts on Spotify.
| voisin wrote:
| The one nice thing Spotify has, at least with Rogan, is the
| video included in the podcast so you don't have to switch over
| to YouTube. I wish Overcast had this!
| Ourgon wrote:
| That's what this thing enables you to do: not listen to any
| podcasts on Spotify. You can listen to them on your _Gameboy
| Advanced_ for all I care, as long as it supports RSS it should
| work.
|
| If you mean to totally eschew any podcast hosted on Spotify
| that'd be throwing out the baby with the bath water - sometimes
| someone says something interesting on the other side of the
| wall after all. If Spotify clamps down on tools like these a
| better case can be made for podcasters to leave the walled
| garden, until such a time and as long as they allow access to
| their content using free-software tools they're just one other
| actor in the market albeit an oversized one which tries its
| best to create a walled garden.
| jtbayly wrote:
| I'm willing to not feed podcasts that feed the beast. It's
| for the good of those podcasts, too. Though I understand why
| this app exists and people would want to use it. If I was
| willing to listen to a podcast that is exclusive to Spotify,
| I'd do it with something like this.
| Ourgon wrote:
| Information wants to be free but sometimes it needs some
| help in finding freedom.
| midasz wrote:
| I really dislike using Spotify for podcasts since I already have
| a proper podcast app (Podcast Addict), so some shows I like to
| follow that have gone spotify-exclusive just completely drop off
| my radar (e.g. Last Podcast on the Left). This is a great
| solution. Any chance you'd offer a docker image for easy
| deployment?
| Ourgon wrote:
| I'll give it a try one of these days.
| the_snooze wrote:
| Same here. There's no value-add to the user for turning
| previously open podcasts into Spotify exclusives. I understand
| that Spotify and podcasters have to pay the bills, but they're
| not even trying to counter-balance the user-hostility with some
| benefits like ad-free listening or a proper podcast UI. And
| it's not like Spotify is desperate to have paying customers;
| they're one of the largest subscription streaming platforms
| around!
| wasmitnetzen wrote:
| Spotify realized that they'll never be profitable with music,
| the labels have the upper hand and can just raise their share
| whenever Spotify increases revenue. For exclusive podcasts,
| they own the entire chain.
| the_snooze wrote:
| If they want to be a podcast company, that's fine. What I
| don't appreciate is the soft bait-and-switch. I subscribed
| to Spotify for the music. I enjoy podcasts too, but I have
| my own preferred way of listening to it (Pocket Casts).
|
| What Spotify is doing now is providing sub-par experiences
| in both. The home screen is cluttered by podcasts when I
| just want to use Spotify for music (especially infuriating
| on CarPlay), and the podcast UI is years behind what Pocket
| Casts offers. It's like they're not even trying to keep up
| the great service that drew in their customer base in the
| first place.
| [deleted]
| dubbel wrote:
| Did Spotify at any point try to become a record label? I
| guess for the money they spent on Joe Rogan they could have
| signed some less controversial and still pretty popular
| artists. But maybe the record companies that own shares in
| Spotify prevent them from doing it.
| Ourgon wrote:
| No just that, if they were to launch their own label
| they'd be shunned by all the others. You do not get HBO
| content on the Disney channel after all.
| j00pY wrote:
| LPOTL is now off spotify and available normally again.
| Andrex wrote:
| Wish I could say I was rushing back but other podcasts have
| filled in during the 2 years they've been gone. That's just
| my personal experience, though.
| adrianomartins wrote:
| Awesome, this is actually useful!
| Ourgon wrote:
| Good, that is what I made it for - to be used.
| jron wrote:
| Thank you! I was using a 2nd Android browser with a fake User-
| Agent to use the Spotify web client after Spotifeed stopped
| working. I'll do whatever it takes to keep all my podcasts in
| AntennaPod.
| nmz wrote:
| And you absolutely should, I decided to try out Stitcher, and
| as you can guess, I went offline, listened to a podcast,
| decided I wanted to relisten to it again, and no go.
| Ourgon wrote:
| It was the demise of Spotifeed which gave me the impetus needed
| to build this thing, all that was needed was some free time.
| When than came, this was born. Spodcast's fate depends on
| whether _librespot-python_ continues to track whatever changes
| Spotify throws at its (v1) API.
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(page generated 2022-02-14 23:01 UTC)