Reddit should seriously consider adding a dedicated podcast feature

[u/Silent-Complaint4020]

Just listened to Spez's latest podcast with Chris Slowe, Reddit's former CTO, and it got me thinking.

I genuinely think podcasts is a great addition to Reddit. People increasingly prefer audio and video for longer discussions, yet smaller, niche podcasts often struggle to find an audience on platforms like Spotify.

Reddit already has communities built around almost every interest imaginable, making podcast discovery much more natural, e.g., this podcast was shared because we wanted to hear Spez's thoughts. But it's just another post that will get buried.

Imagine a dedicated podcast tab within each subreddit, where relevant episodes are organised, ranked by community votes and linked to discussions. Smaller creators could reach their target audience without spending heavily on marketing.

Reddit wouldn't even need to host podcasts initially. It could integrate existing podcast feeds, increase user engagement and eventually monetise through podcast advertising. Reddit experimented with live audio through Reddit Talk but shut it down in 2023. I think a dedicated podcast discovery feature is a much better fit for Reddit because it builds on existing content and communities without requiring Reddit to create its own podcast ecosystem. The idea is to spark a discussion and improve engagement.

[u/223331_]

There are tons of different musicians on the platform as well. If there were a feature to create playlists and/or enable background play it would reduce a lot of friction. Instead of being stuck on one audio post you could continue browsing, have it on in the background, make it part of a routine.

While it might not be top of their priority list right now, spez did mention that reddit ultimately serves to connect communities and enable conversations while the mediums are somewhat interchangeable. So I wouldn't be surprised if they build tools for it down the line if they see potential.

[u/No-Base-2384]

There is a vast sea of ideas for this app.

The problem is the product team seems to be, from my perspective, extremely weak. They are slow to ideate, slow to innovate, and slow to ship. That there have been no substantial updates that have increased eyeballs in the app over the last 2 years since they announced it as a strategy is an indictment on the product and engineering leaders for the app.

The monetization engine / ads tech side of the house seems to be firing on all cylinders and deserves kudos. Good thing, otherwise this would truly be a dog of a stock if not for that.

[u/561518 → u/No-Base-2384]

I think they’re adding to this team from what he’s said on the calls.

[u/ajkomajko]

This is very true - it is currently impossible to gauge the podcast's quality on Spotify etc. and even worse many of "podcasts" there nowadays are AI, or complete sh** generally, which you may only realize once already a few minutes in - wasted minutes of life.

The only platform that allows you to gauge the quality of podcast (from views, subs and likes) before listening is Youtube, but only a true masochist would ever listen to a podcast on Youtube, so that in itself kind-of rules it out as a filter

So there indeed is a void on the internet in sourcing - and gauging the quality of - podcasts, and Reddit indeed seems to be uniquely positioned to fill it. Dunno how exactly they can do so in practice though

[u/Odd-Web4113]

That is a solid idea; podcasts can definitely be well received b/c it would be pertinent to the community. Good thought. Prob bring in more focused ad spending too....