How about Spotify support?

Feature request
1

I was a bit disappointed about people hiding their content in Spotify, but there is code to get a proper rss feed for the free content.
Instead of relying on an external site, is there a way to directly use GitHub - timdorr/spotifeed: A simple service to serve up Spotify podcasts as RSS feeds for use in any podcast app. in AP to listen and find Spotify exclusive casts?

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2

It’s indeed sad that some publishers hide their content in a closed ecosystem. Every time that happens with a podcast that you like, please do let them know this shouldn’t be the way to go.

A similar request as yours was made on GitHub (where technical development happens). My reply there:

this is a project by an individual, and we don’t know what might happen with the service that converts Spotify shows to RSS feeds. Individuals can use the service and add these RSS links to AntennaPod, but I’m hesitant to offer this in the search in AntennaPod.

Our users would still rely on an external site (spotifeed), but without realising. If Spotifeed at some point goes down (gets stopped, killed by Spotify, …) AntennaPod will get complaints by users whose podcasts suddenly stop working.

Including a third party service that recreates feeds for other’s content is (IMHO) too risky to implement.

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3

Maybe not entirely depending on the service but using it’s open source code to make an independent improvement to antennapod instead. That was the idea. Not relying on external services where the quality of the generated feed looks a bit weird on occasion.

4

Hmm. Spotifeed is a web application. AntennaPod would have to set up its own servers to make it work. It can’t be integrated in the app ‘locally’ (on our phones).
In the context of gpodder.net synchronisation we concluded it’s (too) much work to maintain such service with the small active community that we are. So the same conclusion I think applies here.

2 Likes
5

I don’t necesarily think so as Spotify offers a webplayer itself with search function and episode list. As a coding noob it looks like local conversion is possible.

6

I’m a coding noob too. It might well be possible, but I’m pretty confident it would need quite some time to implement it. Unless someone chips in with a solution in code, I would prefer our current small group of active coders to focus on implementing other great features and improvements.
Spending time on support for Spotify feeds (if legal, which we don’t know either), would be spending time on helping the (main) enemy of an open podcasting ecosystem.

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7

I have also noticed this problem. When I search for a new podcast and do not find it on Antennapod, I always do it with “podcast addict”, which also finds the links on spotifeed. Then I copy the link and paste it at antennapod and then I can also subscribe to it. This works very well.
Is that ok if I do it that way?
And is there maybe another way to search the net for spotifeed sources? Then I would not need Podcast Addict anymore.

8

Sure, why not? :slight_smile:

You can use the spotifeed website directly: https://spotifeed.timdorr.com/

9

Yes, but I can’t search for podcasts there.
With Podcast Addict, I only need to enter a search term and immediately see if the podcast is even available on spotifeed.

10

Well actually it’s pretty easy, you can just search SEARCHTERM site: open.spotify.com/show/ - Google Suche and then change the domain.
Further information is provided here https://spotifeed.timdorr.com/

I think the bottleneck might rather be Spotify changing their API if they notice this. But I guess one could check that easily by requests to spotifeed, if it doesn’t respond the option is removed, or even better the “search spotify” via spotifeed is disabled by default and has to be enabled via settings.

Recognising that this might be a somewhat temporary/experimental feature, would you want this to be in the app? If so I would try to implement it (after resolving my other PR).

11

Personally I wouldn’t implement it as a feature enabled by default to everyone. If for whatever reason spotifeed would go down, AntennaPod might we’ll get blamed for it.

However, in the context of “Non RSS Sources: BBC Sounds & ARD Audiothek” I’m thinking ‘alternative search sources’ might be enabled as ‘experimental feature’ just like Google Chrome (?)

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12

Yea that would be an option, I’m not sure how popular spotifeed is but keeping it low sure is a good idea.

13

That is why i suggested to do parsing inside AP itself to avoid relying on external services.
Although it might save a lot of effort :wink:

14

Wow! I just tried it and it works perfectly!

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15

… and Spotifeed is broken and will not be repaired. Good decision to not include it :+1:

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16

Thats why i said: get inspired by the code and do the parsing yourself inside the AP app.

17

Nope not possible, read the notice from spotifeed

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18

You can get to a widevine protected version from the embed code, which you than can feed into androids/ios content decryption module.
Pact with the devil maybe, but still makes the user more independent from being bound to a specific app.

19

I reckon if someone want to and knows how to do it, they can. But it going against the concept of an open podcasting ecosystem, so I doubt any of the core contributors will do it.

20

Plus I wouldn’t care to have a pact with the devil if heaven provides plenty of interesting content through a system that is in line with my ideals.
If people want the devil’s content they should accept to be bound to use the devil’s app. I honestly don’t see why we as an open source and volunteer project should support the devil in their private podcasting ventures.

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