After writing Podcast Content, AI, and Creator Sovereignty, I started thinking seriously about why, apart from NotebookLM, there still are not many tools for getting information from audio podcasts.
Part of it is business-related: creator rights, and advertising revenue too.
Also, audio podcasts are different from YouTube. They have embedded players, so even when a tool is built around them, clicks and plays still belong to the creator. The tool maker is only providing a path and a result.
Spotify has been trying AI-powered summaries with timestamps, but they still do not feel much like a real tool. In the AI era, making information easier to access will probably become a general direction.
So:
I ask a tool which podcasts have talked about what recently
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How exactly did they talk about it, and at what point in the episode
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What insights, suggestions, or actions can it give me…
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……
If all of that were possible, my first thought was that, under the current podcast distribution system, it would only happen on podcast platforms or through creators themselves.
From what I have seen, AI-powered summaries make creators a little more efficient and reduce a little friction for listeners, but they are still not that useful in the end. Tools like Snipd are good podcast-note tools, but they do not meet my need to read across the whole podcast world.
I hope a very simple product will appear. By simple, I do not only mean the UI. I also mean getting information in a convenient and efficient way. 🤔
One answer would be for platforms to build an Agent into their own product. But it needs to be genuinely useful, not just something extra.
Another answer, which I also mentioned in that article, is to leave it to creators.
But not every creator has the time or energy for this, and there is also a technical barrier. So platforms are still the most likely place for it to happen. It may simply depend on who moves faster. Of course, once this direction is chosen, more questions appear. Someone might ask an Agent and get the answer they want, but that could affect the creator. Unless they are willing to go back to the original audio and check it again. Yet those plays could also affect the completion rate that podcasters care about so much… and then what?
After all this brainstorming, I realised I had missed one role: RSS hosting platforms. They are third parties, different from podcast platforms, but they work with podcasters. They have the original audio files and control over RSS feed distribution too. That puts them in a very interesting position.
Recently I found some podcasts that bring high-quality international podcast content to Chinese listeners. They use AI voice-cloning to make Chinese versions that sound close to the original, and they translate the transcripts too. They have built quite a large audience. What surprised me even more was seeing people recommend that someone else’s podcast should be brought over.
And I kept wondering: why? 🧐
Language friction is one reason. Some people do not understand English, while others do but already feel overloaded by English-language information. There is also the difficulty of filtering. “International” is a very broad idea. Good information is spread across languages, platforms, and different shows. If someone can identify it and build a direct path to it, that becomes the most time-saving and efficient way to receive information. Who would say no to that?
Back to the copyright issue I mentioned at the beginning: these podcast re-uploads probably do not have permission. But from an ROI point of view, creators probably will not pursue this kind of infringement either.
That makes the demand feel very real.
So why are RSS hosting platforms not doing this? Maybe it is something they could consider next.
And if RSS hosting platforms do not do it, then maybe a fourth party can.
This fourth party could build a podcast-information Agent based on podcasts hosted on those platforms, or simply provide an API that people can connect to. It could also create global language versions of podcasts. That would do more than break down barriers to information. It could also create value for hosting platforms and creators.
And if I imagine a little more boldly…
These thoughts started from my own needs. I am a C-side user, so maybe the market opportunity is small. But for B-side users, it could be bigger. Then the question becomes: what kind of B2B product could exist here, and which businesses would it serve?
Of course, if this idea ever becomes real, the way podcasts make money may change too. Where it goes from there, we will see~