However, this wont work. If there's an ad for Coca Cola, the whole reason why Coca Cola is paying the podcast host is so that the message would get to the listener. If anything, the money should be shared with Coca Cola, and not the podcast host - who has been paid already (for sponsored spots).
And at that point, it just becomes user paying Coca Cola directly, with you in the middle.
It is an inefficient system.
That's a naive way of thinking. If Coca Cola see their sales are not going up ("ads are not effective"), they'll stop sponsoring podcasts, leading you to do less work, leading to people stopping to use your product.
And since you intend to make money out of this, you'll have strong incentive to keep this charade going. :)
Who's we? Nobody makes things for charity. Even you, who built something out of passion, is charging users for the product. You're here 'advertising' and spreading the word.
It is marketing, and it is the same thing that Coca Cola and others are doing as well. No need to get all judgemental.
So at some point, you'll have to start prioritizing making money ("proving your worth to users") and will start to make sure there are more ads in the podcasts, so that you can remove them.
And that is a lose-lose scenario. You will end up directly contributing to more ads in the podcast. This is called a second order effect.
You make money by solving an inefficiency.
"Payments on the web is hard. We'll make it easy" -> Stripe.
"It is hard to get a taxi" -> Uber.
"The legal system is hard to navigate" -> Lawyers.
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If your value prop is, people dont like listening to ads. The right approach is to offer subscriptions to ad-free podcasts. Buy our service for $x / mo and get ad free podcasts. But that wont be "ad blocking"
I cant copy/paste your website and rehost it on my domain (and remove ads or whatever) and claim that I'm doing everyone a favor. There's a word for it - and it is called stealing.
fxuniverse•5mo ago
What it does
• Subscribe to shows in ZeroAds (paste a public RSS). • We transcribe the episode (Whisper) and detect sponsor reads/insertions. • We cut those spans with FFmpeg and publish a clean RSS you can add to Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, etc.
Tech
• OpenSaaS stack (React + Node + Stripe), Python flask microservice, Postgres (Neon), Fly.io • Whisper for transcription; an LLM pass over timestamps to classify segments; surgical splices with FFmpeg • Typical run time: ~5 minutes for a 60-minute episode on current infra
Accuracy & limits
• ~90%+ on host-reads/dynamic insertions/network promos in our tests • Hard cases: sponsor shoutouts blended into content, very short bumpers, or poor audio • We bias toward avoiding content loss over aggressive cutting
Pricing
• Founding members: $5.99/mo (planned $7.99). Covers API/hosting and a creator compensation pool.
Privacy
• Server-side processing only; no user data sharing; works from publicly available RSS/audio.
Looking for feedback on
• False positives you’d worry about • Specific shows/episodes we should test • Whether pricing feels fair for the value/costs • What would make setup clearer/faster
Happy to dig into technical details and take tough questions - thanks!
bitpush•5mo ago
>> Absolutely. You're processing publicly available RSS feeds for personal use, which is protected under fair use. We also share revenue with creators based on your listening, so they're fairly compensated.
I dont think you can hide behind "it is publicly available, so I can take it and sell it". That's not fair use. You're redistributing it, and specific licenses come into play.
This is an interesting idea indeed, but not sure whether you'd be able to make a sustainable business out of this.
fxuniverse•5mo ago
Also, there's existing competition (AdBlock Podcast) not to mention every ad blocker for every other platform. Yes some parties may not be happy, but we're solving the out-of-control ads situation for the end user.
bitpush•5mo ago
You can do this as a passion, a hobby, or on principle. But the moment you want to make money, you'll be judged differently.