Trailers are super helpful for new listeners to discover a show. Both Apple Podcasts and Spotify are highlighting trailers at the top of the UX. Podnews uses trailers extensively where they exist. They are a good thing, and Apple and Spotify wouldn't have implemented it if the research didn't show it wasn't welcomed by listeners.
The problem
In order to find a trailer for a show, a client needs to request the full episode list of a podcast, and integrate through the episode list, requesting more episodes where necessary, and then to find the correct trailer.
This adds complication, makes it slow to get a trailer episode, and requires a client to download metadata for all the episodes. It represents significant additional bandwidth and calls to the API.
Trailers
Trailers are super helpful for new listeners to discover a show. Both Apple Podcasts and Spotify are highlighting trailers at the top of the UX. Podnews uses trailers extensively where they exist. They are a good thing, and Apple and Spotify wouldn't have implemented it if the research didn't show it wasn't welcomed by listeners.
The problem
In order to find a trailer for a show, a client needs to request the full episode list of a podcast, and integrate through the episode list, requesting more episodes where necessary, and then to find the correct trailer.
This adds complication, makes it slow to get a trailer episode, and requires a client to download metadata for all the episodes. It represents significant additional bandwidth and calls to the API.
The solution
This would return episode details (like the
/episodes/endpoint) for one selected trailer (or for none, where no trailer exists).Apple Podcasts selects a trailer as follows, and I believe it's the right mechanism for us to copy:
Podnews would use this endpoint as soon as it's available, and it would be a real help if it could be implemented.