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Talk

Radio/podcast addicts

Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

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Original poster

Is it just me or is the bbc sounds app a bit shit?

118 replies

museumum · 18/09/2019 14:13

So BBC’s radio app is going and we must switch to sounds. Hmmm ok.
But it’s crap. I can never find what I want, downloading is almost impossible (still haven’t found a programme with a download symbol) and why can’t I find the podcasts I follow? I’m going back to my apple podcast app.
Anyone else?
What am I missing? BBC should know what they’re doing with app design really.

OP posts:

Disfordarkchocolate · 18/09/2019 14:17

It's awful. I used the old app to listen to the radio and follow radio drama, the new app is not user-friendly at all. I'll find an alternative instead so I'll soon go from an all-day user to a non-user.

CaptainMyCaptain · 18/09/2019 14:17

I agree. It's very difficult to find what you want.

Toooldtobearsed2 · 18/09/2019 14:22

Oh Thank God its not just me getting old!

I hate it. I have downloaded stuff I listened to months ago, thinking it was new and cannot find what I actually want to listen to 🤔
The Archers is the height of my expertise. And that is because it is date stamped.
Just finished listening to the Handmaids Tale. I am sure The Testaments is on there somewhere, but God knows where.........

Bring back iPlayer. I knows that one.

NoHummus · 18/09/2019 14:23

I really like it and find it easy to use. I've been able to download and subscribe to programmes no problem.

boniobiscuit · 18/09/2019 14:24

I'm really surprised, I absolutely love it and find it a huge improvement on the old app.

I've had no problem at all downloading podcasts, although, in the main, I tend to stream them, honestly, I rave about it to people and clearly need to get a life

Wordsmith · 18/09/2019 14:26

It's not good, is it? I have a very old iPad by my bed I use to watch iPlayer and Netflix and also use iPlayer Radio to get me back to sleep in the small hours when I wake up with insomnia. (The World Service on R4 played quietly through earbuds is the only thing that works - it's amazing - for anyone who also has that problem.)

I tried to download Sounds but my iPad is too old to support the app so I'm going to have to take my phone to bed with me, which is something I've always tried to avoid.

MockersthefeMANist · 18/09/2019 16:01

The context is the remorseless downward death spiral of Radio 1 audiences. It's partly demographic, and also because there are now so many ways people can listen to music.

The problem with iplayer Radio was that it was used mostly by older folk who knew what they wanted to lsiten to and knew where to find it. James Purnell wanted an app for the younger listeners who have been brought up on Spotify playlists and expect to be spoon-fed what someone or some algorithm decides they will like. (Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, forever until the sun dies.)

Sounds is James Purnell's baby and so it will survive no matter how many people hate it.

Lots of alternatives, notably TuneIn and Radio Player.

Original poster

museumum · 18/09/2019 16:09

Thanks mockers that makes sense. I’m expecting a cross between podcasts and dab radio but they’re trying to give me Spotify. That explains my confusion.

OP posts:

BarbaraofSeville · 18/09/2019 16:12

The problem with iplayer Radio was that it was used mostly by older folk who knew what they wanted to lsiten to and knew where to find it

I'm obviously an 'older person' but really, WTF is wrong with that? Are they trying to make us all feel like we're losing it by hiding Just a Minute, the Unbelieveable Truth and other random comedy that I can't get on my other podcast app from us?

The Radio player app is stopping very soon isn't it? How will we know? will they just stop making material available on it?

I don't want to be algorithmed, I want to decide for myself. I download over home wifi to listen in the car, and most of the stuff I listen to comes from itunes via the Antennapod app, but there's a few Radio 4 comedies that don't seem to be available that way so I've been happily listening to these for years and now it seems it's all going to change.

Must have a look at BBC Sounds and see if it is any less shit than it was when I tried it a few months back.

MockersthefeMANist · 18/09/2019 16:39

BBC iPlayer Radio is being shut down.

Radioplayer is alive and well and does a good job for all BBC and commercial stations.

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.radioplayer

MockersthefeMANist · 18/09/2019 16:58

Alternatively, if you just want to listen to live radio in better than broadcast quality (320kps) then paste all or part of this playlist text file into VLC:

AnchorDownDeepBreath · 18/09/2019 16:59

I hate it too. I love the current app; the new one is awful.

ChocolateBread · 18/09/2019 18:37

I hate the way it suggests (and auto plays, given half a chance) annoying non Radio 4 programmes. Just give me a setting to keep it to Radio 4 and I might be ok with it, but without its hopeless. And they’ve taken out the longer (more than two hours) sleep timer options, which is annoying.

BarbaraofSeville · 18/09/2019 18:49

Well I've tried Radio Player and it only appears to stream not download, which is not what I want. I listen to downloads in the car, so don't want to be reliant on a data signal or allowance.

The great irony is that all these young people that they're trying to attract won't even be paying for BBC Sounds as very few of them will have a TV licence. Yes I know that you don't need a TV licence to listen to the radio and probably not for BBC Sounds, but still.

jo10000 · 18/09/2019 22:06

I love it. Came on to start a thread to say its fabulous. I hardly listen to radio anymore, I can listen to any programme I want, whenever I want, on my phone wherever I want. I carry my phone around at home listening to programmes, press pause when someone in the house talks to me, resume when they've finished. I've found whole series I never knew existed! It's great!

actiongirl1978 · 18/09/2019 22:19

I'd never used iPlayer radio so can't compare, but I started using sounds after the death of radio 2 at Christmas last year.

I find it hard to use - if I tap on 'more episode's I want to see more episodes of what I've been listening to, not a random episode embedded in a long list of other stuff. I just want to see that series, nothing else.

Also sometime I listen to a drama and then at the end, it starts playing something from 6 music or other randomness.

On the plus side, I can listen to book of the week episodes all in one go before they have been aired on live radio.

campion · 18/09/2019 22:25

My iplayer radio app conked yesterday so I had no choice but to retry the Sounds app. It's still rubbish, comparatively,as far as I'm concerned.

There is no alarm any more and I can't find details about eg individual performances/performers on Radio 3. There's a general lack of detail yet it keeps throwing things at me which I've no interest in at all.

But it's not aimed at me.
It's for Yoof innit!

HeronLanyon · 18/09/2019 22:29

I totally agree. only way of seeing if something has updated with new episode is to scroll through endless reams of ‘latest’. IPlayer has that great number under the programme artwork so you could see immediately what had updated. You could also choose to order prog by ‘latest’ or most popular’ - yet another way to see this.
Hate the whiteness with no option to change.
No snooze or alarm.
Etc etc. Really mourning iPlayer. Feel remote from my programmes.

friskybivalves · 18/09/2019 22:32

I too hate it. Why 'fix' what ain't broke?

And actually the thing that annoys me most of all is when you first open it and have to wait for that annoying orange logo to form on the screen. Only a second but god it's maddening.

toomuchfaster · 18/09/2019 22:40

Oh no! I downloaded Sounds on my Kindle and hate it so have been using iPlayer on my phone. I am gutted it's disappearing. Will have to try radioplayer.

clucky3 · 18/09/2019 22:42

I hate BBC sounds, it's really poorly designed and I can't listen to it via my Sonos speakers

toomuchfaster · 18/09/2019 22:42

Does anyone know of you can download on Radioplayer? It doesn't mention it in the description.

C8H10N4O2 · 18/09/2019 22:51

The problem with iplayer Radio was that it was used mostly by older folk who knew what they wanted to lsiten to and knew where to find it

There is nothing wrong with knowing what you want. There is nothing wrong with wanting to seek new stuff. However the Sounds app is rubbish at both. I was determined to stick with it because I really didn't think it could be quite as bad as it seemed I've abandoned it as useless for both cases.

I'm just switching to other streamers. BBC Radio is not Spotify and even Spotify struggles to offer up new stuff with the algorithms - they algorithms rapidly deteriorate into same old same old and so I cut down my subscription as I was never getting genuinely new stuff.

BarbaraofSeville · 19/09/2019 08:26

My iplayer radio app still appears to work. How will I know when it doesn't? Will it not work at all or will the new content just stop appearing?

campion · 19/09/2019 11:26

It will say something like 'sorry this content is no longer working' at the top. All the channel icons will also be empty.
still coming to terms with the loss (!)

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