---

Table of Contents

1. Why podcasts?
2. Why Spotify in the first place?
3. What’s wrong with Spotify?
4. Audiobookshelf
5. Conclusion

Sometimes I’m not in the mood to listen to music - I want something more stimulating to listen to.

It helps pass the time driving.

If I’m working and the task is a bit mundane, podcasts help keep the mind stimulated.

I pay for Spotify premium for music with no ads so keeping podcasts in the same app seemed like a no-brainer.

Main issue: I can’t get my podcast listen history from their api, only their “takeout” offers this data. You can get your song listening history.

I want to be reminded of podcasts I listen to, and only getting this data every few months or yearly wasn’t going to cut it.

This is great, I run it from my docker compose and map its data directory to my host.

The mobile app works great on Android; which I access the Audiobookshelf server via Tailscale.

My Astro site gets realtime podcast listening history.

It has an OPML export out of the box.

The “feed” of new podcasts is better than Spotify.

It is easier to see partially listened to podcasts and Audiobookshelf shows more of them.

I like access to my data, and it is fun to self-host (when things work). Audiobookshelf looks good and exposes data which really hits the nail on the head for me.

---

Back to Top