Bruh

I guess so, but sponsors are easier to skip since that are always the same length. If the ad changes length you cant use the time stamps to skip it automatically

No that’s not it. As I mentioned in the post, these ads change based on my location. They are absolutely not added by the people making the podcast because they are not even in the same language as the rest of the podcast.

As far as I can tell it depends on the podcast. Some have ads in every episode and some never have any

Thank you for the explanation. Kinda sucks that a premium service like Spotify doesn’t even host their own content, but that’s capitalism I guess.

Sure they decide that the ad should exist, but how? When I see a mid-roll ad on YouTube for example it was put there by the person who uploaded the video but the content of the ad is delivered by youtube. Who is delivering the content of these ads?

Thanks, that’s good to know! Although this seems to be more related to sponsors. Like the podcast host doing an ad-read. I don’t mind them as much because then at least the creators of the podcast are getting all the money and the ad is not tracking me to figure out what ad to serve me. What I am referring to is more like a regular ad that you would hear on the radio that has been stitched on to the beginning of the episode.

Oh absolutely. I understand that. But is Spotify even the one who is adding/profiting from the ads? I seems like this is coming from someone else since the ads are also on AntennaPod

I get that. But is Spotify using the same third party server then? Because the ads are always the same regardless of platform

Bro put Tinder DMs on the list. Points for being thorough I guess lol.

Jokes aside looks really useful. Good job!

You are describing symmetric encryption where both parties have the same key. There is something called asymmetric encryption that solves this. Basically you have a public key and a private key. You can give your public key to youtube, they can use that key to encrypt the symmetric key that will be used for the actual communication. The only way to decrypt the symmetric key is by using your private key, which is only known to you. So youtube can safely send it to you so you can decrypt it. Now you both have the same key and nothing was sent unencrypted.

Well your public key was sent unencrypted but that’s fine because of how asymmetric encryption works.