People in the podcasting industry often talk about how there’s a discoverability problem with podcasts. There are a lot of podcasts, and it’s hard to find the great ones. If you make a podcast, it’s hard for people to discover it. That’s the discoverability problem.
Of course, there are a lot of books, TV shows, and movies, and we don’t always talk about discoverability problems with those. The real challenge is that TV shows, movies, and books tend to have bigger marketing budgets than podcasts. So it’s harder for word to get out about new shows.
I’ve put together a website I’m calling Pret (Podcast Recommendation Tool) that attempts to help you find podcast recommendations based on the shows you listen to. It uses Apple’s podcast data, and because of Apple’s rate limits, it doesn’t always have immediately fresh data, but it has a pretty current roster.
I look at Apple’s recommendations and also unique topics or terms that come up frequently in shows and episodes to find matches.
You can upload your entire OPML file, which can give you interesting results. But it’s also fun to look at just a show or two and see what suggestions come back.
There’s also a toggle to surface “deeper cuts,” as I call them, which are shows that are potentially a bit less popular but still strong matches.
I encourage you to check it out. I’ve already used the tool myself to discover a couple of new shows that have become part of my standard listening routine.
