I know. Not another app. But I found one I couldn’t ignore. It’s called Swell and it promises to streamline “the podcast discovery problem.” It should be noted I’ve never thought of podcast discovery as a problem. I’m like a collector in that sense. I like digging through the proverbial crates and finding that diamond in the rough. But that’s just me.
This thing owes a lot to the Pandora model — you create an account, and it starts spitting out podcasts based on your interests. It factors in all of your behavior when you’re using it; it knows when you’re skipping podcasts and when you’re fast forwarding. It logs changes in content themes, everything. Everything is taken into account in the app’s suggestions.
Swell has announced a partnerships with NPR and ABC News. But it pulls feeds from all over: iTunes, BBC, ESPN–you name it. Most of the content is free at the moment, and you can skip all you want (unlike Pandora). I’m going to play with it for a few days and let you know what I think. But this may be the answer for those of you looking for “podcast mash ups.”
