Creators Drown in Platform Restrictions
10 posts across 6 communities in the last 30 days; 50% from r/podcasting.
“I hate all of the voice options. Why are they all so bad!”
“Glad I’m not the only one - the latest updates are driving me insane - they have also started to pre:edit my words (muting sections) and adding gaps in - all very frustrating!”
“Zencastr is horrible. Riverside is slightly less horrible, though still also horrible. Those are the two big boys and they're AI racing to the bottom and I hate it.”
Content creators across YouTube and podcasting platforms report frustration with platform policies, algorithm changes, and technical limitations that restrict their ability to grow and monetize their content.
SOURCES (60)
“I mean jeez. First year apprentice, I’ve been to a bunch of sites with various crews and every time, they’re playing music with ads. submitted by /u/Epicjay [link] [comments]”
“I hate all of the voice options. Why are they all so bad! submitted by /u/retrosenescent [link] [comments]”
“google just wants to cover their own ass with COPPA laws, they dont care about the small creators at all. big channels got whole legal teams to deal with that stuff while we just get automated takedowns”
“It is legit, but also, the platform will flag your calls for stuff that didn't happen in them and drop your task rate, so be aware. It's very, very picky. I am dissatisfied with it.”
“Yeah, it's my suspicion that Youtube will realise it's just a re-wrap of the original RSS and block it anyway. I hear bad things about Riverside and the aggressive mandating of AI, so unfortunately you're off the table for now as potential hosts!”
“I had streamyard for years and it always felt dishonest with their pricing and features trickery. I would use riverside but I have guests from other countries and the voice delay made it unusable for international guest. I used EVMux for a bit but it is unnecessarily complicated for me, but I could see how others may love it. I use descript for editing and it has its challenges for sure, but overall its good. I've found the same with the squadcast add on. I have only had one guest from Austr”
“Thanks I agree but since it was approved earlier and I thought I could grab some traffic :) a bit mean here but I do agree thanks for the info though. Appreciate it”
“I feel your pain! I've had sections of interviews not record properly and lost all of the content :(”
“Curious as to what free features you're referring to? Genuinely asking, because I'd like to understand what people actually lost. Also curious what Audacity is solving for you. Is it mainly editing, or are you recording in it too? Since it doesn't do remote recording, I'm wondering how you're handling guests now. Full disclosure: I work at Chord.fm. We started building it because of problems like this one. Good production tools shouldn't only be for people who can already”
“Glad I’m not the only one - the latest updates are driving me insane - they have also started to pre:edit my words (muting sections) and adding gaps in - all very frustrating!”
“I'll let you know- will try with a free trial. Things have recently changed with my employment situation so evaluating what extra services I use/can get away from.”
“YES YES YES. The amount of pointless features on Riverside is insane, while the main features (remote podcast recording) are unreliable and buggy. Nobody needs AI editing, they just want a remote recording setup that consistently works.”
“I'm fine with them adding functionality and mixing up the interface. I can utilize what I like and learn the new interface. I am not fine with them arbitrarily removing, and then re-adding features that are extremely useful and I use every week (until I have to learn a new way), like the timeline export. I'd even be fine with them offering an ala carte feature option that is more expensive than current options because the business account prices are insane for indy podcasts that could us”
“Zencastr is horrible. Riverside is slightly less horrible, though still also horrible. Those are the two big boys and they're AI racing to the bottom and I hate it.”
“"just want my damn wav files to download on the first click instead of the fifth" Hehe, unfortunately so very relatable. I'm this close to developing RSI from using Riverside! All the clicking and almost zero keyboard shortcuts from what I can tell.”
“Yeah… ive only had bad experiences with RS. And they dont even have filters like Descript. And Descripts cut are more smooth. I have Descripts Ai remove um and uh and dont get nasty loud cuts.”
“Why would you pay them to use their absolutely subpar video editor?? Use Davinici Resolve. There's a free version and it can do every you'll need for podcasting.”
“Agreed. RS's editor and basically anything besides remote recording on the platform is absolutely subpar. The remote recording feature can yield good quality video. But. That's only when it works! And if it doesn't work, be prepared for unresponsive customer service that will make you wait 48 hours for what often amounts to the copy and pasting FAQ's to you and blaming you, the user for whatever you issue might be.”
“I have had so many issues with lack of recording or no sound at all. it takes forever to edit and recently, even general navigating has been a pain”
“Any suggestions, I honestly don't need anything fancy - I am tech adverse, generally, but I can learn. Audacity has been great!”
“100%. I could care less what restrictions Megaphone wants to apply to their network/programmatic sales. But it feels ridiculous that they are trying to restrict direct sold ads, that they have nothing to do with! Megaphone is becoming merely a hosting platform and not an ads trafficking platform for us.”
“This is why we always do a backup recording on our Podtrak P4. Sometimes we'll use our Podtrak audio and their riverside audio.”
“The AI features bloat on Riverside is ridiculous and has made the UX annoyingly slow and messy. Also just like all other SAAS companies they are spamming Reddit forums and the likes, hurting their brand credibility in the process. That said, I can't blame them for moving away from free as a long-term option for creators. That is not great for business and in order to be around and improve the product they need a solid cash flow. I personally love paying for a service that makes my work easie”
“I did my first full video editing with Riverside and the chops when editing are horrible. With Descript, even Adobe Studio (basic!), are much more smooth .”
“When I started using riverside you could change all your contributors settings as well as your own. It uploaded, gave you your recordings and that was that. Now I feel every time I log in the whole thing has changed and all I can do is press record.”
“They don't make money off of us. They make money off Marvel, TED and other enterprise clients paying at least $500/month. Small creators aren't really that important to them. Source: I once had a call with a salesperson from them who tried to upsell me before we both realized my channel wasn't there yet.”
“We use them without any issues, we don't do video, or use them to record, just to edit and chop the clips, but now that we're getting into video, we're thinking maybe there's a better platform out there?”
“my guests are mostly older business owners who barely know how to join a zoom call, so the fact they just click a link and Riverside handle the rest with no software install has probably saved me from at least a dozen tech support calls before recording even starts.”
“I'd recommend Remotely.FM for recording. It's interface doesn't look as polished as Riverside's but it just works. Plus the Audio and video look and sound just as good, if not better than RS without all the hassles and lost recordings.”
“I use Buzzsprout, even though you have to pay triple figures per year--but their support and ability to text any one of the six people (that's right six employees) is a saver of time and energy. The one good thing about Riverside, it helped me pick a good microphone and how to speak properly into the microphone--even if you are doing video. But I won't miss the AI feature in terms of chopping words or sentences. To each his or her own, I guess.”
“we went back to descript after the second time riverside completely erased an interview. i didn't even get to download the tracks. descript costs less, performs just as well, and it's more reliable.”
“I pay for it and it failed me horribly the last time I used it. Humiliating. I don't understand why any of these platforms are doing what they are doing. It's all trash if it doesn't do what it says it does.”
“I've used Riverside for a while now, and I get that every platform needs to sustain itself. But the direction things have gone lately feels like one step forward, two steps back. Features that used to be free — the ones that specifically helped newer, smaller podcasters get off the ground — keep getting walled off behind paid tiers. That's not really an improvement to the platform. It's a barrier that pushes away the audience that made Riverside compelling in the first place: people”
“i use riverside sometimes and the leveling is okay but not magic, if the guest is really quiet it can bring up the noise floor too and then it sounds kinda hissy. for a quick fix its fine but if you want it clean you still need to touch it up after”
“that's riverside for you, their whole support model is a walled garden nightmare”
“Yea it's a hard one to get rid of. I ultimately couldn't stand the company anymore (their stances on AI, CEO is awful, literal payola, ripping off music from artists to make their own genAI versions... etc) and Aurral + Deemix + Navidrome/Plex have filled the void”
“I'll have to learn how to do that in Audacity. Looks like Streamyard works. Though it kept telling me my browser isn't supported, but then says Firefox is a supported browser. I'll give it a try with my guest tomorrow and hope it works for them.”
“Problem with this solution is I now can't cast at all. Why the hell can I not just connect my phone to the tv like I used to and play whatever video I choose on my phone. It makes no sense to me at all”
“I've always wanted to get in on the ground-floor of one of these. Kudos on the initiative, name, and branding. I shall try the tool itself, this week.”
“Yeah, I agree. I'm looking for something better and the other host will no longer allow me to use Riverside. We record locally and the exchange the channel audio. Then we use Microsoft Teams that weirdly enough always work.”
“What is the point of paying for something that doesn't work EVERY TIME???? And why is consistency so difficult for these platforms? From what others are saying, it sounds like they are constantly making updates. Leave it alone. If it isn't broke, don't try to fix it Riverside!”
“Riverside has been heaven and hell for me. At first it worked decently, but the number of weird issues have become more and prominent. The last straw was when the host lost his temper after being unable to hear me for the fourth time. He had restarted every device and switched WIFI from 2.4 to 5 GHz. And that was just one thing. I have not been without trouble either with Riverside. Once it imposed my voice on the hosts channel even when we both use proper mix-minus. Then we have the half-witted”
“No. Nobody had any idea what the issue was. How can I fix what I don't understand for the next time?”
“This is the problem we’ve seen with many of these recording platforms - they keep adding a lot of crap that we don’t want and the actual recording quality keeps getting worse and worse. I would pay to have a high quality audio/video recorder that was dependable and worked”
“Weird, I've been working with Riverside for over a year now and I have no issues with them”
“I miss the early days of Riverside when it just a really solid remote recording platform. It was stable, the audio & video quality were awesome, and I never had a problem with my recordings. As soon as they started all the AI stuff, I knew that was the end of it.”
“In many ways, they are putting the cart before the horse. The seemingly endless (some might say, pointless) Ai updates, when all I’d like is a teleprompter function that doesn’t look like you’re reading from thr screen. When I use my elgato prompter and riverside at the same time, the teleprompter is so slow that it’s near useless. In fact, last few recordings, I’’ve just recorded straight from the camera and avoided riverside altogether.”
“the sounding-fine-on-your-end thing is what gets me too, you literally cant troubleshoot what you cant hear”
“Just got an email and they closed out my case without resolving it. Then they recommended the community where everyone has the same problem, and no one is offered a solution: https://community.adobe.com/questions-514/original-fine-corrupted-1638675?postid=7741975#post7741975 Posting this as a warning to avoid Adobe haha”
“is it because of their later entry to android - to incentivize? or some platform related incentives that they're passing on (cost savings on android vs ios)? submitted by /u/arjunbahl [link] [comments]”