BBC is making major changes to Sounds

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The BBC is making Sounds a UK-only service starting in "Spring 2025" (so very soon). Apparently audio is being moved to bbc.com/audio which will only have content from Radio 4 and the World Service.

Potential impacts:

• It will REQUIRE the use of a vpn for ALL downloads from outside the UK, which is annoying and not always reliable. A VPN might not even work at all if the BBC overhauls its VPN detection mechanisms too.
• Any changes to the metadata format (which is currently JSON) would require changes to SoundsDownloadScript.
• The developers of yt-dlp may need to update their software for it to keep working.

From: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250207-bbc-podcasts-are-now-available-on-the-bbc-website-and-app:

How can I search for specific audio content?

You can search for specific audio content using keywords, titles or contributors in the search bar at the top of the BBC app or BBC.com website.

I just tried to search for the Shipping Forecast and it didn't find any audio results, only articles. It looks like it's only podcasts that turn up (and still on their 4-week delay). That basically means that a VPN will be required for all SoundsDownloadScript downloads. I don't have a good feeling about this.

References:

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/listening-outside-the-uk/outside-uk-changes
• https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250207-bbc-podcasts-are-now-available-on-the-bbc-website-and-app

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Right now, the SoundsDownloadScript only starts the VPN if it finds a new episode. That might need to change. It will depend on whether the BBC still allows access to the program pages like https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qfvv/episodes/player

Having to use the VPN to even check for new episodes will use a lot of resources and slow things way down.

I will start working on that and maybe make it an option to either start the VPN right away or wait.

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According this article, the changes will happen in May.

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I haven't forgotten about this. The BBC announced in April that they are delaying it until "later this year," so it stopped being an immediate priority.

From: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgxzn1rmrgo

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Looks like July 21st will be the drop dead date:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j1m721mp2o

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Well, the block is here. Weirdly, the script still works with no changes needed because the 404 error still makes the metadata available. Will need to keep an eye on it to make sure that doesn't change in the future.

Edit: I actually noticed that the media files still download without a VPN as well, so it's just the Sounds app and the UX interface that are being blocked. As of now, anyway.