7 ms·

Pocket Casts Is Now Free

80 points by parvenu74 7y ago

brunoqc 7y ago
"and the Web Player and Desktop Apps are part of Pocket Casts Plus, which is available as a paid subscription." If only Google podcast had a webapp I could ditch Pocket Cast.
- jharohit 7y ago
  https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps
  - brunoqc 7y ago
    That doesn't sync with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... right? But maybe google play is good enough.
dirtyid 7y ago
10gb cloud storage, web/desktop app still has no feature parity with android app after years. It's been years since beta, no playlist, per podcast setting sync, chapters support etc. Waiting for a bigger player to take podcast experience to the next level to TBH. Listenernotes posted the other day was a good start that I've been using for a while. But would be nice to have transcription support, searching within episodes (which youtube now has), commenting, recommendations to specific episodes of other podcasts based on current episode etc. I know Google has been working on podcast transcription but their podcast options including googleplay music are pretty anemic. It's still basically Google Listen circa 2009.
- tim58 7y ago
  > transcription support If I wanted to add transcription support to a podcasting app, which third party services or software packages I use to turn the audio into text? A similar problem stumped a weekend project ~5 months ago for me. Transcription seems to be non-trival.
  - dirtyid 7y ago
    Google does it automatically, mostly used for better search indexing. I was mainly spitballing features that would be possible. Listennotes which was featured in a thread here recently has transcribe support. I don't know what services it uses for computer speech to text. Maybe Amazon speech to text? https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/ https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/ You can investigate their transcribe section near the bottom here, the example has timestamped transcription which generates useful chapter skip links. The price quote is generated from episode length I think. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/london-real/dan-carlin-hardcore-history-TuSVa9ciejz/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/london-real/dan-carlin-...
- hs86 7y ago
  Interestingly, their Mac app supports chapter marks but in Chrome, Safari or the Windows app they are not supported.
froindt 7y ago
I have paid for both the app and the web client. There is a lot of hate going on in /r/Android about the changes. In my experience they've delivered an app which doesn't crash and has all the features I'd expect. They also don't sell all the data they possibly could (like others do), which is definitely worth a non-zero amount. One time payment means once an app isn't actively acquiring new users, the dev will need to be finding other sources of income. The predictability of income can certainly lead to better quality apps. I have no problem with the changes they're implementing. Servers aren't free, so an ongoing income stream versus potentially shutting down because of a lack of new users makes sense.
samcat116 7y ago
I used to love Pocket Casts, and still think its pretty good overall. It's really the only podcast app worth talking about on Android, and it can just about keep up with the likes of Overcast and Castro on iOS. Its also basically the only podcast client for the desktop besides iTunes.
ryeights 7y ago
TL;DR: - The iOS and Android apps are now free - Web and desktop apps now require a Pocket Casts Plus subscription, for 0.99/mo or 9.99/yr - Current web and desktop users will be grandfathered into 3 free years of Pocket Casts Plus Personally, this change worries me. I'm reminded of these snippets they had on their web player purchase page when I bought access a few years back: >No monthly subscriptions or freemium hoo-ha. >If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once. >We don’t do freemium. No VC funding. No crazy. We love podcasts and we’ve built the web player that we want to use. We’ve priced it at a point where we’ll stick around to keep it up to date. You can expect support, features and many more awesome things in the future. https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000705/https://play.pocketcasts.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000705/https://play.pock... Additionally, they note that they "may introduce other ways to keep this whole thing sustainable in the future"... seems like it's only a matter of time until "free" turns into "free, but with ads."
- awill 7y ago
  >If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once. They promised something they shouldn't have promised. No excuses here. This isn't good news for people who bought the app.
brianjking 7y ago
I wish I had paid for pocket casts web/desktop player before.
cyberjunkie 7y ago
I'm glad I paid for Pocket Casts ages ago. It's a brilliant app that's beautifully designed, and had features well before the competition caught up with support for the desktop as well. For my early support, they offered me 3 years of Plus for free. I'm happy.
iwalton3 7y ago
This makes me more interested in using Plex for podcasts instead. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles such as silence removal, but it has a web app and works on mobile.
- a254613e 7y ago
  I am in the same boat and am going to give plex a try. They do have silence removal in the iOS app at least, but plex lacks a lot of podcasts features otherwise. I hope they keep improving on this.
crispinb 7y ago
The decline of Shifty Jelly (Pocket Casts going offshore to a boring anonymous US outfit, then Pocket Weather being dumped) is one of the sadder little stories on the Aus tech scene. I'm not blaming them for moving on -- nothing stays the same and there's no reason why it should -- but it's still a bit sad. Everything about Shifty Jelly used to be great.
- _AzMoo 7y ago
  > Pocket Casts going offshore to a boring anonymous US outfit Uh? NPR? WNYC Studios? This American Life? Not really a "boring anonymous US outfit".
  - crispinb 7y ago
    NPR does for the most part strike me as boring and anonymous. It's a very pale shadow of the UK's BBC Radio 4 or Australia's RN (its nominal equivalents). Fair point on This American Life though.
  - fencepost 7y ago
    To be fair, most of the NPR content is somewhat US specific. I have no idea what the Australian equivalent might be, but I do know the BBC is not a match (eg NPR gets basically no money from the US government except in being a nonprofit).
framel 7y ago
the is not free, its freeware
steve19 7y ago
It's not free, it's now a subscription for people who already paid. Tapatalk did the same thing recently. It is a trend that once "Premium" paid apps plateau in users they go subscription ("free"). No doubt we will start seeing ads etc. The alternative is apps being sold to shady outfits that inject spyware. For example Cheetah Mobile bought QuickPic and when Chinafire sold SuperSU to a American-based shell company. If app stores allowed paid version upgrades this trend might not have happened.
- rstuart4133 7y ago
  > If app stores allowed paid version upgrades this trend might not have happened. I prefer the subscription model myself. If you don't renew the subscription you get ads, or whatever happens now. Updates fix security issues, and enable Android's API to move forward. Not having them because you didn't pay would create a large base of software obsolete UI's, buggy software with security issues which will create huge problems down the road. I'm not surprised Google doesn't like the idea.
- Tepix 7y ago
  Twitterific did the same thing. It's fraud. If they want to make a new subscription based product they shouldn't force existing users who paid for an ad-free version to upgrade. GoodReader demonstrated how it can be done right.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  >The alternative is apps being sold to shady outfits that inject spyware. For example Cheetah Mobile bought QuickPic and when Chinafire sold SuperSU to a American-based shell company. Pocketcast was bought by NPR, This American Life, and some other radio stations which makes this pivot more confusing. No more public radio donations from me anymore.
  - pkulak 7y ago
    Hey now, don't get all bitter so quickly. Public radio and television are still some of the last journalism left in this country.
amanzi 7y ago
I paid for Pocket Casts and also for the web player. But after the recent UI updates they went through, as well as the developers' underwhelming response to criticism, I switched to using AntennaPod (https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/). AntennaPod has its own UI problems but it's FOSS and with frequent updates it's constantly getting better.
- rstuart4133 7y ago
  You are a life saver. I've been searching for a decent podcast program for years. That's not to say I haven't found them - I used Pocket Casts a years ago, but for reasons I don't understand every few years the paid ones (which I have happily paid for), seem to be struck by an irresistible urge to change the UI. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse but mostly it's just different for no good reason. Maybe it's just me getting old, but I'm tiring of things changing because the old design was getting "stale", and completely over pretty interfaces driven by gestures that aren't immediately obvious. Include them if you want, but always give me a menus that make everything the app can do easily discoverable. If I have to look up a manual or google how to do something your UI design is a failure as far as I am concerned. AntennaPod seems to have the perfect UI - old fashionably obvious. It looks like it harks from years ago and it works so well they never changed it - perfect.
- unicornporn 7y ago
  I swear by AntennaPod. Been using it for years and years and the only thing I'm missing is an EQ.
- xmprt 7y ago
  What with FOSS Android apps looking like they're from the KitKat days?
  - iamthirsty 7y ago
    Because most of them are, or haven't received updates visually since.
- hrnnnnnn 7y ago
jacquesc 7y ago
This is an app I've used every day for almost 4 years (first on Android, then on iOS). I've paid them practically nothing for it. Probably less than $20 total, I don't even remember. It's been a nearly perfect podcasting app for me. Syncs everything, subscriptions and episode progress, between devices and on desktop. Am more than happy to pay $10/yr for it going forward. Actually surprised it's still so cheap.
- kid1412621 7y ago
  I use it pretty often too. And bought iOS, Android and Web version due to it’s previous marketing words, no subscription, no blah blah, one-time payment. Now it just discards those promise. But it’s understandable. Syncing feature causes server cost.
  - fencepost 7y ago
    Supporting them because features I used is exactly why I've bought 3 of the 4 versions they've released (never had any iOS devices).
- latortuga 7y ago
  I bought this app years ago and love it. Moved from Stitcher and it's miles better. But I never made an account, so word of warning to current premium users: make an account before upgrade or you don't get the 3 years free.
subsAreBS 7y ago
Not. Free. Another stupid subscription. $1 here, $5 there. Every dang month. There is no way any of these monthly services deserve that money.
- shartshooter 7y ago
  Then don’t use it. No one is forcing you to buy anything.
  - TrueDuality 7y ago
    The existing users already paid for it.
  - awill 7y ago
    That would make sense if this app had always been a subscription. But they acquired the customers who hate subscriptions and then flipped. Not great.
    - shartshooter 7y ago
      Agreed, not great. I paid for Pocket Casts about a year ago and don't love that they're switching to subscriptions. However, the parent commenter was complaining that the app wasn't free and that they don't deserve our money. For pocket casts anyways, I'd have to say the money has been well spent. I personally enjoyed the app and will definitely look into whether a subscription makes sense assuming paid folks aren't grandfathered in.
  - subsAreBS 7y ago
    NoBoDy iS FoRcINg YoU! Time and time again companies are screwing us by charging us for software and then switching to a subscription model. Companies must love you, willing to hand them money for no damn reason. What a joke.
- sdan 7y ago
  I don't like having all these companies having their own subscription models. At the same time, they need some constant revenue stream and a one-time buy isn't going to give them a pump into your bank account.
ijustwanttovote 7y ago
I have been using Pocket Casts for about 3-4 years. It's a great app, hopefully their subscription fee helps development.
sbennettmcleish 7y ago
Bought the app, well worth it! Currently using two phones and my progress syncing perfectly ... like one should expect!
shubidubi 7y ago
It's NOT free. It now gives you annoying popups to upgrade to subscription paid version. Very shady marketing to call it free.
kylehotchkiss 7y ago
Glad Apple's Podcasts product has grown more compelling, with native apps for desktop coming soon. Pocket Casts has been great but few softwares are worthy of a monthly recurring charge. It's a shame as I've already paid for mobile and web apps and would happily have paid for updates. I just don't want to lose access to software if I needed to cut costs on a sudden basis.
fermentation 7y ago
I really don't know how to feel about Pocket Casts. In the past I loved it, but recently it seems to have been getting worse (starting with the redesign), and now I'm suddenly not getting the full experience without a subscription?
ymolodtsov 7y ago
The title is indeed misleading. 3 years of pod desktop app is not that bad, I’ve seen way worse transitions to a subscription but still not great. Will hope Marco moves Overcast to Mac, he has been open about the model.
on_and_off 7y ago
Nice ! A better title would be free basic tiers + subscription for advanced features. I strongly believe that this is a good business model for such apps that are constantly in development and have a server side (so recurring costs for the dev). I have been using pocketcasts for a while and it is one of my favorite Android apps. So now I just have to put my money where my mouth is and subscribe.
Rebelgecko 7y ago
Alternate title: Pocket Cast will now have charge you a subscription fee if you want to continue using features that you already paid for
- fencepost 7y ago
  Incorrect unless you're one of the people who purchased the desktop or web app. If you're a mobile device user, you'll pay a subscription for features that have never existed before.
  - Rebelgecko 7y ago
    As a matter of fact, I am one of the people who previously purchased the desktop or web app. In retrospect I was pretty gullible to believe their pitch: "No monthly subscriptions or freemium hoo-ha... If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once." https://web.archive.org/web/20181030230424/https://play.pocketcasts.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181030230424/https://play.pock...
awill 7y ago
From the URL: >>I paid for this app in the past, will I still have access to all the features I paid for? >>Most certainly! We aren't locking any existing features behind a paywall. This is a blatant lie. They're locking the webapp behind the subscription. I paid $9 for the webapp, and (after the 3 year grace period) will be locked out. I don't want any of the plus features in the Android app. But I like being able to use my computer. >>Before you freak out, we want to let you know that we want to do the right thing by everyone who has ever paid for the web and desktop apps. It doesn't matter if you paid 5 years ago, or just last month, we're going to gift each and every one of you with three years of Pocket Casts Plus. As I was reading this I genuinely thought they were going to grandfather customers in. That would have been 'do the right thing'.
reustle 7y ago
For those who didn't catch it, NPR purchased Pocket Casts last year. A lot of us saw this pricing change coming, unfortunately. https://www.npr.org/about-npr/607823388/pocket-cast-acquired https://www.npr.org/about-npr/607823388/pocket-cast-acquired
sam_lowry_ 7y ago
The article linked from the title is full of lies. First, Pocket Casts is owned by NPR. Second, it is not free, but switching to a subscription model.
benbristow 7y ago
I just bought it a few days ago. Gah!
mrbonner 7y ago
Mind if I ask why it is better than a regular included Podcast app came with the iPhone? Thanks
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  I use Overcast, but I assume Pocketcast has the same or similar features. One is server side crawl, so your phone doesn't have to go update its RSS feeds itself. I can get a push notification when a new episode is released. Another great feature is smart speed, it trims silence in podcasts so you can listen a little bit faster.
- joshstrange 7y ago
  Another vote for Overcast. The app is great and things like Smart Speed and per-podcast speed settings are a godsend. The developer behind Overcast (Marco Arment) does a great job with this app and you should check out some of the podcasts he is on like ATP (Apple/tech news) and Under the Radar (iOS dev topics).
thekyle 7y ago
If by "free" they mean a monthly subscription to access the web app that I already paid for, then sure, it's free.
- thekyle 7y ago
  Update: It looks like Pocket Casts is backpedaling and giving people who paid upfront for the web app lifetime access. I appreciate them changing their minds. https://blog.pocketcasts.com/we-heard-you/ https://blog.pocketcasts.com/we-heard-you/
tricot 7y ago
My app shows me that I have 99 years of Pocket Casts Plus remaining. I did buy the app on Android aswell as the web version. Did anybody else get this many years?
- dirtyid 7y ago
  They decided to grandfather web owners for lifetime Plus 6 hours ago. There's an update on the site.

80 points by parvenu74 7y ago

"and the Web Player and Desktop Apps are part of Pocket Casts Plus, which is available as a paid subscription." If only Google podcast had a webapp I could ditch Pocket Cast.

jharohit 7y ago
https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps
- brunoqc 7y ago
  That doesn't sync with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.podcasts https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... right? But maybe google play is good enough.

dirtyid 7y ago

10gb cloud storage, web/desktop app still has no feature parity with android app after years. It's been years since beta, no playlist, per podcast setting sync, chapters support etc. Waiting for a bigger player to take podcast experience to the next level to TBH. Listenernotes posted the other day was a good start that I've been using for a while. But would be nice to have transcription support, searching within episodes (which youtube now has), commenting, recommendations to specific episodes of other podcasts based on current episode etc. I know Google has been working on podcast transcription but their podcast options including googleplay music are pretty anemic. It's still basically Google Listen circa 2009.

tim58 7y ago
> transcription support If I wanted to add transcription support to a podcasting app, which third party services or software packages I use to turn the audio into text? A similar problem stumped a weekend project ~5 months ago for me. Transcription seems to be non-trival.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  Google does it automatically, mostly used for better search indexing. I was mainly spitballing features that would be possible. Listennotes which was featured in a thread here recently has transcribe support. I don't know what services it uses for computer speech to text. Maybe Amazon speech to text? https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/ https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/ You can investigate their transcribe section near the bottom here, the example has timestamped transcription which generates useful chapter skip links. The price quote is generated from episode length I think. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/london-real/dan-carlin-hardcore-history-TuSVa9ciejz/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/london-real/dan-carlin-...
hs86 7y ago
Interestingly, their Mac app supports chapter marks but in Chrome, Safari or the Windows app they are not supported.

froindt 7y ago

I have paid for both the app and the web client. There is a lot of hate going on in /r/Android about the changes. In my experience they've delivered an app which doesn't crash and has all the features I'd expect. They also don't sell all the data they possibly could (like others do), which is definitely worth a non-zero amount. One time payment means once an app isn't actively acquiring new users, the dev will need to be finding other sources of income. The predictability of income can certainly lead to better quality apps. I have no problem with the changes they're implementing. Servers aren't free, so an ongoing income stream versus potentially shutting down because of a lack of new users makes sense.

samcat116 7y ago

I used to love Pocket Casts, and still think its pretty good overall. It's really the only podcast app worth talking about on Android, and it can just about keep up with the likes of Overcast and Castro on iOS. Its also basically the only podcast client for the desktop besides iTunes.

ryeights 7y ago

TL;DR: - The iOS and Android apps are now free - Web and desktop apps now require a Pocket Casts Plus subscription, for 0.99/mo or 9.99/yr - Current web and desktop users will be grandfathered into 3 free years of Pocket Casts Plus Personally, this change worries me. I'm reminded of these snippets they had on their web player purchase page when I bought access a few years back: >No monthly subscriptions or freemium hoo-ha. >If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once. >We don’t do freemium. No VC funding. No crazy. We love podcasts and we’ve built the web player that we want to use. We’ve priced it at a point where we’ll stick around to keep it up to date. You can expect support, features and many more awesome things in the future. https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000705/https://play.pocketcasts.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000705/https://play.pock... Additionally, they note that they "may introduce other ways to keep this whole thing sustainable in the future"... seems like it's only a matter of time until "free" turns into "free, but with ads."

awill 7y ago
>If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once. They promised something they shouldn't have promised. No excuses here. This isn't good news for people who bought the app.

brianjking 7y ago

I wish I had paid for pocket casts web/desktop player before.

cyberjunkie 7y ago

I'm glad I paid for Pocket Casts ages ago. It's a brilliant app that's beautifully designed, and had features well before the competition caught up with support for the desktop as well. For my early support, they offered me 3 years of Plus for free. I'm happy.

iwalton3 7y ago

This makes me more interested in using Plex for podcasts instead. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles such as silence removal, but it has a web app and works on mobile.

a254613e 7y ago
I am in the same boat and am going to give plex a try. They do have silence removal in the iOS app at least, but plex lacks a lot of podcasts features otherwise. I hope they keep improving on this.

crispinb 7y ago

The decline of Shifty Jelly (Pocket Casts going offshore to a boring anonymous US outfit, then Pocket Weather being dumped) is one of the sadder little stories on the Aus tech scene. I'm not blaming them for moving on -- nothing stays the same and there's no reason why it should -- but it's still a bit sad. Everything about Shifty Jelly used to be great.

_AzMoo 7y ago
> Pocket Casts going offshore to a boring anonymous US outfit Uh? NPR? WNYC Studios? This American Life? Not really a "boring anonymous US outfit".
- crispinb 7y ago
  NPR does for the most part strike me as boring and anonymous. It's a very pale shadow of the UK's BBC Radio 4 or Australia's RN (its nominal equivalents). Fair point on This American Life though.
- fencepost 7y ago
  To be fair, most of the NPR content is somewhat US specific. I have no idea what the Australian equivalent might be, but I do know the BBC is not a match (eg NPR gets basically no money from the US government except in being a nonprofit).

framel 7y ago

the is not free, its freeware

steve19 7y ago

It's not free, it's now a subscription for people who already paid. Tapatalk did the same thing recently. It is a trend that once "Premium" paid apps plateau in users they go subscription ("free"). No doubt we will start seeing ads etc. The alternative is apps being sold to shady outfits that inject spyware. For example Cheetah Mobile bought QuickPic and when Chinafire sold SuperSU to a American-based shell company. If app stores allowed paid version upgrades this trend might not have happened.

rstuart4133 7y ago
> If app stores allowed paid version upgrades this trend might not have happened. I prefer the subscription model myself. If you don't renew the subscription you get ads, or whatever happens now. Updates fix security issues, and enable Android's API to move forward. Not having them because you didn't pay would create a large base of software obsolete UI's, buggy software with security issues which will create huge problems down the road. I'm not surprised Google doesn't like the idea.
Tepix 7y ago
Twitterific did the same thing. It's fraud. If they want to make a new subscription based product they shouldn't force existing users who paid for an ad-free version to upgrade. GoodReader demonstrated how it can be done right.
dirtyid 7y ago
>The alternative is apps being sold to shady outfits that inject spyware. For example Cheetah Mobile bought QuickPic and when Chinafire sold SuperSU to a American-based shell company. Pocketcast was bought by NPR, This American Life, and some other radio stations which makes this pivot more confusing. No more public radio donations from me anymore.
- pkulak 7y ago
  Hey now, don't get all bitter so quickly. Public radio and television are still some of the last journalism left in this country.

amanzi 7y ago

I paid for Pocket Casts and also for the web player. But after the recent UI updates they went through, as well as the developers' underwhelming response to criticism, I switched to using AntennaPod (https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/). AntennaPod has its own UI problems but it's FOSS and with frequent updates it's constantly getting better.

rstuart4133 7y ago
You are a life saver. I've been searching for a decent podcast program for years. That's not to say I haven't found them - I used Pocket Casts a years ago, but for reasons I don't understand every few years the paid ones (which I have happily paid for), seem to be struck by an irresistible urge to change the UI. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse but mostly it's just different for no good reason. Maybe it's just me getting old, but I'm tiring of things changing because the old design was getting "stale", and completely over pretty interfaces driven by gestures that aren't immediately obvious. Include them if you want, but always give me a menus that make everything the app can do easily discoverable. If I have to look up a manual or google how to do something your UI design is a failure as far as I am concerned. AntennaPod seems to have the perfect UI - old fashionably obvious. It looks like it harks from years ago and it works so well they never changed it - perfect.
unicornporn 7y ago
I swear by AntennaPod. Been using it for years and years and the only thing I'm missing is an EQ.
xmprt 7y ago
What with FOSS Android apps looking like they're from the KitKat days?
- iamthirsty 7y ago
  Because most of them are, or haven't received updates visually since.
hrnnnnnn 7y ago

jacquesc 7y ago

This is an app I've used every day for almost 4 years (first on Android, then on iOS). I've paid them practically nothing for it. Probably less than $20 total, I don't even remember. It's been a nearly perfect podcasting app for me. Syncs everything, subscriptions and episode progress, between devices and on desktop. Am more than happy to pay $10/yr for it going forward. Actually surprised it's still so cheap.

kid1412621 7y ago
I use it pretty often too. And bought iOS, Android and Web version due to it’s previous marketing words, no subscription, no blah blah, one-time payment. Now it just discards those promise. But it’s understandable. Syncing feature causes server cost.
- fencepost 7y ago
  Supporting them because features I used is exactly why I've bought 3 of the 4 versions they've released (never had any iOS devices).
latortuga 7y ago
I bought this app years ago and love it. Moved from Stitcher and it's miles better. But I never made an account, so word of warning to current premium users: make an account before upgrade or you don't get the 3 years free.

subsAreBS 7y ago

Not. Free. Another stupid subscription. $1 here, $5 there. Every dang month. There is no way any of these monthly services deserve that money.

shartshooter 7y ago
Then don’t use it. No one is forcing you to buy anything.
- TrueDuality 7y ago
  The existing users already paid for it.
- awill 7y ago
  That would make sense if this app had always been a subscription. But they acquired the customers who hate subscriptions and then flipped. Not great.
  - shartshooter 7y ago
    Agreed, not great. I paid for Pocket Casts about a year ago and don't love that they're switching to subscriptions. However, the parent commenter was complaining that the app wasn't free and that they don't deserve our money. For pocket casts anyways, I'd have to say the money has been well spent. I personally enjoyed the app and will definitely look into whether a subscription makes sense assuming paid folks aren't grandfathered in.
- subsAreBS 7y ago
  NoBoDy iS FoRcINg YoU! Time and time again companies are screwing us by charging us for software and then switching to a subscription model. Companies must love you, willing to hand them money for no damn reason. What a joke.
sdan 7y ago
I don't like having all these companies having their own subscription models. At the same time, they need some constant revenue stream and a one-time buy isn't going to give them a pump into your bank account.

ijustwanttovote 7y ago

I have been using Pocket Casts for about 3-4 years. It's a great app, hopefully their subscription fee helps development.

sbennettmcleish 7y ago

Bought the app, well worth it! Currently using two phones and my progress syncing perfectly ... like one should expect!

shubidubi 7y ago

It's NOT free. It now gives you annoying popups to upgrade to subscription paid version. Very shady marketing to call it free.

kylehotchkiss 7y ago

Glad Apple's Podcasts product has grown more compelling, with native apps for desktop coming soon. Pocket Casts has been great but few softwares are worthy of a monthly recurring charge. It's a shame as I've already paid for mobile and web apps and would happily have paid for updates. I just don't want to lose access to software if I needed to cut costs on a sudden basis.

fermentation 7y ago

I really don't know how to feel about Pocket Casts. In the past I loved it, but recently it seems to have been getting worse (starting with the redesign), and now I'm suddenly not getting the full experience without a subscription?

ymolodtsov 7y ago

The title is indeed misleading. 3 years of pod desktop app is not that bad, I’ve seen way worse transitions to a subscription but still not great. Will hope Marco moves Overcast to Mac, he has been open about the model.

on_and_off 7y ago

Nice ! A better title would be free basic tiers + subscription for advanced features. I strongly believe that this is a good business model for such apps that are constantly in development and have a server side (so recurring costs for the dev). I have been using pocketcasts for a while and it is one of my favorite Android apps. So now I just have to put my money where my mouth is and subscribe.

Rebelgecko 7y ago

Alternate title: Pocket Cast will now have charge you a subscription fee if you want to continue using features that you already paid for

fencepost 7y ago
Incorrect unless you're one of the people who purchased the desktop or web app. If you're a mobile device user, you'll pay a subscription for features that have never existed before.
- Rebelgecko 7y ago
  As a matter of fact, I am one of the people who previously purchased the desktop or web app. In retrospect I was pretty gullible to believe their pitch: "No monthly subscriptions or freemium hoo-ha... If you like what you see, we'll ask you for $9. Just once." https://web.archive.org/web/20181030230424/https://play.pocketcasts.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181030230424/https://play.pock...

awill 7y ago

From the URL: >>I paid for this app in the past, will I still have access to all the features I paid for? >>Most certainly! We aren't locking any existing features behind a paywall. This is a blatant lie. They're locking the webapp behind the subscription. I paid $9 for the webapp, and (after the 3 year grace period) will be locked out. I don't want any of the plus features in the Android app. But I like being able to use my computer. >>Before you freak out, we want to let you know that we want to do the right thing by everyone who has ever paid for the web and desktop apps. It doesn't matter if you paid 5 years ago, or just last month, we're going to gift each and every one of you with three years of Pocket Casts Plus. As I was reading this I genuinely thought they were going to grandfather customers in. That would have been 'do the right thing'.

reustle 7y ago

For those who didn't catch it, NPR purchased Pocket Casts last year. A lot of us saw this pricing change coming, unfortunately. https://www.npr.org/about-npr/607823388/pocket-cast-acquired https://www.npr.org/about-npr/607823388/pocket-cast-acquired

sam_lowry_ 7y ago

The article linked from the title is full of lies. First, Pocket Casts is owned by NPR. Second, it is not free, but switching to a subscription model.

benbristow 7y ago

I just bought it a few days ago. Gah!

mrbonner 7y ago

Mind if I ask why it is better than a regular included Podcast app came with the iPhone? Thanks

rhinoceraptor 7y ago
I use Overcast, but I assume Pocketcast has the same or similar features. One is server side crawl, so your phone doesn't have to go update its RSS feeds itself. I can get a push notification when a new episode is released. Another great feature is smart speed, it trims silence in podcasts so you can listen a little bit faster.
joshstrange 7y ago
Another vote for Overcast. The app is great and things like Smart Speed and per-podcast speed settings are a godsend. The developer behind Overcast (Marco Arment) does a great job with this app and you should check out some of the podcasts he is on like ATP (Apple/tech news) and Under the Radar (iOS dev topics).

thekyle 7y ago

If by "free" they mean a monthly subscription to access the web app that I already paid for, then sure, it's free.

thekyle 7y ago
Update: It looks like Pocket Casts is backpedaling and giving people who paid upfront for the web app lifetime access. I appreciate them changing their minds. https://blog.pocketcasts.com/we-heard-you/ https://blog.pocketcasts.com/we-heard-you/

tricot 7y ago

My app shows me that I have 99 years of Pocket Casts Plus remaining. I did buy the app on Android aswell as the web version. Did anybody else get this many years?

dirtyid 7y ago
They decided to grandfather web owners for lifetime Plus 6 hours ago. There's an update on the site.