
Pocket Casts Is Now Free - parvenu74
https://blog.pocketcasts.com/major-new-update/
======
steve19
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.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
_If app stores allowed paid version upgrades this trend might not have
happened._

This is a takeaway that I think is really important that a lot of people miss.
The problem with the "new" model is that it's created a double-whammy of much
lower prices in absolute dollars than we were paying ~15 years ago for
software _and_ an expectation that once you've paid that low price, you should
get upgrades for free forever. The plateau you mention is, of course, why that
can't actually work: most apps don't grow their userbase at a steady rate,
they get bursts of new users when new versions come out -- and usually fewer
and fewer new users for each new version. If every customer represents one and
only one point of revenue -- and that point is a third or a fourth what you'd
have charged for the same amount of engineering work under the old model --
this is a death spiral.

Under the "old" model, PocketCasts could easily have been a $20–25 program
with $12–15 upgrades when new versions came out every couple of years and it
wouldn't have seemed unfairly priced at all. Under our glorious new model, the
only way to match this is with subscriptions. And people _hate_ subscriptions.
Nobody works out the math to see whether the subscription model actually costs
them _less_ than the old upgrade model, they just have a visceral reaction to
it.

I get the frustration with any company that charges that low one-time fee,
implicitly (or even explicitly, as PocketCasts apparently did!) promises free
lifetime upgrades, then goes back on that promise some years later when it
proves unsustainable. At the same time, is going out of business or shutting
down that product really preferable?

~~~
ajsnigrutin
If you buy a software (eg office 2003) you can still use it after a year,
after office 2007 comes out, and 2010, etc. and even today. It doesn't have
all the new features, but if you just need it to do "one thing" it works.
Buying a subscription plan might be cheaper than buying all those
versions/upgrade, but why buy if the "first" version still does what you need?

This is of course from the users standpoint.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
It's a reasonable question -- and I'd consider it another argument for the
"paid upgrade" model not to have died. That makes it possible for users to hop
off the bandwagon, while still providing some level of recurring revenue from
existing customers for developers.

I'm not sure how to really address that in a subscription-based world,
although PocketCasts seems to be pursuing a pretty good approach here: you can
use the app for its core functionality without subscribing at all, and the
subscription price is pretty reasonable. If you want Office 365, where the
cheapest price is $70/yr, the calculation might well lead you to "let's see if
Apple Pages or LibreOffice can do what I want instead."

------
amanzi
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.

~~~
xmprt
What with FOSS Android apps looking like they're from the KitKat days?

~~~
iamthirsty
Because most of them are, or haven't received updates visually since.

------
jacquesc
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
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
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).

------
froindt
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.

------
dirtyid
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
> 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
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-...](https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/london-real/dan-carlin-
hardcore-history-TuSVa9ciejz/)

------
Rebelgecko
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
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
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.pock...](https://web.archive.org/web/20181030230424/https://play.pocketcasts.com/)

------
subsAreBS
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
Then don’t use it. No one is forcing you to buy anything.

~~~
awill
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
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.

------
samcat116
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.

------
cyberjunkie
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.

------
fermentation
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?

------
crispinb
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
> 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
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.

------
reustle
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)

------
ryeights
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.pock...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000705/https://play.pocketcasts.com/)

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
>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.

------
awill
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'.

------
on_and_off
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.

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

------
iwalton3
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
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.

------
brunoqc
"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
[https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps](https://play.google.com/music/listen#/tps)

~~~
brunoqc
That doesn't sync with
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.podcasts)
right?

But maybe google play is good enough.

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

~~~
thekyle
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/)

------
framel
the is not free, its freeware

------
sam_lowry_
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.

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

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

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

------
kylehotchkiss
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.

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

~~~
rhinoceraptor
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.

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

------
ymolodtsov
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.

------
benbristow
I just bought it a few days ago. Gah!

