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.
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?
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?
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."
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.
I, in the past, made a purchase in the application which enabled the use of the web-player (maybe 4? Years ago). Today, I received this email from them:
> We wanted to do the right thing by you though and since you've paid for the Web Player in the past, we're giving you 3 years worth of Pocket Casts Plus at no extra charge. You don't need to do anything to claim this, it's already been applied to your account. This means you can continue doing all the things you currently do, and take advantage of our brand new Plus features.
I think this is definitely the right way to handle prior paid customers. Unlike Airmail (oof) they’ve offered a subsidized service for the older users.
> 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.
The versions that are probably 90+% of their user base are now free instead of a one time payment. That's probably not as big as it sounds because a lot of the people who might purchase the app have already done so.
The (less featureful) browser and desktop apps are subscription, but unless people want the new features they probably won't see huge revenue from those for 3 years when the subscriptions for people who already bought start expiring.
I'm not sure, but the desktop app is probably a wrapper for the web app - as someone who bought the Windows Phone version, their native app was barely MVP level.
Edit: also where is all this about ads coming from?
>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.
It's more annoyance that US Public Media has enough resources to acquire and influence software decisions. There's also things happening behind the scenes in regards to podcast standards that doesn't sit well with me. Plenty of other independent and domestic (non US) media to support. At least I know players in smaller markets will actually bias their resources for content.
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/). AntennaPod has its own UI problems but it's FOSS and with frequent updates it's constantly getting better.
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.
I sent feature requests occasionally over the past few years, viz. search within podcast, navigate to podcast from episode, swipe to add to default playlist, and a couple more I can't remember. I always got personal replies and with the new version, they've all been fixed.
For me, the new Pocket Casts is the best Android application I've ever used. I can't think of any rough edges in the app.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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).
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).
- 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.
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."
>>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'.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.