from Hacker News

Pocket Casts Is Now Free

by parvenu74 on 9/18/19, 2:55 AM with 76 comments

  • by steve19 on 9/18/19, 4:52 AM

    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.

  • by amanzi on 9/18/19, 5:04 AM

    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.

  • by jacquesc on 9/18/19, 5:06 AM

    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.

  • by froindt on 9/18/19, 4:08 AM

    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.

  • by dirtyid on 9/18/19, 4:07 AM

    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.

  • by Rebelgecko on 9/18/19, 5:42 AM

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

  • by subsAreBS on 9/18/19, 5:11 AM

    Not. Free.

    Another stupid subscription. $1 here, $5 there. Every dang month. There is no way any of these monthly services deserve that money.

  • by samcat116 on 9/18/19, 4:09 AM

    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.

  • by cyberjunkie on 9/18/19, 4:32 AM

    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.

  • by fermentation on 9/18/19, 5:33 AM

    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?

  • by crispinb on 9/18/19, 4:36 AM

    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.

  • by reustle on 9/18/19, 6:16 AM

    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

  • by ryeights on 9/18/19, 4:18 AM

    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...

    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."

  • by awill on 9/18/19, 5:49 AM

    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'.

  • by on_and_off on 9/18/19, 5:40 AM

    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.

  • by tricot on 9/19/19, 7:25 AM

    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?

  • by iwalton3 on 9/18/19, 4:34 AM

    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.

  • by brunoqc on 9/18/19, 4:06 AM

    "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.

  • by thekyle on 9/18/19, 2:40 PM

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

  • by framel on 9/18/19, 4:50 AM

    the is not free, its freeware

  • by sam_lowry_ on 9/18/19, 7:43 AM

    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.

  • by shubidubi on 9/18/19, 5:31 AM

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

  • by ijustwanttovote on 9/18/19, 5:19 AM

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

  • by sbennettmcleish on 9/18/19, 5:30 AM

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

  • by kylehotchkiss on 9/18/19, 5:32 AM

    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.

  • by mrbonner on 9/18/19, 2:02 PM

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

  • by brianjking on 9/18/19, 4:19 AM

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

  • by ymolodtsov on 9/18/19, 5:38 AM

    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.

  • by benbristow on 9/18/19, 8:20 AM

    I just bought it a few days ago. Gah!