Well, crap. This feels like the first sign that the app is going to die when it doesn’t get enough money out of this price hike.
What’s a good open alternative?
I mean Pocket Casts is already open source. If they end support for it, you can just fork it.
https://blog.pocketcasts.com/2022/10/19/pocket-casts-mobile-apps-are-now-open-source/
You know, I hadn’t even realized this. That’s great. Here’s their GitHub!
Yeah, this seems like a steep increase. I can’t imagine they’re expecting many folks to actually pay this amount.
I like podcast republic. Lots of control.
yea, seems like it’s all downhill from here
Holy shit that price is just insane. No one is going to be willing to pay that when Spotify is cheaper by a lot…
Do people really use Spotify for podcasts? I don’t find it a great experience. Pocket Casts seems to be solid as a free app along with other alternatives (including open-source).
I’m pretty sure the only people who use Spotify for podcasts are unvaccinated Roganites
Just here to say fuck Dax Shepherd for being a Spotify exclusive podcaster.
It’s the only reason my family plan hasn’t been migrated, really. I don’t want to deal with that fall out.
Excited to here Dax has a podcast but also sad since I won’t be listening to it.
I use Spotify for podcasts, though if the rumors of them increasing their sub is true, I’ll be swapping to open source alternative’s.
Look at AntennaPod. Pretty app like Pocket Casts but is completely free and open source.
Just discovered yesterday that the Pocket Casts apps are also open source!
Already downloaded, cheers!
Spotify is 10 a month for a normal subscription, so Pocket Casts is roughly a third of that for one year. I don’t like Spotify for podcasts at all but it is a big part of the service nowadays. Still awfully expensive for Pocket Casts when you consider that it is just for podcasts and no music - unlike Spotify.
You don’t need to pay for the subscription to use PocketCasts for podcasts. There is a free version that does everything you would need it to.
I know, I’ve been using it for years.
I personally have lifetime plus due to having bought the app early on. I still use it regularly but don’t use the fancy web interface.
Remember when they went back on their promise that the $10 would be permanent premium? Then went on a rant about how they shouldn’t honor those purchases. I stopped using them right then and there, even if I was grandfathered in.
Yep. I did appreciate when they reversed course though. App seems to have been sold a few times since then.
Ya I bought the lifetime subscription years ago when they still offered it so I’m basically grandfathered into that thankfully. Idk if I could justify a recurring subscription for a podcast app.
Same here. I have lifetime plus from having bought it ages ago, but I’ve simply just defaulted to listening to podcasts on my Nextcloud News app out of convenience. It has a play and pause button, and that’s mostly all I need from my podcast app.
Over 200% markup in a single pricing change, yeesh
You think they’d gradually ease people into it at least. This app is always on something
I always got confused with percentage increases and whether they were relative to the original amount (going from 100% load to 300% load) or whether they were adding on top of the original amount (adding 200% on top of 100% to make 300%).
Regardless, that’s a ridiculous jump.
I had bought it outright so I have the “lifetime subscription” after the uproar when the introduced this subscription model. This rate hike has me a little worried though they may go back on that and force purchasers to pony up for the subscription as well to get short term profits up (albeit at a reduced rate for like 3 months or so, as is standard with this sort of thing).
Eh I doubt it. We are a dying breed at this point 😄
The original plan was 2 years for people who bought it, only after backlash did they give out the lifetime subscriptions.
Used to love pocket casts but I switched to antennapod after they basically changed the whole app into something that made no sense to me.
Would never pay a subscription to listen to podcasts personally.
You inspired me to look at antennapod and within 10 minutes pocket casts was uninstalled.
Been using pocket casts since the beginning but starting to get fed up with apps wanting more and more of my money.
It’s a good app especially for free. It did take me a week or so to adjust and customise it how I like things but it does the job pretty well.
This is kinda odd timing.
I just started using AntennaPod on Monday since I want to switch to FOSS apps as much as possible and also deleted my PocketCasts account completely.
It sucks that there is no such account in my Google Podcasts app, but uninstalled that too. AntennaPod, FTW!
I was surprised to learn that the Pocket Casts apps are open-source (Android GitHub, iOS GitHub).
This is for the older version though, IIRC
Edit: Ah, it seems I missed Automattic acquiring Pocket Casts. Would make sense they’re open source, since Automattic is a fully open source company.
Yeah, I’m very glad to see this and it actually makes me more inclined to support them.
AntennaPod
As a (now former) Pocketcasts user, I thank you for letting me know about AntennaPod!
@colebrodine @Idefinitelydonotknow Happy AntennaPod user here, very pleased with it 👍
You are welcome. Just remember that it haa 95% of the features as PocketCasts, but it is Open Source…
Honestly just wish AntennaPod had a way to easily sync between desktop and mobile. I love the look of it on my tablet but sometimes I like listening while I’m working on my laptop.
You are welcome. Just remember that it haa 95% of the features as PocketCasts, but it is Open Source…
Fun fact about Antennapod, if you want to sort new podcast episodes by prioroty, rename the podcast with a number based on your priority for that podcast and then sort the que by podcast title. Now episodes of your favorite podcast will always be up at the top and ready even if a *newer episode of anothet pod is released. Reasons you may do this besides just having a favorite podcast over others is if you listen to timely podcast that you always want to listen to before others that can wait.
Damn, this is so cool!
I cannot wait to try this out.
I’m one of the people who doesn’t listen to podcasts very much and therefore doesn’t need any extended features that would require me to pay for an app.
As long as the app has a play/pause button, and rewind/fast forward buttons, then that’s all I need lol
I listen to podcasts daily and have 107 days of listening time in pocketcasts over the span of years, but honestly their premium features just aren’t worth the cost, even at the cheaper level. I paid in the past because it’s a great app but realized I basically never used the paid features and stopped.
I think a lot of people who were also paying just to support a great app are going to second guess if theyre actually using those paid features with the price hike.
111 days here 😉
No thank you. I’m perfectly happy with Podcast Addict.
Yeah, Addict is great for what it is especially for thr price. Paying that much for basically a nothingburger seems weird?
Yes, I am not sure who this is targeted to exactly - there are so many better ways to consume podcasts and the other content they mention, for less money, or free in many cases. I had purchased Pocket Casts years ago before they went free, then sold out to PBS, was still free, and now this - seems like just dying to piece together a business model that’s is doomed to fail (again).
I left pocket casts before they went the sub model. antennapod is my app of choice and works perfectly.
I’m grandfathered into pocketcasts+ so it’s free.
I use the app for hours everyday and if it wasn’t free I’d be on another app…
Holy crap. That is a lot! Thank goodness I got that lifetime way back when.
That was my thought right now. Best podcast app on Android.
Same. I just had to do a doubletake on my account to make sure I was still a lifetime member though whew!
What does it even add? A desktop app and themes for $40
The value for the price doesn’t seem there to me..
Edit: existing subscribers seem to be grandfathered in at their usual price.
It was fine at $10 because you could sync with desktop.
At $40 it’s stupid, plus I already switched to Google podcasts which is at least as good since they changed the ui.
Try Podcast Republic. It has multi-device syncing and a lot of other great options.
Just imported all my podcasts into AntennaPod to give it a go. I found that it also supports sync via Nextcloud which I absolutely need because I often listen on multiple devices and I want to pick up where I left.
Good to see alternatives, because that’s one of the main reasons I bought the lifetime subscription back in the day. I also used the trim silence feature, but I can do without that.
I’m still sitting here with DoggCatcher. Not exactly a pretty app, feels like an app from more than 10 years ago, as it hasn’t really changed since then.
But it does what I want it to, with some minor hiccups one in a blue moon. Hasn’t frustrated me to the point where I feel like switching.
And while it’s not pretty, it does work.
Look at AntennaPod. Pretty app like Pocket Casts but is completely free and open source.
