I subscribed to Pocket Casts when it was owned by public media entities, and it worked well. But after they sold it off, I just switched to AntennaPod and it does everything I need too.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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, no way I’d be paying that for it
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.
I left when they changed the interface to what ever abomination it is now. You used to be able to basically filter folders e.g. ttrpg actule plays, music, talk shows etc. chronologically wheather or not you’ve listened to it before. I should have switched to some open source alternative but I went with google again likely to get burned. Any recommendations?
Tbh you might be able to come back go pocket casts. They added a bunch of functionality back over time. Can’t remember what it used to be like anymore, but it works for me.
I have a free account and do have access to the filters. You can filter by podcast, started/not started, duration, etc. It may still not work for your needs though.
Do folks accessing for free have the ability to speed up playback? I love that feature.
Yup they do.
Yep!
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.
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 have a lifetime pass from paying for the web version back in the day but honestly it’s super worth it. It’s still the best podcast app/website ever.
Same! Really glad i did that now :D
That’s quite the price jump. I wonder why it’s such a severe jump.
If I had to guess, it’s not profitable and the free money has dried with interest rates the way they are. Web 2.0 as we know it is dying. So many things are going to end up being unprofitable and will close shop in the next few years.
You are probably right. I think it will be a tough change, but I think it’s something that needs to be done.
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.
Any recs for a podcast app that has wearOS support??
Pretty sure Pocket Casts now has a Wear OS app, saw it in their Play Store listing a few days ago.
Yep and it actually works well! I’m looking for an alternative that’s not behind a pricey subscription model
I was paying the $10 but recently stopped it because i never use the app, not sure i’ll get premium again with such an increase, even if i do get back into it. maybe if i really start using it a lot
I’m going to ask a legitimate question and I promise I’m not trolling but this seems insane to me and I have to ask.
Why in the fuck would anybody use a special app just for podcasts?
I just go to the website, download the show, throw it on my phone and I’m good to go. It takes very little time I don’t have anyone selling my listening data.
I’d genuinely like to know what the benefit is.
I just subscribe to a bunch of podcasts and it automatically downloads them for me. It handles keeping track of what I’ve listened to and can queue up a variety of them for easy listening like a customized radio station.
Here’s what mine looks like:
Holy hell does your phone even fit in your pocket?
I spy with my little eyes a donut media podcast 👀
I just grab them and then delete them when I’m done. I still don’t understand the need to involve a corporation and their analytics in my listening activities. There’s not much time lost or regained either way so I don’t really see the benefit?
That’s fine. Some of us like to have them automatically downloaded and deleted for us since we listen to so many. I personally wouldn’t have the time to visit each to download or keep track of new releases!
It is just easier, and having a simple ui of different podcasts and their episodes along with their progress is a nice QOL -feature. You can probably get the sam, result with a media-player and some tinkering, but is not as easy.
Granted, I see no reason to pay for a podcast app (other to support creators), as free open-source options such as AntennaPod exist.
It’s worth nothing Pocket Casts app itself is open-source and free to use. The subscription gets you access to some extra functionality. I personally was fine with paying for the app back in the day but am not interested in subscriptions.
so you don’t have to go to the website and download each episode you want to listen to…
I don’t understand how going to a website once a week for under 10 seconds is a detriment?
For a legitimate question you sure do keep countering answers with “I don’t do it so why do you?”
As for why people use a dedicated app? Convenience. All my podcast are in one place, they get updated automatically, and if I want it they get downloaded to storage automatically too so I can listen to them offline.
If someone tells me about a new podcast I might like, I can search for it and be listening to it within seconds, rather than having to download it from a website. Plus if I’m using Google Podcasts, playback is synced across devices so I can pick up on my phone where I left off on my computer.
Besides there’s a ton of open source podcast apps and most don’t have ads or tracking.
Because if I don’t understand something, I would like an understanding of what the reasoning behind it is. We get smarter by asking people about the world. I find a lot of issues with people emerge because they don’t think about the reasoning behind any of what they are doing and simply fall into a rut of convenience instead of finding a better way to do things.
But of course on the internet, people get pretty angry when questioning a behavior they just adopted and never bothered to think about.