Oops. Seems like my pick might be Castro after all.
The public broadcasters who own Pocket Casts are selling the podcast platform, less than a year after it was declared public media’s “answer to Spotify.”
Public media owners agree to sell Pocket Casts podcast platform
@maique Can't say I trusted NPR with it. Which is sad because it's a great app. Castro is my current favorite too.
@maique @smithtimmytim The app was not mentioned. It sounds like NPR is selling the media “platform.” I was not aware, however, that Pocket Casts had a media platform. Maybe that’s why it wasn’t working and needs to be sold.
@maique Oh no! Pocket Casts is my most-used application by far. I adore it, and am a subscriber. Hopefully whoever buys it will nurture it well.
@maique I had no idea it was owned by public media. For radio, I listen to NPR almost exclusively and it’s never mentioned.
@smithtimmytim I was aware it was owned by NPR but, being a non-US person, the times I've heard about NPR made me trust it would be in good hands. I decided to give it a try although I'm happy with Castro, but missed a web view/macOS app now that I'm spending a lot of time sitting in front of the computer.
@ericmwalk It would be a shame indeed. I considered moving to it, but I'll put those plans on hold for now.
@maique that probably makes sense I would too if I was in the same boat. For now I will keep my fingers crossed 🤞
@maique Oh no, I don’t like the sound of this. It was bad enough when it was sold to NPR (it was previously owned by a small development shop in Adelaide). If it goes somewhere distasteful, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I don’t know of any other podcast players on Android 😳.
@lmika From this side of the ocean I always assumed NPR was a good thing. You're not the first one to say that, and it was a surprise to my ill-informed self. I'm not on Android, can't help you there (maybe @ohBananaJoe can offer some tip), but I'm always sad when decent apps get into trouble. Hopefully, if they manage to sell it, it will be to someone who loves the app and it's user base.
@maique Yeah, I guess my main concern when NPR bought it was that they would add things like analytics to gather data on the apps users. To their credit, I didn’t hear of that happening so I guess all-in-all they were good stewards of the app. I agree with you completely on hoping that they can find a buyer that will do so likewise.
@mcg Ah, OK. I didn't know the development team remained the same. That makes me feel quite a bit better.
@maique At least with PocketCasts and other well regarded catchers, it’s easy to move with and opml export/import. I do hate loosing my listening stats tho😀 Guess I’ll give Castro another try.
@ohBananaJoe Thanks for the tip. That app actually looks pretty good. I might give it a try if sticking with PocketCast becomes untenable. Yeah, if I was on iOS I would have definitely tried out Overcast, but I'm afraid I'm too invested in the Android ecosystem at this stage 🙂
@maique Even more concerning to me is this, Apple Podcast subscription service . If they lock down the directory, we might be in for a bad time.
@gpittman Yeah. Spotify and Amazon have built their own closed directories. I wonder if they feel pressured to do the same.
@mcg I'm not too familiar with their directory, as I usually subscribe using whatever app I'm using at the time. When I move to another app I just export the OMPL file and import on the new one. Isn't it just a directory ? Can't someone else do that ? Regarding their own production, or possibly buying a few well known podcasts, I'm not sure I'd need those. I listen to a few, not many, and I have serious doubts those would be picked by them for that kind of service.
Locking podcasts behind a subscription service is something I find somehow unnatural. I haven't given this much thought (as you might already figured out!) but, for me, they're more... personal(?), or intimate(?) than a tv show, or a movie. I'm all for supporting the creators, via coffee, Patreon, or whatever, but having a subscription for a pack of podcasts doesn't feel right.
I pay for Netlfix, and Spotify. But not Arcade, or for Kindle Prime for the books. I'd rather pay for those individually...
Sorry for the messy reply, it's getting a bit late, and I'm thinking out loud with the keyboard.
@maique When you search for a podcast using an app like Castro you are indirectly searching the Apple directory. To publish a podcast one of the first steps is to get listed in Apple’s directory. That going dark would be a huge issue for the open world of podcasting.
@maique same! I end up playing podcasts through my phone which is not ideal. I’m hoping that Castro decides to do a universal app.
@mcg Oh, I wasn't aware of that! Sometimes I just use the podcast's feed, but I had no idea that searching on Castro was done using Apple's directory. Thank you, learning something new right now.
@smithtimmytim I asked them on Twitter, and it seems they have one for M1 Macs already, iPad is on the way, and they said they'd probably be able to port it to Intel Macs.
