The podcasting app Pocket Casts is carving a new narrative for the future of podcasts in a way that’s almost hard to believe. As of Tuesday (March 1) Pocket Casts has eradicated its basic subscription tier for its web and desktop apps, meaning that you can listen to all of the best podcasts completely free of charge, marking a rather significant move towards making podcasts more accessible and, most importantly, more affordable.
Pocket Casts’ decision to revert to an open access platform reflects its long-standing principles of maintaining an open podcasting ecosystem that’s not overruled by paywalled services, all while eradicating algorithm-controlled discovery features. “By making our Web Player available to everyone, we’re reinforcing our belief that podcasts belong to the people, not corporations”, it stated in its announcement.
