As with others, I had this happening more frequently in the past, but again just in the last few days. But not only with Overcast, also Spotify. I listen to some very extreme music and I don’t really like it blaring out of my pocket when arriving at work. But then again, people probably just think it’s noise from a construction work outside.
I’ve had very similar things happen every time I have tried to use Apple podcasts. When I have persevered (repeatedly deleting or marking as read hundreds of episodes when they keep reappearing) it has tended to settle down but then randomly, after weeks, it goes out of sync again. I’ve just not found it reliable enough to use, and I hate things like “channels” and prepopulating Apple Music radio shows I have zero interest in.
Overcast has been usable for me throughout the recent changes, but it has settled down in the last couple of releases so I just don’t have to think about it - it just works and I listen to podcasts.
Marco seems to have really gotten after a lot of the issues in the new Overcast, to be honest. The main thing still hanging out there for me is the downloads seem to be WAY less reliable.
Every day I have downloads fail for whatever reason (I can’t ever figure it out). Also the bug where I want to download an old episode but I first have to “Cancel Download” and then re-start the download.
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Anyone know if there is an option to get rid of this feature popping up whenever I jump between Chapters. I find it annoying….Thanks. (And if there isn’t an option….please Marco….create one!
URL not available any longer - the developer has deleted his post on Mastodon
Overcast Premium’s subscription price was raised to $15 per year, it may end up at $20 to $30 per year. Now the developer has explained why he has chosen this incremental route in the “toot” quoted above.
Potentially for those of interest, who do not follow “the app” on Mastodon…
EDIT:
The developer has deleted his “toot”. He now has posted this on his personal account:
Long story short: He sees a fee of $20 to $30 per year as price range for Overcast Premium (at least this is how I understood the original and now deleted toot). He only has raised it to $15 because he thought that increasing it by more than $5 would result in subscribers having to actively opt-in to continue the subscription. Now he has been made aware that he could have increased it more than $5 without the opt-in. He is planning to leave it at “$15 for now”.
Given that pretty much all of the app functionality is there for those who are not paying, with minimal ads to support it, I don’t know that $20 a year seems unreasonable for the “paid” version.
I do somewhat question the idea of a price increase being done at a certain level in order to not trigger a confirmation from the users. I forget – do users get an email from Apple either way if prices are going up?
Yes, Apple always sends an email notifying you of any pricing changes for any subscriptions you have.
Edit: This is what it looks like.
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Marco has talked on several podcasts I’ve heard recently about increasing the price and compared the current $10 per year to Overcast’s competitors which tend to start at $30 a year. I can’t blame Marco as he’s massively undervaluing the product as far as I’m concerned.
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I have no issues with his decisions. It for sure is in the price range of the competition.
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Can anyone explain how the money flows in podcast distribution? Do podcast apps pay anyone for acting as a go-between, or does any entity pay them for doing it (other than the final consumer)? Cachefly? Advertisers? Apple? Royalties to Adam Curry?
There are always exceptions, but in general, podcasters pay a hosting service to host and distribute their content, and get paid by sponsors/advertisers. Their costs rise and fall based on how many people download their shows, and sponsors (hopefully!) pay accordingly. It’s basically the same as monetizing a website, YouTube channel, etc.
Apps like Overcast don’t pay podcasters or get paid by podcasters as part of the distribution process. All of their revenue is from their users.
And Apple doesn’t get any money for maintaining the directory.
I’ve had plenty of complains on how he rolled out the new version and the initial apparent lack of care about the feedback he was getting…writing off his customers. But he got after fixing the issues pretty quickly, which is what he promised. And he started interacting more/taking feedback, which is nice to see.
So with all that, I think he’s been undercharging for Overcast for years. Overcast has to be one of the most used apps on my phone…$10/yr is ridiculously low. The new price of $15 still feels like a steal, to be honest.
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It’s an odd dynamic with Marco. He complains a lot about companies being non-responsive to users, but his support is non-existent. Not even a manual, tips, FAQ, help, or support forum. Particularly with a new release, having to figure out every single function is quite frustrating.
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I agree, it’s a bit hypocritical TBH
First of all, welcome. Second, I agree with you. I sometimes feel I should cancel my subscription, as a « f*ck you, too! » But I’m lucky, the app works fine for me, and its cheap.
To be honest, a few people cancelling rarely registers with a dev. Beyond anything the expiration of Subs would be spread before the Dev even registered.
it would take a significant proportion of their subscribers cancelling to be noticed by the Dev.
And even with the new price, Overcast is a bargain.
I cancelled my Noteplan subscription recently — i usually cancel subscriptions even if I think I’ll keep it just so I’m forced to evaluate it before resubscribing.
The developer emailed me a day after asking if I’d share why with him why I cancelled and if there was anything the app needed that was missing for me.
I was surprised. It wasn’t t a form letter, nor was his response.
It’s a good app and he’s very active on his discord. Maybe people don’t cancel all that often.
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The Noteplan guy is awesome. He legitimately wants to know what his users want/are asking for, and is pretty responsive to things that he considers reasonable feature requests.
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Surprising, but great feedback for them. I doubt it’s the norm but I may be wrong.
I have to say, with all the bugs of the Overcast rewrite, I’ve been using Apple Podcasts for a few months and I don’t think I’m going back. The only feature I really miss is voice boost. Some podcasts I regularly listen to I have to crank to full volume and still have trouble hearing what people say. I didn’t realize how bad the production is for some of these podcasts!
I also really enjoy the transcription feature of Apple Podcasts. If I really can’t understand what people say, I’ll look at the transcript. It’s also a good way to share something from a podcast.
I know Marco wants to be solo, but a lot of these support problems could be solved if he just hired someone part time to answer emails. Any successful business should grow and hire more people, but I guess he doesn’t want to manage someone else?
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