Technology

PocketCasts was pretty much perfect for me for a long time and recently (past couple years maybe?) they did a big update which made it noticeably worse. I tried a few other apps and they had even bigger issues. I'm still using PocketCasts and they've fixed some of what they messed up but it isn't perfect.

They have a good library of podcasts built in but also allow you to add custom rss feeds for any smaller shows they don't have or if you have private feeds from patreon or elsewhere.

Another Podcast Addict user here. But I don't think they pay the Podcasters anything if that's your concern. If you're listening to Joe Rogan, don't pay him a penny. Pirate the shit out of his podcasts. But maybe you should consider giving to Patreon if you don't already. They take a cut but at least you know its going to the podcaster.

Also you really should know that Tidal isn't paying anyone any better, no platform is. They're all beholden to rights holders, and that is mostly record labels and their parent companies. No platform pays per stream, that's a myth. Spotify just distributes all the money left after their 30%. Blame the labels for making audio so unprofitable and for the average listener for treating music and podcasts as disposable,

Before you think I'm defending spotify, I'm not. They tried to make an unprofitable product profitable and they did it by selling out to record labels. Spotify could have made them irrelevant but chose not to.

If synchronising your episode progress and subscriptions is important, I'd use google podcasts for a commercial solution. I used it for a while and it worked great.

I've since moved on to audiobookshelf, for a self hosted option that achieves the same sync across devices.

Didn't Tidal end that program a few months ago? Or is it different than what this article is talking about: https://musically.com/2023/03/01/tidal-shuts-direct-artist-payouts-scheme-after-paying-500k/

BeyondPod

I've been using it for years. I have the paid version of it.

I'm sure I barely use any of the features. At the end of the day it lets me download my podcasts and prunes them as I listen (as I've configure it).

I feel like I need to buy it again to give the dev some money.

I've been using podverse for a while now and it's been great except for a few quirks with the queue

I switched to Podcast Republic awhile ago because I like the playlist feature and being able to have different "channels" for similar types of podcasts. Very customizable too! They have the android app and a website, though I've never used the website

newpodcastapps.com

I use Stitcher

I’ve been very happy with Podurama for the last few months.

Still love Pocketcasts and would use nothing less (though I have a lifetime membership since I beta'd the web player when it first launched, so YMMV)

On Android I use Podcast Addict and on PC I use Podgrab running from Docker. I haven't found a.way to sync them

I didn't see it in the comments but I am very happy with Podcast Guru om android.

Guess not what you're after, but I switched from Spotify to Deezer which has podcasts built in. So I only need one app.

I’ve had good experiences with Castbox.

I use Playapod for Android. I've used it for years and haven't found anything better.

On desktop I use Tildes. It's fairly minimalistic in terms of features, but very smooth and attractive UI. It does what I need with no headaches and looks great doing it. Like many others here I use AntennaPod on mobile.