Linus Tech Tips Discussion

 Popular Podcast App "Pocket Casts" Showing Ads to Lifetime Premium Members Summary  Pocket Casts began life as a one time purchase app, for $10. After its acquisition by Automattic, that option was removed and it was changed to a subscription model. Automattic did the right thing at the time, and honored those users with a conversion to a special "Pocket Casts Champion" membership: "a lifetime you-get-the-best-of-whatever-we-sell deal". Recently however, these Champion accounts have been getting shown ads in the app, similar to a free account.   An employee posting on the official forum said this was on purpose, but the Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg claimed it was a bug and will be resolved.   Quotes Quote “Anyone who has ever paid for Pocket Casts, even before Automattic acquired it, should not see ads,” Mullenweg said in a Hacker News thread. “I don’t believe in ‘lifetime’ purchases, and we don’t create new ones at Automattic, but we have honored the legacy people who paid a one-time fee to Pocket Casts when they were a startup with basically what we call a “Champions” account, which is a lifetime you-get-the-best-of-whatever-we-sell deal.” There are only a few thousand lifetime Pocket Casts members, according to Mullenweg, adding that it “seemed better to try and make it more of a gift than attempt to migrate people to what is actually a sustainable business model.” We have reached out to Pocket Casts for comment.   My thoughts  This seemed relevant to the LTT community given Linus' ongoing war with Teamviewer on the exact same problem. I love a lifetime sub, I spent a hundred or so on a Nexus Mods lifetime many years ago, and a Plex Lifetime as well. It's a great way for me to just not have to worry about something ever again. However, the CEO's comment here about an "actually sustainable business mode" is hard to argue with. It's the buy-it-for-life issue all over. The plastic container company Tupperware went bankrupt earlier this year, because their products lasted so long nobody ever bought more. What's the solution to this?   Sources  https://www.theverge.com/news/784429/pocket-casts-ads-lifetime-memberships-complaints