Pocket Casts Acquired by Group That Includes NPR, Nothing Changes for Users

Announced today, Pocket Casts, one of the more popular podcast listening and sharing platforms, has been acquired by a group of four large podcast producers. The new owners are NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life.

Together, these producers are responsible for over 170 million podcast downloads a month, and with that combined experience, the goal is to, “reach a new generation of listeners and to serve the needs of audio producers across public radio and beyond.”

Now, according to Pocket Casts, absolutely nothing is changing for users, at least for the time being. Everyone involved on the Pocket Cast team remains, the app’s pricing remains the same, and moving forward, “Our aim is to make it better, like we always have, year in, year out.” Building on that, “Going forward things are going to be different. We’ll be moving faster, we’ll be more ambitious in the things we do and we’ll have some amazing insights from the top podcast producers in the world to help guide our future steps.”

No financials have been shared, but the Pocket Casts team specifically states, “Sadly we chose to not sell our souls or you all out for crazy amounts of cash money, which means that you owe us [a yacht].”

// NPR | Shift Jelly