POPULAR podcast platform Acast warned on Tuesday that it is closing down its app.
The Swedish company tweeted that users will “soon need a new way to listen to your favourite podcasts”.
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It means fans will need to jump to other apps, such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts, in order to follow their favourite shows.
Popular shows on Acast, which boasts millions of downloads worldwide, include “Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster”, “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” and “My Dad Wrote A Porno”.
Fortunately for fans of those podcasts, they’re available to listen to on numerous other services.
Users migrating to other apps can learn more about keeping their subscriptions by heading to Acast’s website.
Acast announced the decision in March, revealing that the axe would fall on its platform sometime “later in the year”.
“Acast’s board has today decided that the company will discontinue its podcast app in 2022,” the firm wrote on its website.
“The decision is based on the fact that the user data historically generated by the app has been replaced by better data sources and that the app does not support the company’s vision of a completely open podcast ecosystem.”
The company said that it will instead focus on its creator network and analytics services that help to power its advertising.
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Acast recently expanded its network to include the likes of Peter Crouch, taking his hugely popular “That Peter Crouch Podcast” off the hands of the BBC.
Based in Stockholm, Acast launched in 2014 as one of the earliest platforms where people could distribute and listen to podcasts.
It currently hosts more than 40,000 shows and boasts 350million monthly listens.
The vast majority of those listeners, however, tune in to Acast shows on other platforms. The Acast app itself has relatively few users.
Ross Adams, CEO of Acast, said in March: “The app has been with us from the start and has been a great help in the development of our previous services and functions aimed at creators and advertisers.
“Now is the time to focus even more on our future vision for Acast.
“We strongly believe in the independent and open podcasting ecosystem and to live up to our promise to be completely platform-independent, we will not have our own app.
“We want to focus on the products that create the greatest value for our creators and our advertisers.
“In terms of both useful data and revenue, we now have access to several other products that can give us and our partners so much more than the app can.”
The Sun has reached out to Acast for comment.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
