Shifty Jelly has never let me down either, but they got acquired by NPR. Neither has Q Branch, but they ran out of money and had to shut down. Business for indies isn't predictable. Is AgileBits going to be around in 10 years? I hope so, but I think it's far more likely that they'll be swallowed up by some other company, at best. After getting burned by this over and over again, I just think it's more sensible to stick to OSS options that will probably exist in some compilable state even in the distant future.
> Shifty Jelly has never let me down either, but they got acquired by NPR.
Of all the entities they could be acquired by, I think NPR is the least offensive of all. And they've stated the intent is not to change how PocketCasts works. The other partners are WNYC, WBEZ, and PRX (helmed by Ira Glass). These are all major publishers of podcasts who have a vested interest in keeping PocketCasts a good app, and growing it. I think this is a bad example.
> Neither has Q Branch, but they ran out of money and had to shut down.
They would still be around if they had subscription revenue. Guess who has subscription revenue?
> Is AgileBits going to be around in 10 years?
They started 12 years ago. If you asked 12 years ago if they would still be around in 10 years, the answer would be yes.
> After getting burned by this over and over again, I just think it's more sensible to stick to OSS options that will probably exist in some compilable state even in the distant future.
