techcrunch.com
Pocket Casts, owned by Automattic, has introduced a playlist feature to personalize podcast listening and attract paid subscribers. Users can manually create playlists or use “Smart Playlists” with custom rules to automatically gather episodes based on criteria like episode length or download status. The feature allows for thematic collections, or listening to podcast guests featured in different shows.
Currently available on web and desktop, with Android rollout underway and iOS coming soon, the playlist addition follows Pocket Casts making its web player free, aiming to compete against larger, often paywalled, platforms like Spotify.
