We first covered Said.fm way back in February last year, a small UK startup that let its users discover spoken-word podcasts that tell great stories.
Almost two years on and, well, the service has relaunched in a slightly different guise. The original Said.fm incarnation wound down in May last year, and in the intermittent period the two co-founders have been working on a brand new product, one still firmly implanted in the podcasting realm.
Whereas Said.fm was a website, The Super Times is an iOS app “for curious minds”, those looking for a selection of hand-picked podcasts to listen to each week.
How it works
Though the app itself is free and there is a free playlist to whet users’ appetites, an in-app subscription of $2.99 (or your local currency equivalent) will get you access to the full suite of podcasts for six months. It seems this is just a promotional price, however, and when more features are introduced, the pricing will reflect this.
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Moving on, what do you get for your hard-earned cash? Well, a weekly curated playlist of some of the best in current news, documentaries, culture, books, science and history podcasts. It’s all about the spoken word…no music.
When you opt to subscribe for content, it’s worth noting that there isn’t an auto-renewal option…you’ll have to manually action the renewal once your six months are up. The company also says that it may introduce multiple subscription plans in the future.
Furthermore, the app doesn’t stream content…it’s all download to your handset, so you can listen to it anywhere.
Each week’s playlists are slotted into six collections; Zeitgeist, Stories, Culture, Books, Brain Bending and Science, which can be synced for offline listening.
The company’s co-founders – Abdel Saleh and Aisha Yusaf – say they were inspired to build something better than what’s already out there, with “iTunes becoming a jumble of podcasts, podcatching apps not solving the problem of discoverability and broadcast radio being outdated.”
Indeed, the offline-listening functionality was built-in to the core for a reason – Saleh and Yuaf are both podcast junkies and London commuters, so they were careful to design something which worked everywhere.
We’re told that there are new developments in the works, including personalisation features to help listeners reel in their current feeds, as well as more social elements. An Android incarnation is in their sights too.
The Super Times is available to download for iOS now.
Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock
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