Accidental Tech PodcastAccidental Tech Podcast

Three nerds discussing tech, Apple, programming, and loosely related matters. Hosted by Marco Arment, Casey Liss, and John Siracusa.

ATP Membership FAQ

What is ATP membership?

The ATP membership program is a way for listeners to support the show directly by purchasing a monthly or annual subscription.

What are the benefits of ATP membership?

Become a member and you’ll get:

And you can cancel right here, anytime, with two clicks.

*We did not ask him before promising this. It may just so happen to be white, completely out of his control, which seems to happen to him — and somehow, nobody else — a lot.

How do I become an ATP Member?

Follow this link to sign up for ATP membership.

Should I choose annual or monthly membership?

Annual membership is the least expensive option, providing a discount that is equivalent to one free month of membership each year. Monthly membership does not include that discount, but it does provide the flexibility of paying for only a single month at a time, rather than paying for an entire year at once.

Regardless of which you choose, you can switch from annual to monthly or from monthly to annual if you change your mind later.

Why does ATP membership exist? Isn’t ATP funded by paid advertisements?

Though the publicly available version of the show does contain ads, the majority of ATP’s financial support comes from paying members. This is a change from the first seven years of the show (2013–2020), when ATP was exclusively supported by ads, and the first two years of the membership program (2020–2022), when ad revenue was still the vast majority of the show’s income.

Today, though members remain a small fraction of the show’s total listeners, their direct support is what keeps the show going. For this, we are incredibly grateful. Thank you, members!

What RSS feeds are available to ATP Members?

ATP membership includes access to the following RSS feeds, each of which is linked on your member page.

  • Normal - This is the edited version of the show without any ads and with the added ATP Overtime segment. The member specials are also included in this feed.

  • Bootleg - This is an unedited copy of the live stream broadcast during our weekly recording session. It’s released nearly a day earlier than the normal, edited episode. It does not contain any ads, but it does contain the ATP Overtime segment. It may also contain swears, bloopers, digressions, and other things that are edited out of the normal show.

    Due to its nature as a real-time capture of the heavily-compressed live stream, the audio quality of the bootleg is not as good as that of the edited episode (which is created using our local, high-fidelity recordings).

    The member specials are also included in this feed.

  • Specials - This feed contains all the member specials. Note that the member specials are already included in both the normal and bootleg feeds. This separate feed containing only the specials exists for new members who want an easier way to catch up on the past specials that they missed.

What is ATP Overtime?

ATP Overtime is a members-only segment included at the end of each weekly episode. It’s usually less than 30 minutes long. In ATP Overtime, we talk about the most important topics that didn’t quite fit into the main show. Think of it as “a bit more ATP,” exclusively for members.

What are Member Specials?

Member specials are bonus episodes exclusively for members. Specials are included in both the normal and Bootleg member feeds, as well as in a dedicated specials feed. See the Member Specials page for the full list of episodes.

Member specials come in a few varieties, each denoted by a title prefix:

Where can I see information about my ATP membership?

Log in, then go to your your member page to see information about your ATP membership. In the Subscription section, if the status is Active, then you have an active ATP membership. If the status is Inactive, then you are not currently an ATP Member.

How do I cancel my ATP membership?

Log in, then go to your your member page and follow the link to manage your subscription, then click the “Cancel plan” button.

What happens to my member benefits after I cancel my membership?

After canceling your membership, you will have access to all your member benefits until the end of your canceled membership’s billing period.

My ATP membership has expired. Why can I still log in to the atp.fm website?

Whether or not you have an active ATP membership, your account at atp.fm remains unless you explicitly delete it. If you have not explicitly deleted your account, then if you ever want to resubscribe, you can do so by logging in to your existing account.

How do I delete my atp.fm website account?

Log in, then go to your your member page and scroll down to the “Delete Account” section.

Note: You don’t have to delete your account if you just want to cancel your ATP membership.

My ATP membership has expired. How do I resubscribe?

Log in, then go to your your member page and select your desired subscription type under the “Subscribe to Become an ATP Member” heading, then click the “Subscribe” button.

I just resubscribed. Why does my members-only RSS feed still say that my membership is expired?

Each ATP Member has their own set of members-only RSS feeds. If an ATP membership expires, those RSS feeds remain functional, but their contents switch to match those of the equivalent public RSS feeds. When an ATP membership is reactivated, those RSS feeds switch back to the expected members-only content.

This switch happens immediately, but some podcast players (e.g., Overcast) may not show this change immediately due to server-side caching on the part of the podcast player’s back-end feed-crawling service.

If you’ve resubscribed but your members-only RSS feeds are still showing the wrong content after a day or two, please contact us.

I just got an email telling me that my membership renewal payment was unsuccessful. How do I fix this?

ATP membership renewal payments happen at the start of each new membership period (monthly or annual, depending on which subscription you chose). If this payment fails (e.g., because your credit card expired, or some other reason), you will receive an email informing you of the failure. After such a payment failure, we do not automatically retry the purchase, even if you update your payment method.

To resume your membership, log in and then go to your member page and start a new subscription. Your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change during this process.

How do I switch my ATP membership from annual to monthly?

Log in, then go to your your member page and follow the link to manage your subscription. Then click the “Update plan” button, select “Monthly”, click “Continue”, and then complete the checkout. Your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change during this process.

How do I switch my ATP membership from monthly to annual?

First, cancel your existing membership. Then, on your member page, follow the link to start a new subscription. The new subscription will begin at the end of the canceled membership’s billing period. Your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change during this process.

Note: When starting a new subscription that will begin when the current subscription expires, the checkout screen will show it as a “free trial” that lasts until the end of the current billing period. During checkout, look for the small text below the free trial duration which will show the amount the subscription will actually cost when it begins at the end of the canceled membership’s billing period.

And, yes, it’s weird that this process is different than the one for switching from annual to monthly. We haven’t yet found a way to change that.

Will my members-only RSS feed URLs change when I change my ATP membership from monthly to annual or vice versa?

No, your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change when you change ATP membership from monthly to annual or from annual to monthly. In fact, your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change even if you cancel your subscription and then re-subscribe at a later date. (When your subscription is not active, the feeds will contain only public content.)

Can I give ATP membership as a gift?

Yes! Follow this link to give the gift of ATP membership.

How does the recipient actually receive the gift membership I’ve purchased?

You will need to give the recipient the gift link or redemption code. Gift codes do not expire, so feel free to send the redemption information to the recipient at any time in the future.

Redemption instructions are displayed after completing a gift purchase. To review the redemption instructions, go to the Gift Memberships Purchased section of your member page and then click “Show More…” link. Note that redemption information is only available if the gift has not yet been redeemed.

What happens if a gift membership is redeemed by someone who already has an active membership subscription?

Redeeming a gift membership will always add the gifted duration to any existing subscription. Gift memberships can be redeemed at any time and will always preserve all previously purchased (or gifted) subscription time.

What happens if multiple gift memberships are redeemed by a single person?

Redeeming a gift membership will always add the gifted duration to any existing subscription. Gift memberships can be redeemed at any time and will always preserve all previously purchased (or gifted) subscription time. This is true even if one or more gift memberships have already been redeemed, and even if one of those gift memberships is still active.

Why do I have to enter a recipient email address when purchasing a gift membership?

A gift membership can only be redeemed by its intended recipient, identified by an email address. The recipient will need to log in to this website using that email address.

How can I change the recipient email address associated with a gift membership?

Go to the Gift Memberships Purchased section of your member page and then click the “Show More…” link next to the gift you want to change. Update the email address and click the “Change” button. (The email address cannot be changed once the gift is redeemed.)

Note that changing the recipient email address does not cause any email to be sent. As mentioned earlier, you will need to give the recipient the gift link or redemption code yourself.

Why is my payment failing?

There’s a long list of reasons that a payment attempt may fail. Our payment processor, Stripe, helpfully provides a list of possible decline codes.

Starting in late September 2023, we have seen a huge spike in the “try again later” decline code, all of which have been sent in response to Apple Pay Mastercard payment attempts. Regarding these failures, Stripe has told us that “a cluster of declines were linked to a particular issuer—Goldman Sachs Bank USA.”

Goldman Sachs is the bank that issues the Apple Card, which uses the Mastercard payment network. Due to the way Apple Pay works with Stripe, we’re not able to determine if all these “try again later” Apple Pay failures are from Apple Card Mastercards, but that is our current suspicion.

Stripe says there’s nothing they can do about these failures because it’s the bank that is declining. For completeness, here’s Stripe’s explanation of the “try again later” decline code:

The card was declined for an unknown reason.

Ask the customer to attempt the payment again. If subsequent payments are declined, the customer needs to contact their card issuer for more information.

If you are experiencing a payment failure when using Apple Pay, our current advice is to try a different payment method: either use a different card through Apple Pay, or use a card directly rather than through Apple Pay. Some customers have also reported success by literally just trying again later (e.g., after waiting 24 hours).

We are continuing to investigate this issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and we thank you for your patience. If you do end up contacting your card issuer, please let us know what they tell you about the failure.

If you are experiencing any other kind of payment failure, trying another payment method is also a good bet (assuming you’ve checked the obvious stuff like the expiration date on the card, etc.)

Why am I getting an error when trying to add my members-only feed to Pocket Casts?

As of November 2023, adding a members-only feed to Pocket Casts will sometimes result in an error message or a never-ending spinner animation. Pocket Casts support tells us that the operation is actually succeeding on their back end despite showing a failure in the app. They further say that waiting several minutes and then trying to add the same feed again should work.

Pocket Casts support says they are investigating the issue. This FAQ item will be updated once we know more.

I’m already an ATP Member. Is there a way I can pay more for ATP membership?

Yes, there is! First, cancel your existing membership. Then, on your member page, follow the link to start a new subscription. When selecting your subscription, click the “I want to pay more!” link below the monthly and annual options, then enter the amount you want to pay. The new subscription will begin at the end of the canceled membership’s billing period. Your members-only RSS feed URLs will not change during this process.

Note: When starting a new subscription that will begin when the current subscription expires, the checkout screen will show it as a “free trial” that lasts until the end of the current billing period. During checkout, look for the small text below the free trial duration which will show the amount the subscription will actually cost when it begins at the end of the canceled membership’s billing period.

Can I pay more for ATP membership when I first sign up?

You sure can. When you sign up for ATP membership, click the “I want to pay more!” link below the monthly and annual options, then enter the amount you want to pay.

Why would someone choose to pay more for ATP membership?

We have tried to make the price of ATP membership accessible to most people while still providing enough income to support the show. We recognize that the price may still be too high for some listeners. But for others, the value they get from the show combined with their available financial resources gives them a different perspective. These listeners have explicitly, repeatedly asked us to provide a way for them to voluntarily pay more for their membership, and so we have. Though these “ATP Patrons” are few in number, their extra support has helped tremendously, including partially funding the recently introduced annual discount that’s available to all ATP members. Thank you, ATP Patrons!

How can I get more help?

Email membership@atp.fm for more help with ATP membership.