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!

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.

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.)

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.