Pocket FM - Audio Drama Platform Reviews 

I only listened to one series "Crowned in Shadow" spent several dollars for the series only to wake up one morning to find out the writer cancelled the series. I have lost a lot of money on this app to only discover that I will never know the ending considering I was half way finished with the series. Please don't waste your money or time with this app like I did. If I could give it a half a star I would.

I'm done with this app. If you're a serious, New York Times best selling book kinda reader, I'd stay away from this. This site is, well, bottom of the totem pole. Purely, free entertainment to pass time doing yard work
When I searched for free apps so that I could listen to books, Pocket Fm popped up. Thinking I would be able to find my favorite authors, excellent rated books and possibly a few best sellers ( yeah, pushing it ) this app sounded good. I don't remember how they worded the intro to snatch me in, but WTH, right? Well, hell it is!
You can find most anything on here, except what you would find on the big, honest, pay full price sites. Theres fantasy for every thing and then some on this app.
Ok, I'm going to cut to the chase, sorta, because I have wasted way too much time in this app.
The 1st story I listened to, I found interesting enough to want to see it through to the end.
I found the stories ok when you begin listening, but it's as if they are stuck on a loop once the brakes are APPLIED. listen, repeat half, listen, repeat half. They drag it ONNNNNN AND ONNNNNN ( like my lengthy reviews ). If you missed why someone did whatever to whom ....it just dawned on me, the stories are like soap operas, tune in next year for a scene change. the narration compares to nails on a chalk board at times.
You're allowed to listen all day long to any story. Long enough to get invested in the outcome, then they SLAM the brakes on. You have a few options.
1- pay for coins to keep listening and it starts at $1.99 for ONE episode which is appx 7-10 min. NOT WORTH IT.
2- You can watch Ads. 13 ads get you 20 coins and each episode requires 9 of those coins. WASTE OF TIME.
3- play games. This options was my choice..... Until I figured out that of the 1000+ coins I won for 10-15 play time was TAKEN AWAY! NOT stored for future use, but GONE! You can only have so many earned coins a day I discovered later ( that is somewhere in the fine print ). I was left with 32 coins out of my 1000 or so. IT GETS BETTER. Good luck saving and using them to open what YOU want to listen to. Remember, 9 coins an episode and now Pocket FM has decided how to spend them for you. ANOTHER TIME WASTER.
When the brakes are SLAMMED, they allow you 30 min of free episodes a day..... Until they don't.
I accepted this limitation and worked around listening to other stories I liked which eventually had the same time restraints.
But, tonight was the final straw. Instead of 30 mins, I got ONE 8 min episode.
I am NOT going to keep doing this. IT IS N. O. T. WORTH any more time!
Idk who came up with this format, but they need serious therapy. You probably just said, "so do you because you tolerated it for a few months" and you would be right. I realized I needed self-help to keep tolerating the way this app is handled. Better narrators and editing will solve the rest. FB and reviews have people like me all day long rinse and repeat.
So long Pocket FM. I no longer care how my chosen stories end.

Why in God's name would you take the visuals away after episode 321??? Makes no sense. Very disappointing. Don't even want to finish it, might as well cancel your app

This is just a big scam, I have played their games fulfilled all required milstones but the do not give you the rewards. It works for the lower tiers but when you get upp to the higher rewards they just rejects your rewards.

They also answer politly on some of the reviews but the result is the same with rejecting the claims...

Conclusion its overpriced, and otherwise also a Scam where you are forced into coin hunting and then your rewards are rejected.

My firm suggestion stay away and use apps as Spotify or Storytel ect. where you can listen with monthly subscription which do not cost a fortune!

I was lead to this streaming service from Facebook.

Initially, I recieved a bunch of free sessions (was listening to The Alpha's Bride).

I was enjoying it and watching a mix of free and paid (coins). I will add that it's not the best book but with the AI images and voice overs, it makes the experience like a mix of movie and book which is an interesting way to experience a novel.

What I realized, as I started getting further along in the novel:

- the coin use became less effective (aka episodes were getting shorter and/or were inconsistent between 7 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes)
- daily free episodes were becoming fewer and fewer (6, then 4, then 2)
- game play to get coins wasn't working as-expected
- the visual experience was getting worse and the AI piece wasn't well edited (characters were changing, extra hands were present, etc.)

Then I noticed that the way to make extra coins was becoming less available and the last straw was when the coins required jumped up from 9 to 12, effectively costing a third more than when I started, and I was only half way through.

At the midway point in my book, I started investigating whether other people were having the same experience and came across a lot of reviews:
- comments like authors not being provided proper contracts/being compensated fairly
- voice over people not being compensated appropriately
- people unable to contact customer service for in ap issues where they weren't getting the coins they paid for,
- and more

I realized that this business model was focussed solely around bringing in as much money as they can. And thinking they had their customers at the halfway point, they jacked the prices and reduced the availability of content.

It is unfortunate, as the book was very much an escape but I have decided that I am not going to pay hundreds of dollars for a service that should more like $20 per month.

Sadly, I can see a lot of people getting sucked in emotionally and that means that they will be paying $200 - $300 just to read one book.

Effective today, I deleted the service and looked elsewhere to read the book but it looks like it will cost hundreds which makes no sense when it comes to a book, so I am unfortunately going to take a pass on completing it.

Given their business model and a clear lack of customer service coupled with shady ethics, I highly recommend steering clear of this company and others who don't offer affordable monthly subscriptions.

5 season series too expensive to finish. One hundred dollars for 1/3 of Season 1. Ripoff!!

Constantly spamming YouTube with obnoxious Ai generated adverts, multiple times a day! Blocked & reported multiple times! Avoid!

The stories can be great and keeps you hooked, but the app is terrible. Unlocking episodes is far too expensive—the full audiobook would cost over £300. The constant interruptions, excessive ads, and daily limits on watching ads make it impossible to enjoy the story. I'm only using the app to finish my current book, and then I'll never use it again.

I been watching the the masked bride for a very long time and I'm wishing it would end the last 2 night you took episodes away from me when i started to watched episodes it went to this will be the last episode tonight when I never even got to watched any episodes you need to give me some free episodes or I'm done i getting sick of the story when is it going to be done?

The old Bait and Switch! 180 episodes into the story, and then the captions and slides vanished without warning! Soooo disappointed! Contacted PocketFM, and was told the captions and pics go away after the initial episodes! 180 episodes aren’t the initial episodes! They are a large chunk of the story! I'm sure glad I didn't waste any more than $19.99, but even that is expensive these days. I explained that I am visually impaired after having cataract surgery and healed with double vision. Don't think they care one iota about me or the post-surgical complcations! It would have been nice to listen and watch the story unfold until the end! I was using it as a form of visual therapy! Oh well, C'est la vie! I'm one unhappy customer!

At this point, Pocket FM is no longer worth it. It feels like the platform cares more about making money from listeners than providing good value. Many stories are dragged out with endless chapters, making you spend far more coins than they seem worth.

To make matters worse, just this year alone, the price of coins has increased more than once. At the same time, the number of coins you receive for the same amount of money has been reduced. In my experience, what used to buy a certain number of coins just a few months ago now gets you significantly fewer, making the effective cost of the same amount of coins feel nearly three times higher than before.

If you’re looking for value for your money, Pocket FM probably isn’t the right choice. You’ll likely end up paying much more than expected just to finish a single story, and that’s frustrating. Loyal listeners deserve better value, not repeated price increases and fewer coins for the more money.

Paid for the monthly subscription where you are supposed to get an hr worth of chapters per web novel daily , yet the main novel I have been listening to hasn’t unlocked any new chapters in days . Yet it’s showing all the episodes I have already listened to as new. What’s the point in paying for something that is honest. I do not recommend this app especially if you are going to pay for the subscription service. The app will not allow me to change the email associated the paid subscription account when I noticed my email was one letter off. I also can’t find anywhere to contact customer support .

Do not fall into the trap that is pocket fm I am only there for one story and one story period everything else is terrible prices are high like robbery high.. and you can also play games to get coins that also sucks I stopped doing that because I was getting the coins after 3 different games I wasn't going to be stupid and fall for that again I wish I never got stuck in the story don't do it

I am beyond disappointed and honestly feel cheated. I have spent over $200 USD on The Alpha’s Bride because I loved the immersive experience of the story, especially the AI video and visual features. Now, without warning, those features have disappeared, leaving me with audio only.

I am currently on chapter 321. That’s hundreds of chapters of time, attention, and financial investment. I didn’t just pay for a story—I paid for the complete experience that was advertised and delivered when I started. Having a major part of that experience suddenly taken away halfway through feels incredibly unfair.

What makes this even more frustrating is the amount of money I’ve spent supporting this platform. Loyal readers who have invested this much deserve better communication, better customer service, and a solution when features disappear. Instead, I’m left feeling like my time, money, and commitment as a customer don’t matter.

I have been deeply invested in this story, and it’s heartbreaking to see the experience ruined after coming this far. If I had known the visuals would disappear, I would have seriously reconsidered spending so much money. This is not what I paid for, and I sincerely hope this issue is addressed because right now I feel let down, frustrated, and extremely disappointed.

I love this story but I'm very depressed, they took away all the video at around 100 then switched me to photos and sound now at 321 I just have sound. I at least need the pics also. I have Lupus and am bed ridden I had to stop taking pain killer's. This was the only thing distracting me from the pain. I've gotten attached to these characters. please let me finish watching the story please 🙏 help I have very little to look forward two. I was watching at least 12 hous a day please help

I am extremely disappointed with how Pocket FM treats its creators. They lure writers in by promising a contract after reaching 15,000 words, then they change the rules on the go and move the goalpost to 50,000 words.I put my heart into writing 130,000 words in just 5 days, pushing my series into the top ranks due to reader interest. Instead of the promised contract, I received a cold, automated bot email claiming my book was "low performing" because of some arbitrary internal metrics.This platform does not care about your talent or hard work. They use automated psychological pressure to force authors to write endless amounts of text for free. I chose to delete my books (Light From Afar and Strange Lovers) rather than let this company exploit my energy for nothing. Writers, protect your intellectual property and avoid Pocket FM!— Cia

I am a fan of the stories of pocket fm.
but here lately with the new 9 coins per episode has been wrong! That is $1dollor per episode now if each episode was the same amount of time per episode that would be fine, but they are not i have seen episodes that have been between 15 min and below but the other day have been seeing episodes that are 3 mins at the same price of 9 coins. but i have also paid for episodes that was 5 seconds now how is that fair???????
on top of that you raised the price per episode and lowed how the number of coins we receive when we pay for coins.
So, we get les coins that we pay for. It costs more per episodes and you still only give 2 coins per day for consecutive days that you listen. When before it was 1 coin per episode and it became more coins with the more that we listen to we could get 2 episodes with the daily coins now it takes 5 days just to save enough coins just to hear one episode.
i have been with pocket FM for years i have paid for a lot of episodes over the years but now i am tired of the overpriced episodes 5 seconds for 9 coins that is just wrong.
For the last 7 months I have been waiting for any new episodes
of the series of Ghostbusting Scam to be released with nothing i would like my money back on that one.
it is a sham that the "contact us" part of your website has no way to get a hold of anyone at all, so I am having to try this way.
I will be posting this on every site that I can till I get to talk to someone!!!!!!! See less

I am writing to express my disappointment with Pocket FM's pricing and subscription model. While I understand that writers, voice actors, and creators need to be compensated for their work, the cost of listening to stories on the platform has become too expensive.

Many episodes require a large number of coins, and the cost adds up quickly. In addition, users are still required to watch or listen to advertisements even after spending money on coins or subscriptions. This creates the impression that customers are paying multiple times for the same content.

I also believe that customers should have the option to make a one-time purchase for a story or series instead of being pressured into a subscription. Not everyone wants a recurring monthly charge, especially if they only listen occasionally.

Another concern is that some users have reported not receiving coins after making purchases, which can be frustrating and discouraging. When customers spend their money, they expect the service to work properly and for issues to be resolved promptly.

Pocket FM should consider lowering costs, reducing advertisements for paying customers, offering more one-time purchase options, and improving customer support for coin-related issues. These changes would make the platform more affordable and user friendly.

It's Good. Have nice experience

I’m really disappointed with this app. This is my first experience and half way through the book the video was disabled and this happened to many other users. If the video does not return I will not use this app going forward please return my video. That’s so rude to disable video in the middle of the book right when it begins to get good.