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Ask HN: What will it take for you pay for podcasts?

3 points by neilsharma ↗ HN
Like with musicians, most podcast publishers don't make a lot of money. Unlike most labels however, podcast publishers willingly make their episodes free because audiences are small and there are few established ways of making money that work.

What will it take for you to pay money to listen to podcasts?

8 comments

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Navarr
HelloInternet seems to be doing pretty well.. https://www.patreon.com/hellointernet?ty=c

Welcome to Night Vale has also done very well - not sure what their business model is. Now a days it's merch and live performances.

neilsharma
Yeah, Patreon has been fantastic for a lot of publishers with loyal fans. Aside from the people who donate $1, where a lot of that gets lost in transaction fees, most of the money goes right to the publishers.

There are two reasons I dislike donating:

1) publishers need to "beg" for money in every episode.

2) listeners are forced to have a charitable mindset and consciously/subconsciously assess if the publisher needs money (ie: no ads --> publisher can't feed kids --> donate)

Navarr
Maybe.. Maybe I'm just Charitable - then?

Once I like something enough I start doing Patreon. First at $1, and then more as I can afford it / as I love the work.

For a lot of works, in or out of this field I think Merch is the big seller. You need a body of work that people enjoy so much they're willing to wear it, own things about it, etc.

So for podcasts it'd be offering Physical media with special features. A "Freemium" experience where for free you get the podcast you want, and you give money or buy things that have additional things.

This can work pretty well so long as you have a reason for people to keep coming back and spending money.

I theorize it doesn't work terribly well for Minecraft networks, for example, because most of them have a VIP "donation tier" where once you've spent it you have it forever. And then you exist for 5 years and it's like "that $100 is so long gone.."

neilsharma
Know of any podcasts that actually make a sizable income from merchandising? Or if they have multiple revenue streams, if merchandising constitutes a sizable percentage compared to donations, events, subscriptions, and ads?

Not too many podcasts release revenue information publicly, so its hard to find.

kup0
I don't think I like most podcasts enough to pay for them, save a couple of exceptions. Podcast playlists/etc have become the new "TV playing in the background" for me. I just typically always prefer to have something playing or going on in the house, and podcasts have filled that void now.

I give on Patreon for The Morning Stream, mostly for the perks, though.

I also occasionally subscribe to Twitch channels I enjoy (Geek and Sundry). But it's not consistent. Again, mostly for benefits (sub-only chat, emoticons, and watching previously recorded videos directly on twitch)

neilsharma
What about The Morning Stream's perks made you want to pay?
kup0
Access to their slack community, mostly, and opportunities for other gifts/swag at higher levels.
dragonbonheur
It's not about people paying to listen to podcasts. Podcasts have to become the new radio. The definition of podcast is an RSS feed with a link pointing to an audio file. Additional metadata has to be inserted into that standard with a link to an advertising agent (meaning an entity that will allocate payment per stream) and a link to the appropriate payment processing agent. And of course software must be updated to process that information.

In short you need advertising-supported podcasts that will pay per listen.