Podcasts are back and making money | Hacker News Reader

Podcasts are back and making money

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52 pointsadventured40 comments

I dunno, I don't think podcasts ever left.

All the podcasts I listen to still ask for donations to help keep the lights on, it became easier now that most of them have started using patreon.com. I would much rather donate than listen to adverts because I think podcasts are kinda personal, sometime I think of it like an old friendship. It's nice hearing from the podcaster every now and then, I like to hear about their lives intertwined into their podcast, sometimes over months, but an advert just breaks the illusion. If my podcasts start getting spammed with adverts I will definitely be unsubscribing.

I think most niche podcasts are still going to struggle to make a profit from their work.

The ones I hear do 3-4 ads for 2k-5k USD each, IIUC. Marco Arment even said that Squarespace alone practically financed many podcasts for the first years of this "podcast boom".

Interesting, Joe Rogan's podcast is the only one I happen to listen to that has adverts, and they seem like they always have a Squarespace sponsorship. In this case it's 5 mins of rogan talking about his sponsors and then 3 hours of content, so the ratio of advert to interviews is still not too bad.

I also feel like Rogan won't put up with bad sponsors or vouch for dodgy products because I'm familiar with his personality and some trust has been built up over the time I spent listening to his interviews. Perhaps that's the key.

But if you happen to interrupt the podcast with some techno-music advert and have someone talk about a sponsor or some completely unrelated product, that's not cool at all.

They seem to have replaced radio in a way since the audience is still being directly addressed by the podcaster. There's nothing as intimate on corporate FM radio. You have to hit NPR, Pacifica or college radio for that experience.

And even my favorite podcasts - Writing Excuses and Five Hundy by Midnight are created by people who have "day jobs" - they aren't depending on the podcasts to pay their bills.

So I'm with you that the appeal is there but it unless you're the J.K. Rowling of the podcasting world, I don't think it's a steady source of sufficient income. Just my humble opinion, of course.

It seems to me that there are a few key players really keeping podcasts afloat (Audible, Squarespace, etc.); I wonder what would happen if the industry would still look so healthy without them?

Presumably they're getting a ROI, though. They're obviously tracking the results, since the ads always tell listeners to go to a particular URL to get a discount.

If they're getting a ROI it means that this form of media is working as an advertising medium. That seems like a good judge of health to me.

I listen to more content in the car through podcasts than I do browsing the web while at a desk, its a passive activity that can be done while driving.

yea, I don't think I could concentrate on work while trying to listen to a podcast. I understand people putting talk radio or something similar on, for background noise, but I listen to podcasts specifically for the content, not for noise.

I listen to the One Shot! (comedy rpg) and Critical Success (improv comedy) podcasts while I program and stuff without too much trouble, while keeping up with what's going on. If I have to really stop and focus on something, I'll pause it and set my headphones down, but most of the time I can listen and work simultaneously.

I envy you your ability to do that. I can't even listen to new music, anything novel in my ears distracts me most of the time.

I typically only use white noise. My current favorite is SimplyRain.

In Germany many podcasts use Flattr.com (http://flattr.com/) as a form of microdonations. While this service can be used for basically anything that has a website, podcasts tend to make up a significant portion of the flattrs, it seems. Interestingly in the US sponsored podcasts seem to be dominant, while in Germany the ad-free and donation based form (or funded by public radio) is probably the majority.

Does anybody know the reason why microdonations never really gained traction in the US?

Flattr never really took off but I don't know why. Patreon is taking off. Practically every podcast I listen to uses it.

One reason why ad-based is the more common model is that in the USA we are more used to ad-supported media than pay-only commercial-free? I know I have heard some podcasters say that they have gotten comments from UK listeners that it sounds weird to the UK listeners to have the host read ads. In the USA this is a common thing on radio (they will have pre-recorded radio but then have the host actually read other commercials as well).

But that is all just me guessing.

Just curious, which German podcasts do you listen to? I'm struggling to keep my German skills up, and while I have a handful of German podcasts, most of them are geared towards people learning German, not people who just want to hear the language as it is spoken.

Here are some recommendations:

* "Küchenradio" one of the oldest German podcasts. The authors visit and interview people or interesting places, or just talk, mainly around Berlin. The podcast is uncut even in interview situatons. (http://www.kuechenstud.io/kuechenradio/)

* Basically all podcasts from Metaebene. Especially "Freakshow" (the team talks about technology and apple etc.), "CRE2 (very long (2-3h) interviews about technology, culture and society), and "Fokus Europa" (about Europe). The Author Tim Pritlove is probably Germany's most famous podcaster. (http://metaebene.me/podcasts/)

* "Sanft und Sorgfältig". The weekly radio show of comedian Jan Böhmermann and musician Olli Schulz, talking about the week and various other subjects. (http://www.radioeins.de/archiv/podcast/zwei_alte_hasen.html)

* "Das ARD Radiofeature". In depth documentation for public radio stations about various topics. Well produced. (http://www.ard.de/home/radio/das_ARD_radiofeature/272100/ind...)

Freakshow ist ganz toll, aber sehr lange. Vier stunden? Yikes!

Vielen Dank!

Speaking of podcasts that make money, the Los Angeles podcast festival is this weekend[1], starting today. You can go in person or stream it live. A bunch of profitable podcasts will be there.

Keith and The Girl podcast will be there too. I work with them and they are a profitable podcasts that have a premium subscription service. You can use our discount code "KATG" to save $5 on the stream. We make a few bucks for everyone that uses the code.

[1] http://lapodfest.com

I listen to This Week in Startups and Jason Calacanis always makes the ads really personal. I've gotten value from at least a couple products advertised on This Week in Startups and This Week in Venture Capital (e.g. Scott Walker, startup lawyer).

Many of the comedy podcasts I listen to aren't in love with the products like many of the tech podcast hosts, but they often deliver the ads in a funny way. I think it's very unobtrusive most of the time (and seemingly effective).

Uncle Jason's policy is essentially not to advertise products that he doesn't believe in or use himself, so I'm not surprised they have a personal touch!

IIRC there was an incident where an e-cig company was trying to sponsor TWiST, but JCal politely declined.

Entrepreneur on Fire has been very vocal about their income reports. Making over 200k a month.

Its a pretty good podcast as well.

Jimmy Pardo's 'Never Not Funny' has a model that works for them. They offer a free podcast through Earwolf and subscribers can pay for a second podcast and video of all podcasts. They've been with Earwolf for less than a year but they've been around and profitable for over a decade.

I tried collecting all the tech podcasts I know about here: https://podcasts.techendo.com/

Does anyone have a more extensive list I can pull in, or know of any more that aren't already on the list I've built?

4 of my favorites:

- .Net rocks (plenty of non .net stuff)

- Hanselminutes

- This developer's life

- Software Engineering radio

Seems almost insulting to not mention the scores of podcasts and podcast networks that have been making money for years. This makes it sound like you can only make money if you started in Old Media and made the transition.

Leo Laporte laughs all the way to the bank.

No, he complains and plays the victim all the way to the bank.

On the matter of podcasts:

Is there any website/service a la SoundCloud that downloads/subscribes to my favourite podcasts so I can listen to them through the browser?

Pocket Casts just today started a beta version of this service [1]. The paired Android/iPhone app can sync latest episodes as well.

[1] http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/26/pocket-casts-web-now...

Overcast by Marco of Instapaper fame has a great feature where it syncs your podcasts from the iPhone App to his web app at overcast.fm, so you can go back and forth between the two. It has been really useful in my experience

I listen to Adam Carolla every day at work, I wish I had more money or I'd support the Aceman.

The whole 'relationship with the listener' thing is nonsense. I don't have relationships with the podcasts I listen to. I don't have relationships with movie actors when I watch a film either. Like come on.

I want to be informed and entertained. If I'm not, I move on to another podcast.

I guess that depends on the podcast. I feel like I have a relationship with the guys from Back to Work [1], they talk about a lot of personal stuff and I feel like I know them a little. I appreciate that a lot, it makes me trust them (and thus, I trust the products they advertise).

Using the word "relationship" is a bit manipulative IMO. If it is a relationship, it's a conditional one-sided one.

I don't think it's manipulative, it does feel like a relationship, even if it is one-sided. The feeling is different from watching a TV show, it feels more personal, more real.

It's one of those "it's almost technically correct" things to say. It's not necessarily a lie, but it is a parasocial relationship[1] rather than a normal one

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction

I guess it depends on what relationship is supposed to mean. Clearly you aren't in a sexual relationship with a podcast. In an abstract sense, it's obviously true that any listener is going to have a listener-relationship with a podcast. But beyond the most abstract of senses I suppose it entails things like loyalty to a certain show.

But I don't think it's nonsense. Podcasting is -- not per se, but currently and for the most part -- a serial, subscription medium. The loyalty is currently built in, because like a newspaper or magazine, you subscribe to it and get it delivered -- often directly to your ears, without further interaction. Loyalties are much more fleeting for other kinds of online content delivery. (Some YouTube and streaming channels are an exception and the same is true for them. They're a very similar medium.)

Beyond mere loyalty, many podcasts I listen to feature recurring speakers, and are very focused on pure voice content, with no music, no audio clips, etc. You basically listen to the same people talk for hours. I also subscribe to a couple of radio news programs that don't do this to the same degree. At this point I'm very used to Marc Maron's entire way of speaking (on his podcast, obviously I can't know how he talks in real life). I hear more from him than I hear from my relatives who live at the other end of the country. This brings about a sort of faux-intimacy, for lack of a better word.

And now I ought to call my mom. :)

I don't have relationships with movie actors when I watch a film either.

I do. One of them is actually my mother!

Not every film is an Hollywood blockbuster with millions of fans that prevent any kind of two-sided interaction; some of them are small indie productions where you can actually meet and talk to the cast members.

Likewise, not every podcast is This American Life - many of them just have a few dozen listeners and there's plenty of opportunity for interaction and even friendships.

It's an artful exaggeration, but if you've ever listened to guys talk about their daily Howard Stern/Colin Cowherd/Joe Rogan habit, it sure sounds like they're talking about a buddy. You might see a famous movie actor in 60 minutes of screentime a year, none of which he's actually revealing himself. Even if you listen to half of the WTF podcasts, you're listening to at least 50 hours of Marc Maron, during which there is an expectation that he'll be authentic and actually offer his subjective view of things (there's an art to this too, of course) - listen to someone that much and I do think that part of the subconscious brain starts thinking of them as an actual acquaintance.

The concept of "relationship with the listener" is older than podcasts, and stem from the radio days. It's absolutely a real thing. Early media studies found people liked the companionship of a radio announcer, and would sometimes have it on just to listen and feel like someone is there with them. This is exaggerated even more on podcasts where you get to control when and where you listen, making it even more personal, and in some cases, shows record live and you can dialog with the podcasters during. If getting an on-air reply to something isn't a relationship, I don't know what is.

You're probably thinking of relationship in the term of something like a parent or significant other. Of course you don't have that. The podcasters I listen to wouldn't know who I am from Adam, despite a few Twitter replies from them. But again, that's not what the term means, and it's a much older industry term.

I think it depends on what you mean by relationship. I've been listening to the same morning radio show for 20 years or so and I feel like I care about the hosts even though they don't know I exist.

On the other hand, many of the podcasts I listen to I am able to be in their chatroom when they record and can have an actual back and forth. I think they recognize my name so that is a real relationship even if it is a tenuous one.

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