There are still platform exclusive podcasts, like on Spotify, but they don’t seem too prevalent. Podcasters seem to make most of their dough either through advertising sections, or having supporter exclusive feeds.
Universe Today, a space news podcast and website, gets almost all their funding through patreon, and without many “exclusive” feeds. Mostly it’s personal Q&As and an ad free feed.
It’s a bit of a rare beast, but their goal is to completely end advertising, and go all listener funding, and they claim they’re close.
I mean, the only podcasts I’ve ever supported through patreon were small operations, most of them already didn’t have ads, and their paid feeds were mostly just them bullshitting on microphone.
The same goes for a lot of YouTube channels.
In fact, I opened a Patreon account just to show a little monthly support for an excellent, criminally underrated creator of videos on astronomy and its’ history, ParallaxNick.
Among other topics, the guy recently finished a four-part series on Galileo, a two-parter on Kepler before that, a single on Copernicus before that. By my calculations, I’m guessing a six-part masterpiece on Newton is right around the corner.
YouTube is an entirely different beast. Even if they personally don’t have ads, the platform itself runs ads and provides money to the creators based on those ads (or YouTube Premium subscription fees).
Podcasts don’t usually have a “platform” that supports them, many of them are self-hosted, and the podcast app is just an aggregator with no middleman inserting ads or passing the listener data on to anyone else.
Heck, the fact that RSS feeds in general still exist is amazing and a wonderful way to get an unfiltered source of news, information, and entertainment.
YouTube is an entirely different beast. Even if they personally don’t have ads, the platform itself runs ads and provides money to the creators based on those ads (or YouTube Premium subscription fees).
This could be fixed if everyone hopped onto Peertube, but that’s unfortunately not happening anytume soon
In fact, exclusive podcasts have been performing really badly recently. That’s why there have been a ton of layoffs in media - it turns out people won’t voluntarily trap themselves in walled gardens.
I don’t know if this counts, but I have the Waking Up podcast subscriber RSS feed, just googled for it. That said, Im pretty sure if you write an email to Harris stating you can’t afford it right now but would like to listen anyway, you will get it free anyway. At least the app is like that, but IIRC that has been his method for the podcast too.
There are still platform exclusive podcasts, like on Spotify, but they don’t seem too prevalent. Podcasters seem to make most of their dough either through advertising sections, or having supporter exclusive feeds.
I wonder if podcast piracy is a thing.
Universe Today, a space news podcast and website, gets almost all their funding through patreon, and without many “exclusive” feeds. Mostly it’s personal Q&As and an ad free feed.
It’s a bit of a rare beast, but their goal is to completely end advertising, and go all listener funding, and they claim they’re close.
They’re my favourite podcast. I support them heavily on Patreon. So much solid content.
I mean, the only podcasts I’ve ever supported through patreon were small operations, most of them already didn’t have ads, and their paid feeds were mostly just them bullshitting on microphone.
The same goes for a lot of YouTube channels.
In fact, I opened a Patreon account just to show a little monthly support for an excellent, criminally underrated creator of videos on astronomy and its’ history, ParallaxNick.
Among other topics, the guy recently finished a four-part series on Galileo, a two-parter on Kepler before that, a single on Copernicus before that. By my calculations, I’m guessing a six-part masterpiece on Newton is right around the corner.
YouTube is an entirely different beast. Even if they personally don’t have ads, the platform itself runs ads and provides money to the creators based on those ads (or YouTube Premium subscription fees).
Podcasts don’t usually have a “platform” that supports them, many of them are self-hosted, and the podcast app is just an aggregator with no middleman inserting ads or passing the listener data on to anyone else.
Heck, the fact that RSS feeds in general still exist is amazing and a wonderful way to get an unfiltered source of news, information, and entertainment.
I gotcha, I was just thinking how Patreon has been vital for nurturing a vast digital ecosystem of content creators who are in it as a labor of love.
EDIT: typo
This could be fixed if everyone hopped onto Peertube, but that’s unfortunately not happening anytume soon
The german podcast landscape is basically compleatly donation based, almost no advertisement.
QAnonAnonymous is also the same. I’ve been listening for 3-4 years now and never once heard an ad. They get their funding from patreon too
In fact, exclusive podcasts have been performing really badly recently. That’s why there have been a ton of layoffs in media - it turns out people won’t voluntarily trap themselves in walled gardens.
If Apple users could read, they would be mad!
I don’t know if this counts, but I have the Waking Up podcast subscriber RSS feed, just googled for it. That said, Im pretty sure if you write an email to Harris stating you can’t afford it right now but would like to listen anyway, you will get it free anyway. At least the app is like that, but IIRC that has been his method for the podcast too.