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After a week of testing the app, Luminary has launched. CEO Matt Sacks tells Ashley Carman at The Verge that when his company first announced, like a bull in a china shop, it was a mistake.
When Luminary splashed onto the scene it was with this announcement: “Podcasts don’t need ads.” Podcasters were quite furious. They would like to have some ads in their shows. They would like to make a little money, perhaps turn their hobby into a little business operation. Sacks tells Carman “It was a mistake. It was a miss, and we own that. The bunny put a foot in our mouth.”
Sacks says what he really meant to say was that podcast listeners should have a choice: pay for subscription-based shows without ads or listen to podcasts for free but deal with ads as a price. “We really do feel like what we’re introducing is choice and optionality and trying to help elevate premium and paid podcasting, which would be good for creators and listeners, as well.”
With its $100 million in VC funding, Luminary is hoping to compete in an already crowded podcast app space. Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHearRadio and many others are already there. Where Luminary hopes to be different is by offering exclusive content that consumers have to pay for, for $7.99 per month, in addition to free content available nearly everywhere else. Spotify and Stitcher do offer premium packages but neither made a huge splash with those offerings that came across as an insult to the industry. Time will tell if Luminary can convert consumers to their model after the content has been mostly free since podcasts were created.
And, Luminary is launching with somewhat of a handicap. The New York Times, Gimlet Media and Spotify have asked Luminary to keep their shows off the new app.