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Those are the words of Mike Raab in his latest Medium blog. Raab says the future of podcasting is subscription based and the history of media proves his point.
One example Raab uses to back up his theory is radio. “Radio had been primarily free and ad-supported since its inception in the early 20th century, until Satellite radio (a whole new and expensive distribution system) launched in 2001. Subscription satellite radio still had a slow start without any standout content, until it secured the exclusive distribution rights for The Howard Stern Show in 2006, putting the previously free program behind its subscription paywall, and landing over 180,000 subscribers overnight. Today, Sirius XM has about 33 million subscribers.”
He believes as podcasting continues to grow a portion of that audience will indeed pay for content without ads. And he doesn’t but the argument made by some in the podcasting industry that just because you can charge for content you should. “The ignorance in this protest is that the pressure to create content that people are willing to pay for often drives up the quality of said content and the resources that producers can devote to it. The expense and investment in subscription based HBO’s Game of Thrones dwarfs the budget of any show on (primarily) ad-supported CBS. HBO viewers are willing to pay a monthly fee for access to this premium content, which in turn allows the network and talent to invest more heavily in quality content.”
Raab concludes that Luminary will benefit both creators and listeners. “Creators will have the opportunity to experiment and invest in high-quality content they want to create and be more fairly compensated for their talent, while consumers will benefit from a better podcasting experience, with ad-free, high-quality content. This is a story that has been told before — and the podcast community should be excited.”
Read Raab’s entire blog HERE.