Half the podcasts in my queue have suddenly become paid subscriptions. Meanwhile the overall industry is losing listeners. Seems like a lousy business model to not offer a free with ads feed. What a bizarre trend.

https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2023/2/9/23592684/decline-of-podcasts#:~:text=Monthly listenership to podcasts seems,podcasts has fallen as well.

https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2022/03/28/monthly-podcast-listening-is-down-for-the-first-time-in-almost-a-decade-according-to-study

  • bearded_zero@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What if we had an easy way for listeners to “throw bits”, “gift subs”, or “send super chats” to the shows they are listing to?

    This is what podcasting 2.0 tries to do. It’s one of the few good uses for Bitcoin that I have found.

    You can stream small pieces of bitcoin to the show per min (67 SATS/min ~ $0.0180 USD = over 60 mins is 4020 SATS ~ $1.07 USD) or send a boost that attaches a message to an amount of you choosing allowing to you give feedback almost like sending chat messages to a streamer on Twitch/Youtube.

    The podcaster can see a timestamp and what episode you were listening to at the time so they know the context. There’s a lot more to Podcasting 2.0 than that but here’s links for more info.

    Here is JupiterBroadcasting take on this: https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/boost/

    9to5Mac did an article on it: https://9to5mac.com/2022/06/26/podcasting-2-0/

    Here is info from the driving force behind Podcast 2.0:

    http://adam.curry.com/html/WhatIsPodcasting20-28mcN0CfHFRjZRpkjpSf56jDCkMjTb.html

    Lastly here is a link to get podcast apps that support the podcasting 2.0 standard: https://podcastindex.org/podcast/value4value

    • reddig33@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      A lot of podcasts have Patreon accounts, which I’m totally fine with. I think it’s a good model. But I’m not subscribing to yet another service to access a single podcast that I’m only sort of interested in.

      • bearded_zero@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s the problem I have. I can just yeet a few SATS while I’m listing not be forced to subscribe to something. It’s all about allowing the people to make the things they love and share it with the people that love it.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You don’t need bitcoins to do that streaming thing. It’s been done before with actual money. For example, pay-by-the-minute phone plans.

      • magic_lobster_party@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        As soon someone mentions cryptocurrency, I know their suggestion of solution can be disregarded. The problem is rarely the medium of payment.

        • bearded_zero@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah the damn crypto bros destroyed any credibility that Bitcoin has, but I did say this is one the few good uses for Bitcoin I use.
          I’m not saying this is for everyone, but it can be helpful to help sustain podcasting on its fans. Honestly look at how much Twitch takes from streams for bits, subs, and transaction fees kill the streamers revenue. Here is a YouTube video that express how much goes into everyone’s else’s pocket when you sub on Twitch.

          https://youtu.be/WIjlDLkrTjE?si=AM9_Lh3GfEkMQdO3

          Using podcasting 2.0 features Jupiter Broadcasting has been able to completely cover production cost for its podcasts with funding provided from fans of the show alone. And that’s the important part. Helping podcast people love alive.

      • bearded_zero@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Standard credit card processing fees are anywhere from 1.5% to 3.5% and then there’s more on top of that. Here is an article that runs down typical credit card processing fees.

        https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/credit-card-processing-fees/

        In addition to that pay by the minute foam plans are quite costly, but it is an option. Podcasting 2.0 may not be the 100% answer for everyone but diversifying your income is a good thing.