Making Money from Podcasts -what about this idea?

[Brasscast]

I am thinking of switching over to a subscription service to support the bands I feature on my program and I wanted to hear your thoughts about it. Bit of background.........I have about 5,000 regular weekly listeners with about 140,000 downloads last year. I feature one band every week and have been going about a year and a half. Have approached advertisers but even though there has been some interest I haven't had any bites. I was thinking of charging $19.99 for an annual subscription where all the subscriptions for the week would go to the band I am featuring except for the first which I would keep. Logistically I don't even know how I would be able to manage it but I would very much appreciate any ideas from any and all knockers, detractors and critics!
Thanks in anticipation
Peter

[ElNacho]

well, yer downloads will take a serious fall if you start charging. but, 20 a year isnt bad, even though there are most likely hundreds of other shows just like yerz (all a little different, but same concept, you know? there are thousands and thousands of music programs in general, but that's even vaguer).
how can u do this?
well, if u use wordpress for the feed 'n stuff, i think the plug-in podpress can let u start a charging-thing

[AaronfromQC]

Why not add an advertising model to your show instead of making your customers pay. If I had a choice between paying someone for independent music or finding another of 100's of shows, sorry but you'd be long gone in my book.

[Soccer Shout]

Here's a tip: Find the "escape pod" podcast and find the 'state of the podcast' show from about one month ago. He talked through the various options for supporting the show financially. One thing he ruled out was the subscription model. He's trying to promote his strand of fiction and said the didn't want to put up a barrier between him and listeners.

That made a lot of sense to me.

Presumably, the bands you feature want as much exposure as possible. I would imagine that your subscription fee is going to cut your listenership to anything between 10% to 2% of your current base (admittedly, I just pulled these number from out of my ***).

Are you still going to get as many bands keen to be featured before an audience of 100-500 listeners?

Another wild guess: Ask for donations and you'll get as much income as the subscription model, but without decimating your audience and scaring off the bands. And you hold open the posibility of some lucrative advertising in the future.

[WyethDigital]

Most of the podcasts I'm subscribed to now weren't on my iPod last year. Next year will probably be the same way. There are so many podcasts out there that I would not pay someone for a year long subscription that I may not even keep for six months (unless it were mine ;) )

If you're really curious about how it will work or be received, why don't you ask your listeners? You can get all the advice you want (and more) from PCA, but it's your listeners you should really be talking to about this.

If you want to earn money for the bands, set up a store (for instance, PayPal has a basic shopping cart set up), sell the bands CDs on a consignment basis, and advertise the hell out of it on your program.

Eric

[Dweezil2000]

I've been looking for ways to generate $$ from my cast as well. If you have the listeners, I'd suggest the donation model rather than subscription. I've raised about $2,000 in the last month and a half from donations and clickgrid advertisements.

One thing that worked well for me was giving something in return for donations. for instance, for a donation of $50 I gave out CD's with all of the past episodes of my show (since I only keep the last 35 episodes online). For donations under $50, I sent out a bumpersticker.

I'm currently raffling off a few resturant gift cards to anyone who donates.

If you insist on the subscription model, check out what Nobody Likes Onions is doing. Their podcast is free, but they offer a bunch of extras for paying members, like videocasts.

Hope that helps!
-Tim
http://www.distortedview.com

[WyethDigital]

If you insist on the subscription model, check out what Nobody Likes Onions is doing. Their podcast is free, but they offer a bunch of extras for paying members, like videocasts
Good lord! Patrick on video tape? I'd pay NOT to see that! ;)

Eric