After launching subscription podcast providers final 12 months, QCode, Tenderfoot TV, NPR and Acast are investing of their choices by including extra reveals and experimenting with the best way bonus content material can serve superfans, add worth to the paid product and supply complementary, recurring income.
The variety of podcasters providing a paid product is rising — as is the quantity keen to subscribe. Since June 2021, the variety of Apple Podcast subscribers elevated by greater than 300%, and over 25% of the highest 100 reveals in Apple’s “High Reveals” chart supply a subscription, a spokesperson stated, although they didn't present actual figures. Along with bonus content material, podcast subscriptions normally supply ad-free listening and early entry to content material.
Bonus content material round particular reveals
QCode, identified for its scripted fiction podcasts, moved into the unscripted podcast area earlier this month, with 5 reveals added to its community. The corporate now has over 25 reveals, with 30 extra in improvement, stated QCode chief technique officer Steve Wilson. A number of extra will go stay within the subsequent couple of weeks, he stated.
QCode is not any. 14 in Apple Podcast’s “High Subscriber Channel” chart, which launched earlier this month. Wilson declined to share the variety of QCode+ subscribers.
QCode is experimenting with subscriptions round particular, unscripted chat reveals, Wilson stated. Whereas all of QCode’s scripted fiction reveals can be found beneath a channel subscription on Apple Podcasts, the corporate plans to introduce particular person show-level subscriptions “tailor-made to the advantages of that particular viewers and what they’re searching for and getting extra from these always-on reveals,” Wilson stated.
“Totally different sorts of content material is what we expect will actually win in subscriptions to present followers extra,” he added.
For instance, QCode’s recently-added present “Tooth and Claw” about actual wild animal assaults has the “Griz Membership” for $9.99 a month, which supplies subscribers with bonus episodes, entry to a server on the group-chatting platform Discord and early entry to merch — a subscription mannequin with extra advantages that could possibly be replicated for different QCode reveals.
“We’re candidly nonetheless determining precisely what the advantages, pricing and timing of subscriptions shall be however we expect they are often actually bespoke to every present,” Wilson stated. “Then we are able to have a blended mannequin between promoting and subscriptions to essentially assist these initiatives.”
Equally to QCode, true crime media firm Tenderfoot is providing bonus content material to its Tenderfoot+ “on a present by present foundation, and actually attempting to consider what works for this explicit present,” stated Tracy Kaplan, head of operations & partnerships at Tenderfoot. Each QCode+ and Tenderfoot+ have their subscriptions on Apple Podcasts. QCode+ prices $3.99 a month or $28.99, whereas Tenderfoot+ prices $4.99 a month or $49.99 a 12 months.
4 reveals have been added to Tenderfoot+ this month, together with the corporate’s first weekly true crime present. Over 200 episodes can be found on Tenderfoot+, Kaplan stated. She declined to share the variety of Tenderfoot+ subscribers.
Wondery+, the highest subscriber channel in Apple Podcast’s chart, is experimenting with early entry to content material, windowing and exclusivity “to additional incentivize the routine listeners” to pay for content material, Neel Ketkar, head of product administration at Wondery, stated in an electronic mail. This summer season, the Amazon-owned podcast studio launched full seasons of in style weekly serialized reveals solely to subscribers, together with “Enterprise Wars: Weight loss plan Wars,” “American Historical past Tellers: The Manson Household Murders” and “American Scandal: The Midnight Crew.”
Extra advantages to come back with NPR’s podcast bundle
Most of NPR’s particular person podcast present subscriptions give readers sponsorship-free listening. However when NPR goes stay with its podcast bundle membership program in November, NPR will “begin to roll in extra options, some bonus content material,” stated Joel Sucherman, vp of recent platform partnerships.
This may occasionally vary from an “audio reader mail bag” the place a bunch solutions subscriber questions, prolonged interviews, early entry to stay occasions or reductions on the NPR store, he stated. The NPR podcast subscriptions for “Planet Cash” and “The Limits with Jay Williams” have already examined out a few of these options, he stated.
The bundle is deliberate to mushy launch at 34 native stations, earlier than increasing throughout the U.S. within the first half of 2023, Sucherman stated. The bundle will embody NPR podcasts that provide particular person subscriptions and make them obtainable to those that join an area station membership. As soon as the bundle turns into obtainable, NPR listeners may have the choice to cancel single podcast subscriptions and prorate a refund for the remaining time left on the present subscription. Present subscribers will get upgraded to the bundle, which may have over a dozen reveals, and pricing will change from its present $2.99 a month to a $8 a month or $96 a 12 months tax-deductible donation, an NPR spokesperson stated.
The biggest supply of NPR’s podcast present subscriptions — which can be found on Spotify, Apple and NPR’s personal platform — come from Apple, Sucherman stated, although he declined to share actual subscription figures.
Extra monetization choices for Acast+
Acast+, an impartial podcast subscription platform, expanded its podcast monetization capabilities final month with the choice for podcasters to ask for one-time funds. Podcasters can set a one-time worth for a sure variety of episodes or bonus content material, moderately than ask for recurring funds. The choice is supposed for podcasters who produce a seasonal present, who wish to take a look at their audiences’ urge for food for paid content material or who could not be capable of deal with the workload of providing bonus episodes at a daily cadence, stated Stacey Goers, who was promoted to director of product at Acast this week. Bonus content material on Acast+ usually ranges from outtakes, Q&As or audio from listeners, she stated.
One other “profit” Acast is including to its subscription platform is an integration with Meta coming this fall, Goers stated. Paying podcast listeners will get entry to personal Fb teams, the place they'll talk with one another and podcasters.
A subscription actually serves superfans. I’m not anticipating that it ever would change our advert efforts.
Tracy Kaplan, head of operations & partnerships, Tenderfoot
Podcasters may also be capable of take a look at charging extra for various podcast subscription tiers that present entry to extra advantages just like the Fb teams, Goers stated. Goers didn't share what number of podcasts hosted on Acast’s platform supply a subscription earlier than publishing time. She stated the product continues to be comparatively “nascent,” and that there are “lots of of podcasts” on Acast+.
Income as a ‘complement‘
All the execs interviewed for this story stated podcast subscription income was a complement to promoting income, not a alternative.
“A subscription actually serves superfans. I’m not anticipating that it ever would change our advert efforts,” Tenderfoot’s Kaplan stated. Acast’s Goers stated podcast subscriptions are “only a separate income stream. It provides you that separate diploma of safety.”
NPR has seen “modest success” from its particular person subscriptions, Sucherman stated. “This was by no means a couple of get-rich-quick scheme. It’s all the time been a multiyear program that aligns public radio round success and NPR podcasts with a method of bringing in new assist from the listeners who love our reveals,” he stated.
