I love podcasts, but I don’t think I’d pay for one.
Podcasting, though, is not a zero-cost endeavor. It takes time, of course, as well as equipment, talent, and web hosting. Get enough subscribers, and downloads can slow to a crawl without the support of costly bandwidth. Despite being distributed for free, podcasts, after a certain point, have to make money to stay operational. Most of the time they seem to do that with Audible ads. Dear god. So many Audible ads.
The way that Welcome to Night Vale has monetized its highly successful podcast is far more interesting and fun than constantly being bombarded with ads for Stamps.com or whatever. On top of soliciting donations and selling merchandise, the horror/comedy podcast has embarked on a series of live shows throughout the country. I caught one of their Portland performances this past Saturday night, and while I was expecting to be entertained, I was surprised at how good it was.
More after the jump.
It would be very, very easy for Welcome to Night Vale to half-ass its live shows. Given the popularity of the podcast and the rabidity of the fanbase, the creators could easily just show up, read through an existing podcast script, and take people’s money. A live show could be fairly perfunctory, simply an excuse for die-hard fans to breathe the same air as the creators they enjoy, and show their support with the dollars they spent. That’s pretty much the business model of most comic book conventions: Fans spend money, see creators in the flesh, spend some more money, and leave. The ultimate “event” of many ticketed events is simply seeing that creators you like are actual meat-beings that you can shake hands with, and little else.
(This isn’t necessarily a negative thing: Fans get to know that they supported something they enjoy, and creators get to go home and live on the money they make. I once paid a fair amount of cash to see Neal Stephenson read aloud and then answer a few questions, and felt fine about it.)
The creators of Welcome to Night Vale, though, didn’t just tick boxes and go through motions on Saturday night. The live show they’ve created wouldn’t actually work as a podcast. It’s a one-man show (with some special guests) that takes advantage of the specific theatrical environment. Cecil Baldwin, the podcast’s principal voice actor, is a deft performer, and was able to very subtly pivot between acting like a radio announcer to acting like a more conventional stage performer or comic, depending on the demands of the moment. He’s also far funnier live than through headphones, with his stiff, stony demeanor clashing comically with the outlandish events he’s describing. Night Vale derives a great deal of humor from describing fantastical events in a banal fashion, and the live show played that up to excellent effect.
The event also benefited from the substantial contributions of Jason Webley, a musician who seems to be the apogee of enthusiastic street performers everywhere. Webley’s short opening set included a delightful song about giraffes, and he later came out to give the audience a bluegrass lesson that involved a lot of screaming. You… you had to be there. But it worked.
Going in, I thought that the show was going to be a diminished version of the podcast. After seeing Night Vale live, though, I might very well think of the podcast as an adaptation or version of the theater experience I had on Saturday. If this is how Night Vale is going to make its cash, then more power to them. Seeing a show like that beat the hell out of listening to another damn ad for Stamps.com.
There have been integrated Stamps.com ads in the podcast before. The neat thing is that they layer those sponsorships between layers of Night Vale-y disquiet (the Amazon.com/haunted post office with small, silent, spinning cloth figurines one sticks out for me).
If they’re real or not I suppose is the question… the Red Lobster shoutout was pretty darn macabre!
I shudder at the thought of having nothing but live podcasts to listen to. By the way, when are you guy’s going to cover your blog page in another all encompassing ad for a month?
I’m fairly certain that all of the ads in the podcast are fake, given that the companies they use are not portrayed in at all a flattering (or even informational) way, and that they are generally not found on other podcasts. The live show did feature an “ad” for American Express, but it wasn’t anything that I could ever imagine a marketing person giving the okay to, given that it was all about how cursed credit cards will kill your family.
oh man my experience with this was the worst. I bought stamps.com in the 80’s, the stock plummeted because there was no internet yet. Then the dollar bonked against the yen. When i was IN tokyo. All the geisha girls felt bad for me but since i was gaijin they said no hurokuri without benano, which means they aint havin it! So i went to canada. The canada 2 dollar bill is a catastrophe. I mean they drink beer with paper currency but they do not even try to spend the 2 dollar bills. They use them for stamps! they glue them to the outside of the envelope and then hope the letter gets through. So the problem is that we do not have any formal communication to defraud the nation. The nation! When i am head of the fed we will not be underwater anymore. My policy is cheap credit, cheap credit, cheap credit. The dollar just be free to roam. It must be the balloon that floats in the sky and floats forever. Over the pacific and over the world! Lets be serious here. Stamps.com. Its like two sentences in one.
I listened to 20 episodes of Nightvale while on a long drive. I REALLY wanted to like it, but it just wasn’t happening for me. The biggest thing holding me back was Cecil’s voice – he seems to be going for a community radio voice, but he ends up just doing the advertising guy (basically Frank Tavares – the guy who does, “Support for NPR comes from…”) the entire time. His voice is a perfect fit when he’s doing the commercials. But I think it’s too slow and enunciating the rest of the time.
Still, cool to hear that he sounds a little better in person.
@joe, Why can’t you imagine paying for podcasts?
We need to wake the fuck up as a culture and get used to (and even take pride in) actually paying for the things we enjoy every day. Yes, even free alt-weeklies.
It’s really surprising there isn’t an efficient mechanism for this, since there is such a huge need for funding, people have demonstrated they are willing to support the things they care about (e.g. various funding websites) and if enough people do it, the per person cost for each thing would be insignificant.
How about a phone app that connects people with those needing funding. You commit to have either $2, $5 or $10 a month charged to your card for each thing you want to support. For each thing supported, you get a social media-ready badge that lets you show off your active generosity, at the same time allowing others to join up and follow suit.
There, solved. You’re welcome, America. And credit card companies.
I plan on launching one this year, I like this idea for the listeners
@CC:
Because there’s so much quality free media out there I don’t have an incentive to, and that is a problem. Unless you’re the New York Times, you probably aren’t going to get anywhere putting your content behind a paywall. Listeners and readers are just going to head somewhere else. Voluntary subscriptions, ads, live shows, merch, all of that is how podcasts are going to make money. Traditional ways of paying for stuff is probably not viable, given the tremendous amount of free competition.
I’d also like to make a distinction between “not paying for podcasts” and “not giving them money.” A good deal of podcasts guilt their listeners into making monthly donations, and that’s a fine idea. That doesn’t disincentivize new audience members from coming on board, but it also does provide a direct money link between the podcaster and the audience, which is definitely desirable.
I’ll also admit that I’m very close to buying a good chunk of the old Hardcore History episodes. That’s probably the one podcast I’d actually shell out for, given that it’s head and shoulders above most everything else.
“I’ll also admit that I’m very close to buying a good chunk of the old Hardcore History episodes. That’s probably the one podcast I’d actually shell out for, given that it’s head and shoulders above most everything else.”
It is and its worth it. I also think its a good model for the medium for some shows (in depth or serial style). I was actually surprised this weekend when I found out that “We’re Alive” makes every episode from the beginning available without cost, though I might just go ahead and buy the full seasons to get caught up quicker (although if those have ads imbedded, I’ll be pissed).
I will admit all the podcasts I listen to are free, but I agree with this