For most of its existence, podcasting seems to have avoided the wrath of paywalls. Unlike the digital news medium, the different ways of restricting content access such as freemium model, metered model, and hybrid model are not so commonplace for podcasts just yet.
But times change, and as more shows begin to flood the podcast space, we will inevitably begin to see more people look for different ways to profit off their content.
Let’s get ahead of the times and spend some time looking at paywalls, weighing their pros and cons, and whether paywalling your podcast is a viable option for you.
What are the benefits?
For starters, paywalling your content provides a stable and sustainable revenue stream for creators. Unlike relying on advertisements where your income largely depends on a number of metrics like RPM, CPM, and impressions, paywalls take away some of that financial insecurity and volatility.
The benefit of a stable revenue stream cannot be discredited. Every benefit that consumers gain from paywalls is dependent on the fact that our favourite content creators are able to do so.
For instance, when creators are able to take away a relatively fixed amount of money every month, this gives them more leeway to focus on the content they’re producing and the quality it’s delivering. Ultimately, we cognitively view price as an indicator of quality. So if I have to fork out some cash to consume your content, I instinctively believe and expect whateverI’m consuming to be of a higher standard and quality as compared to other substitutes I can get for free.
And maybe the greatest benefit of all—you don’t have to worry about whether people are interested enough in your content to pay for it. People will pay. The numbers prove it.
PCRA UK found that 59% of listeners are willing to pay around 4 pounds a month to enjoy premium content. The Economist just hit a year of paywalled podcasts, and it’s going well for them. It might sound intimidating to place your entire podcast catalogue behind a paywall, but they reported an 80% retention rate of listeners.
Generally, it’s comforting to know that podcast listeners are less price-sensitive than consumers of other mediums.
At the end of the day, if your podcast offers value, especially irreplaceable value that cannot be replicated by other shows, putting up a paywall won’t hurt your show.
What are the cons?
People hate paywalls. Not everyone, of course, but you have to anticipate some negative reactions when your content goes from ‘free for all’ to ‘pay to listen’.
No matter how positive your retention rate is projected to be, paywalls inevitably alienate a portion of your listeners. If you’ve heard of the YouTube channel Watcher and are aware of what happened earlier this year, you’ll know that their attempt to paywall their content severely backfired.
(For context, Watcher was formed in 2019 by ex-Buzzfeed personalities Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara, and Shane Madej. At the time of writing, they’ve amassed 2.8 million subscribers, with their most popular series on YouTube is Ghost Files, where Ryan and Shane go ghost-hunting at different seemingly haunted locations.)
In April of this year, Watcher fans were hit with an announcement video that said Watcher will be launching its own subscription service and placing all their new content behind a monthly paywall of US$5.99.
The response was not good, to say the least. Many fans criticised the channel for being money hungry without sparing a thought for the loyal fanbase that had been with them for years. The overwhelming backlash led to another video where they retracted the main message in the previous video. The subscription service was now positioned to give fans an exclusive first look at new content, but this content would eventually end up on YouTube for those notable to afford the $5.99.
What can we learn from this? Well, know your audience like the back of your hand. Most of Watcher’s base consisted of high school and college students or young adults in entry-level positions, with not a lot of disposable income to spare. When you take into account the student loan debts, housing crisis, and general high price sensitivity of these people, it starts to become clearer why this move backfired so badly.
Other considerations
One consideration you should keep in mind is where you’re going to impose this paywall. The New York Times, for example, is structuring their paywall enforcement around their NYT accounts. That is to say, if you have a New York Times news, All Access or NYT Audio account, you can not only bypass the paywall invoked on the NYT Audio app, you can also bypass it on third-party platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Currently, Spotify and Apple Podcasts do allow all creators to lock episodes behind a paywall, and YouTube recently rolled out a members-only feature within the last year or so.
Consideration number #2: Paywall bypasses. Paywall bypasses have existed for as long as paywalls have. There is a high likelihood that a portion of your listeners who are still interested in listening to your episodes but don’t want to or don’t have the means to pay will attempt to use some sort of paywall bypass to circumvent the paywall. If maximising profits is what you’re after, you’ll want to find a way to prevent this from happening (not without the danger of alienating even more of your audience, of course).
Which paywall format should I use?
Memberships
Memberships might be what makes the podcasting industry go round right now; so many shows are adopting this format with the help of platforms like Patreon.
The TryPod is a good example of what a podcast membership looks like. While they continue to regularly upload episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, members of their Patreon get exclusive rights like early access to episodes, ad-free episodes, and behind-the-scenes content.
The Basement Yard and Binchtopia do a similar thing. Regular uploads on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, but Patreon members get early access to episodes as well as bonus episodes.
Memberships are probably the podcasting industry’s take on the freemium format that is commonly used across the rest of the Internet. They area great balance between gaining new listeners as well as catering to the loyal and dedicated ones.
Total Paywall
This is basically what Watcher tried to do, and what The Economist is currently doing. Same format, two very different outcomes. What matters is knowing who your audience is and what they care about.
Dynamic Paywalls
We as an industry have yet to reach this stage, but it is something to look out for in the future. Dynamic paywalls offer each individual user a different subscription offer based on how they interact with the content. For news outlets, metrics like number of articles read, frequency of reading, and when they last read an article are used to customise access in a bid to increase conversion.
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out for podcasters.
In Conclusion
Paywalls get a pretty bad rap, and as a fellow consumer yourself, I’m sure you understand why too. Ultimately, what’s important is looking at things through a business lens and evaluating what works best for your show.
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