Stockholm-based podcast platform Acast announced the launch of Acast + this week, allowing podcasters to create a paid premium experience for their fans. In addition to ad-free listening, podcasters can now offer exclusive access to premium content and early releases while monetizing their content.
Source: Screenshot from App
If you haven’t heard of Acast yet, it is a curated platform for podcasts, connecting listeners, podcast creators and advertisers in the Acast mobile app. Listeners can discover new content in categories like Business, Comedy, Kids & Family, News & Politics; follow favorite shows like Financial Times’ Mrs. Moneypenny, The Football Ramble and Call Your Girlfriend; and download audio content to listen to offline.
Meanwhile, podcasters get an easy-to-use publishing platform for making their podcasts available to fans and monetizing their content, including extra videos, images, audio clips and external links to enrich the listening experience.
“Listeners need an easier way of discovering new podcasts – and they want a richer experience, too,” Acast says on its website. “Acast makes good stories great.”
But are podcasts really a big deal? Edison Research, who has conducted 23 studies on podcasting since 1998, says “yes.” In its 2015 studywhich surveyed 2,002 people ages 12 and up, Edison Research found:
- 33 percent of respondents had ever listened to a podcast
- 17 percent had listened to a podcast in the past month
- 10 percent had listened to a podcast in the last week
- 20 percent of podcast listeners are ages 25 to 34
- Of weekly podcast listeners, the weekly average of podcasts is 6.
- Nearly 2/3 of podcast consumers listen to podcasts on their mobile devices.
According to the Wall Street Journal, podcast creators can charge listeners for a monthly “show pass” to give listeners access to additional content. Acast recommends a price point between $2.99 and $6.99 a month, but listeners can also make individual purchases. What Acast + adds to the mix is that, in addition to advertising revenue and one off purchases, podcast creators can now earn recurring revenue from their listeners, and who doesn’t love a steady paycheck and a solid fan base?
Insider Take:
As podcasting grows in popularity, podcast creators – like video producers and other content creators – are looking for new ways to monetize their work. Subscriptions, memberships and paywalls offer good business models for doing just that. They offer a low barrier to entry and great opportunities for testing and customization of the subscriber experience.
In fact, that’s one of the things we love about companies like Acast and Vimeo. They give creators the opportunity to focus on their craft while also giving them control over their pricing and subscriber benefits, in exchange for a fee or revenue share. In these relationships, everyone wins – subscribers get a premium experience, creators get creative freedom and access to a suitable platform ideal for promotion and discovery, and the platforms get a commensurate cut of the revenue.
