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Beertiger

By Beertiger
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routeburn

routeburn

Posted
Posted

I must admit that I was hoping that some of the better podcast teams would have the balls to charge for content earlier. This may sound stupid coming from a listener, but bear with me...

I've done a number of internet community projects, and had various roles in organising and producing content and other "stuff". What consumer side of the community rarely realises is the amount of time, effort and motivation it takes to produce good stuff at regular intervals. What started off as an enthusiastic bunch of people talking about something they love can pretty soon start feeling like hard work, particularly when critics often shout louder than those giving praise or thanks.

So if people have taken the time to build a strong podcast, with good people (and possibly guests), with good quality production, structure, and material.... damn right they should feel free to charge for it. If nothing else, the fact that people have a subscription to the content (or are paying per download) means that there's a reason to get in your car (or on Skype), do the prep, carve out a few hours of your week, and give the listeners what they want.

If the GFW guys had kept momentum, got a recording setup (probably through Robert Ashley), and set up the Jeff+Shawn+Robert+Anthony+Guests podcast, I'd quite happily pay US$5 a month to listen to a couple of hours' content. And I think they would have got thousands of subscribers.

I noticed that GamerDork has recently (many months now, but still recent-ish) joined a media network, and these things can be OK, claiming to provide some support through advertising, content, publicity, hosting etc. Not saying UGN is the same, but I personally never got anything out of this type of deal and it actually just distracted from the main things we were trying to achieve.

I would be perfectly happy for GamerDork to start charging a few quid a month for the podcast. The smart way to do it, and I think we'll see this from GiantBomb is to split it in two (as GB have done), and put your "What you been playing" stuff in the first segment, which would also tie in with any sponsorship or PR stuff you've committed to. The first segment is then a free download, so this gets your podcast out there, and it can generate some revenue from sponsorship etc. The second part could be subscription only, some have mentioned the audiobook method using iTunes, and perhaps have more "What you been playing" specific game analysis/review/comment, along with any specific talking topics for the week.

I actually think that releasing the additional content after 1 week is a bit soon, as many people will just wait rather than subscribe. The content is still current after 1 week.

Anyway.. in a nutshell, if it keeps the good podcasts going by providing financial incentive and good motivation to the Good Guys out there, I'm happy to pay and become a bit more selective.

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Naysonymous

Naysonymous

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So if people have taken the time to build a strong podcast, with good people (and possibly guests), with good quality production, structure, and material.... damn right they should feel free to charge for it. If nothing else, the fact that people have a subscription to the content (or are paying per download) means that there's a reason to get in your car (or on Skype), do the prep, carve out a few hours of your week, and give the listeners what they want.

If the GFW guys had kept momentum, got a recording setup (probably through Robert Ashley), and set up the Jeff+Shawn+Robert+Anthony+Guests podcast, I'd quite happily pay US$5 a month to listen to a couple of hours' content. And I think they would have got thousands of subscribers.

It's interesting that you put those two points next to each other because I kinda agree with both but I also see that they are precisely the reasons that people dont tend to charge for podcasts unless they are as famous as Ricky Gervais.

Firstly, I would have totally subscribed to GFW. I'm not sure if I would have subscribed to it blindly though, the only reason I say now I would have subscribed is that I had plenty of time to come to treasure it because it was free. I'd have considered subscribing to Thumbs and maybe the Bombcast. I wouldnt have subscribed to all three at the same time though. And that is the crux of it I guess. There is a huge shared audience between podcasts, and they arent going to subscribe to everything, so you either ask for a subscription first or you dont ask at all. And of course, if you ask first you run the risk of failing spectacularly when not enough people subscribe to sustain you.

I have no idea how many downloads some of these podcasts get. I remember Garnett Lee sort of mentioning that 1up Yours got more than 50,000 downloads a week on the show once, this was maybe at the height of 1up Yours' popularity (I dont remember the exact date) so how do you turn that number into money? You have no way of telling how many people who download the show actually listen to it (I'm subscribed to 23 podcasts in iTunes at the moment, not all of them are weekly, but of the weekly ones I can say I dont listen to most of them every week and wouldnt dream of paying for them) so its just a giant risk. Didnt the Times website lose about 90% of its traffic when they put up the paywall recently?

What if a "popular" podcast only got a couple of hundred subscribers? The would make a bit of money for a while but if they are cutting themselves off from new fans which gives them an extremely short shelf life.

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KYUSS

KYUSS

Posted
Posted

I think paying for archives is the way to go for me... That's why I always download NPR Answer me this & Hardcore History even if I don't always listen to them all straight away.

If they charged me £10-£20 for full access to old thumbs eps or all of the 1up stuff I would probably pay it.

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Snowman

Snowman

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Has anyone heard the 1UP Live panel with about 20 ex-1UP people on it?

I haven't yet as I unsubsribed a long while back, but I might re-up for that panel alone. Who's heard it? Any good? And is it on the old 1UP iTunes feed?

It hasn't turned up in any of the podcast feeds yet. Was it even recorded? As I understand it, the panel was a very last-minute, impromptu event.

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RubberJohnny

RubberJohnny

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I hope GiantBomb do alright off of this subscription thing.

This last week has been amazing watch people go barmy, seemingly thinking that thousands of pounds of high quality AV equipment had fallen out of the air, and everyone has been working for free. Too often do I see people complain about games journalism being beholden to advertisers and PR and then turn around and complain about stuff like this.

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Comrade

Comrade

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Hey, so there's a new podcast on 1up called "8-4 Play", which is from Mark McDonald and some of his colleagues at 8-4, the localisation company they run in Japan. The first episode is out, though weirdly it's actually the second half of this week's Weekend Confirmed and they've got Garnet on.

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The Bag

The Bag

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Posted

Hey, so there's a new podcast on 1up called "8-4 Play", which is from Mark McDonald and some of his colleagues at 8-4, the localisation company they run in Japan. The first episode is out, though weirdly it's actually the second half of this week's Weekend Confirmed and they've got Garnet on.

I really enjoyed 8-4 Play (both sections), hopefully it continues to be good and it's not just the catalyst of Garnett.

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jcafarley

jcafarley

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Joypod is back this week! We've got a new feed though so you'll need to update your iTunes or some shit:

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=392970034

Feed: http://www.spong.com/joypod/subscribe.xml'>http://www.spong.com/joypod/subscribe.xml

and the direct downloads can be GOT here: http://www.spong.com/joypod

Sweet, and also an RSS feed that works for me :D Is there any truth to the rumour that you've got an exclusive interview with petermolyneux2 ?

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Steven

Steven

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Listened to Weekend Confirmed again last night and for the first time listened right through - what on earth was that song at the end?I'd drifted off a bit and it woke me up.

I checked it again to see if something had happened to my ipod.

All fresh and fly and...WTF? It's middle-aged nerds talking about games.

Why did this keep coming to mind?

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Darragh

Darragh

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To celebrate Joypod's return we are giving away an Xbox 360s! Details can be found here: http://spong.com/competitions/24/Win-Yourself-an-Xbox-360-S-Plus-Limited-Edition-Controller

but judging by our last few comps, very few people actually enter so if i were you i'd give it a go!

Nice! Is it open to people outside the UK (specifically, Ireland)? Can't find any info on the site beyond the question itself.

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