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In the early days of podcasting my dream was that the whole thing could be financed and maybe even profitable if everyone who listened made a small monetary donation each month. I am not saying I was the first person to have this idea, but I might have been the first. Not many people were producing content back then and most of them were happy to do it for nothing. I see Patreon started in May 2013 and I had definitely had this idea before then and I think we probably already had our own monthly badger system set up by then (and we'd certainly been selling "I Paid A Pound" badges.
So what I am saying is I'd have been much better off if I'd forgotten about doing podcasts and put the effort into setting up a subscription service that other people could use and I got a quid every time anyone donated.
My business has never been business though. Any money we raised through kickstarters and badges and selling stuff on ebay has been ploughed back into making more content. I don't mind if I make a profit and ideally I am doing work that also pays for food, shoes and ping pong tables, but my vision for podcasts was that the fans would pay a small amount and that that would be all we needed to keep going. Like everyone paid a dime to see Charlie Chaplin films and within a couple of years Charlie Chaplin could make anything he wanted (and be rich and indulge in inappropriate relationships - I wasn't so bothered about that side of things).
I have to say the badgers have been very loyal and there have been people giving me a pound a month or more for a decade now. It's always been a tiny proportion of the listeners, but it's definitely helped pay the bills, but never made us self-sufficient.
The kickstarters though have let us attempt more ambitious projects so the idea hasn't been a total failure.
I'd love it, of course if we could get to the point where we were Chaplins of the internet and enough people donated every month to allow us to try out even more ambitious ideas, but it never quite made it that far.
In the end we reluctantly accepted that the way to make podcast economically viable (after a decade of giving them out for free and only making some money selling tickets) was to put ads in. It was never my first choice (my first choice was that fans would pay) but hardly anyone seemed to mind and though I had been against doing ads my whole life, it seemed clear this was the only model that really worked in this medium and ultimately I liked the fact that Sky or Apple or whoever were paying me to make my podcasts and that the fans got them for free (unless they wanted an ad-free version in which case they could pay a small amount for that)
We were tempted into trying another couple of subscription schemes. Drip thought we'd make loads of money with them, but although I think we did better than most of the people who signed up with them, it brought in very limited amounts of money and folded. Acast Plus insisted we sign up to them when we signed a golden handcuffs deal about three years ago (it ran for two years and was not renewed, but was the first time in my life I had a guaranteed monthly wage which was very nice) and again brought in nothing like the modest sums we were making with the badgers.
A month or so ago we were told that Acast Plus was shutting down and moving over to a new company. We had a zoom meeting with the guys from this new place (we've had a few of these meetings before) and they were confident and full of grand projections and did have an app that would certainly simplify the subscription service. It would also, of course be another company taking money from the subs. But by now we've realised that the people who support us aren't really into stuff like that. And for whatever reason (I think the reason is because I am shit) my stuff never seems to really attract legions of people who aren't already into me. The ones who are into me are fiercely loyal, but maybe it's just that I can readily reach those people. So doing PR or appearing on an app don't work in the way they seem to for others.
We decided that we'd just throw all our effort into our own badger system - a service that had defeated Drip and outlasted Acast Plus and I think will still be around when this new app crashes into the ground or gets bought out by another company who turns it off.
So if you were with Acast Plus you should have had an email about how to join the badgers (a lot of you seemed to do both) and if you are a Badger then you don't need to do anything (unless you want to upgrade to a higher level) - your subscription will cover the base £5 a month level even if you are paying less than that. Your loyalty must be rewarded. Even if you're still on £1 a month.
Advertising revenue is dropping due to the sheer number of podcasts out there now and though we're just about holding our head above water things have got a lot tighter. Also ticket sales are not as strong as they used to be. You may have noticed me debating whether I want to carry on or how I am going to do that.
So if you appreciate 18 years of free podcasts and all the different podcasts I do (most of which I wouldn't even dare to attempt to monetise) and if you can afford to, then it would be lovely for you to become a badger.
Pay
£5 a month and you can get the podcasts
AD FREE and a
day earlier than all the non-badge scum, a password to the members area of
rhlstp.co.uk where you can watch
full videos of all the shows that we’ve filmed, plus
backstage videos, full videos of
Rich's standup shows and other extras too. You'll also get
advance news of live guests. And you'll be sent a
red badge badge pack and a
Prince Andrew no-sweat sweat band (whilst stocks last). We will also put your name into the hat for our
monthly raffle where you can win all manner of exciting and daft prizes. Rich packs these up himself.
Pay £8 a month for all the stuff above (but you’ll get a rarer gold badge, not a red one, with all the respect that comes with that). PLUS a monthly bonus podcast where Ally asks Richard emergency questions and a monthly Ask Me Anything podcast where you can put your questions to Richard
Pay £10 or more a month and you get everything in the £8 level, except you get a super rare platinum badge instead of a gold one. Imagine how cool you will look with one of those. Plus you’ll be doing more than anyone to keep our podcasts going.
All that money is going towards paying for the expenses of doing podcasts. If you want the money to come to me (plus some to Substack and some to Stripe) and you want to encourage me to do even more writing on Substack then
become a paid subscriber here.
You are allowed to both, but really not expected to. And neither is also fine. I only want people who can comfortably afford this to give anything. One of my founding podcast principles that as much as possible would be free and those who can afford it pay, whilst those who can't still get to listen. I'm sort of like an audio Rohin Hood crossed with Jesus (without the bad tempter). Listening to the pods with the adverts in will also help us, as will buying the occasional ticket, download or book. I'd love to be the Charlie Chaplin of the internet and make films and write books and more that could all be self-produced, but I am also very happy with where we're at right now. And if not happy then content. And when I stop and think about it rather proud. Apart from a few bits that I am deeply ashamed of and which sometimes keep me awake at night.
