This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

The Realities of Podcasting.

edited August 2008 in Everything Else
Reality # 1. Almost no one listens to podcasts.
Podcasting offers a potential world wide audience yet even the best only have listeners in the 200 – 300k range. Extra Life Radio, a big one among the podcasters-with-jobs category hits about 10k a month. Another Scott Johnson podcast, The Instance, has about 50k a month.

Reality # 2. Almost no one makes money in podcasting.
Even Leo Laporte doesn't get rich from podcasting. Plus, he also has a traditional radio show. Podcasters with full time jobs have it worse. For example, ELR, The Instance and his website and art work don't provide Scott Johnson with enough money to support himself. He needs his full time job. Most people, Rym and Scott included, podcast for free.

Reality # 3. Listeners are fickle.
Recently some vocal folks here are upset because GN doesn't match their expectations anymore. The truth is that people come and go all the time. It is really the nature of how people consume content. Are you listening to all the same shows that you listened to when you first started consuming podcasts?

In the face of these realities, you might wonder why a person would bother podcasting. Why would a person put so much effort into generating content under these circumstances? I can only answer for myself when I say: “because it is fun.” The cool part about podcasting is that you can express yourself to an audience for a fairly small amount of money compared to what it costs to disseminate your creativity in other mediums. When it stops being fun, people stop doing it.

In the end, Rym and Scott are going to do what they want. It's their show. If people don't like it, well, they don't have to listen. Criticism is important as feedback to an artist, but ultimately the artist is going to pursue art as he or she prefers, especially if the artist isn't getting paid to do it. Listeners should express feedback to a podcaster, but then move on when the show stops being what the listener wants. In any event, it is just not a big deal.

Comments

  • One thing I promised myself when I started my blog was that I was the only person who needed to be entertained.
  • Good post, Thaed. It will do mighty good for the whiners on the forum to read that.
  • This definitely needed to be said. Constructive criticism is nice, but a few of the posts in that thread really crossed the line to whining and melodrama.
  • 50,000 people is a lot of listeners, that would be mind boggling for me. Unfortunately, unless your penny-arcade, it's very hard to live on the free media you create for the internet. Imagine if you could charge a penny per listen and all those 50k people continued to listen. Woo~
  • Great post, Thaed, but I was wondering one thing: Did you call GeekNights "Geek-Knights"?
    Recently some vocal folks here are upset because GK doesn't match their expectations anymore.
    (Emphasis mine)
  • Bravo, Thaed. Good advice.

    You know, it's a bit like web-comics. When I was in high school I drew comics for myself first and for my readers second. I just liked drawing my ideas, and got a kick out of it when other people liked them too. That's the best.
  • Awesome. Here here!
    One thing I promised myself when I started my blog was that I was the only person who needed to be entertained.
    Ditto, and for fun of course!
  • Well put, Thaed. The harshest criticism GeekNights (or any podcast for that matter) will hear from me will be the sound of clicking the unsubscribe button. They are free to take the show in any direction they feel appropriate - I just don't feel bound to follow them. But, so far so good. Nearly three years in and I still haven't bothered the unsubscribe button.
  • 50,000 people is a lot of listeners, that would be mind boggling for me.
    50,000 isn't that much. OSU's enrollment is around 50k. Sure, that's one of the biggest colleges in the nation, but it's one tiny ass piece of America, which is one (semi) small piece of the World.
  • 50,000 people is a lot of listeners, that would be mind boggling for me.
    50,000 isn't that much. OSU's enrollment is around 50k. Sure, that's one of the biggest colleges in the nation, but it's one tiny ass piece of America, which is one (semi) small piece of the World.
    It's all relative. Considering that podcasting is still a rather obscure medium, and that most people don't get more than a few hundred, 50,000 is a hell of a lot.
  • Welcome to the "New Media". Topics of a podcast target a small audience. Rym and Scott and took more of a shot gun approach. with 4 nights a week, (depending on if they are lazy or not).
  • Rym and Scott and took more of a shot gun approach.
    Wait.. Who?
  • Podcasts are a strange little creature. It's the only media I consume that I don't have my full attention on, I'm always doing something else when I listen to them (even if it is just traveling) even though I'm thoroughly enjoying the shows.

    Can podcasts ever be more than just an extra or hobby for the people who make them?
  • edited September 2008
    Can podcasts ever be more than just an extra or hobby for the people who make them?
    Do they need/want to be? Media at a time to suit you is where things are going but podcasts seem like they will stay an amateur thing and as an upside they can be much more specific.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • I'm sure many podcasters would not mind if they could make a living working on their podcast the same way quite a number of relatively unknown webcomic artists.
  • I honestly don't want podcasting to ever get to be a job. It's a ton of fun and I still can't believe that there are a few hundred people who actually enjoy hearing me and my friends talk for an hour every two weeks. As long as I'm having fun and keep entertaining myself, I'm going to keep it going.

    Obligatory Link to Aforementioned Podcast
  • I'm sure many podcasters would not mind if they could make a living working on their podcast the same way quite a number of relatively unknown webcomic artists.
    I'm sure everybody would love to make a living from their hobby. Webcomics, however, have the notable advantage of usually having something they can sell. What can a podcast sell? A few T-shirts at best, usually. Also, there are ads -- webcomics make a good chunk of their money from ads on their sites, but a lot of people who listen to podcasts almost never visit the podcast website.
  • I think that all what Thaed said in his post is even more true in here in Finland, and maybe in other smaller countries. Still I'm going to star a podcast sometime in future. I know that getting hundreds of listeners would be hard more than that, impossible. Still I want to do it, just because I want to.
  • ...
    Amen, man, Amen. I'm gonna be upgrading my mike soon, but even then I won't know if I have the time to podcast.
  • Great post, Thaed, but I was wondering one thing: Did you call GeekNights "Geek-Knights"?
    Recently some vocal folks here are upset becauseGKdoesn't match their expectations anymore.
    (Emphasis mine)
    I know its fixed, but I couldn't resist imagining Scrym in plate mail.
  • Including most of the poplulus don't know what a podcast even is and if they do they think they have to have an IPod. Compared to most we are in the minority.
Sign In or Register to comment.