The (Quickly) Coming Death of the Podcast Paywall

I guess it goes to the question that mom used to ask, if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you jump off, too? It looks like podcasting is jumping into the world of paywalls, at least. Excited about jumping into the world of paywalls. Talking about jumping into the world of paywalls. We have the launch of Luminary. That is a paid service, content that only comes through. We have Stitcher Premium. We have Spotify Premium. We have these options now where we can pay to get additional content. And the idea is that we'll look at Netflix. Netflix is doing really well charging for content. Look at Hulu. Hulu is doing really well charging for content. And heck, they even put commercials in. Look at Disney. Disney plus is coming. They're going to be turning on their Netflix competitor. Look at CBS All Access. They launched with the whole Star Trek thing. They're going to be having the Picard show this fall. All that good stuff. It looks like the future of content is charging for it. That is, if you're paying a really, really low level of attention. If you're paying a bit higher level of attention, which is something we always recommend here on the podcast report, I want you to notice a couple of trends. YouTube Red, which is YouTube Premium, which is their paid monthly service, has never really gotten the press, never gotten the attention that it's deserved. They were able to launch a show called Cobra Kai, which is a follow up to the Karate Kid movies, believe it or not. And it's actually a pretty good show. And they were charging for it. They did so well. Season one immediately got season two, and season three is coming. Here's what's interesting. YouTube, with all of their clients, all of their access, all of their positioning by, by Google and whatnot going free, you're going to be able to watch Cobra Kai with commercials. What does YouTube know that maybe the podcasters don't? You take a look at cbs. CBS All Access. You know, they launched that Star Trek show last year. They're launching this fall. They're launching Star Trek. Picard. Many feel him to be the greatest of the captains they're putting behind the paywall. Well, or are they? CBS has the Good Life, which is a spin off to the Good Wife, which is one of the shows they had on the All Access system. What's interesting is they've realized that, yeah, we can't afford just to do that All Access that's going on regular television this fall or this summer. It's, it's, it's coming soon. But what's happening is that the organizations with the big content or realizing that maybe charging for it doesn't make the most sense. Now someone could come in and say, you know, well, look at the new ones jumping on board. You got Disney who's coming in and going to do Disney plus, and Disney plus is going to eat Netflix's lunch. And yeah, probably Disney will probably really affect Netflix. But here's the thing. I don't know. A lot of people are going to do both. A lot of people are going to decide that I'm not going to do Netflix anymore. And then there's shows that they could only get on Netflix they're not going to be able to get anymore. What I would suggest is that in the platforms, in the traditional platforms of streaming and download, which would be the YouTubes of the world and the podcasts of the world, people aren't willing to pay. Yes, Netflix is a desktop type of application, but let's admit it, the majority of Netflix is used on the app, on the phone, on the Apple TV, on the smart TVs, that kind of thing. Of course, we've got Apple's coming TV plus thing, which I didn't even mention because honestly in my notes I didn't even think about that. But they're gonna be another player. But that is an app as well. The platforms for traditional free delivery, YouTube websites, podcasts, I don't believe, I don't see any proof, any future in this idea that we're gonna start paying for the stuff on that platform. People always paid for content. We rent movies, we download movies, we buy albums, we buy audiobooks, we do all these things. But they tend to get delivered via an app, not necessarily via a platform working with a client right now who's looking at what was going to be a premium podcasting play. And that premium podcasting play did not do well at all inside of the management. But taking that same content, take that exact same content and wrapping it up in an app that is behind the scenes with this organization, that has the exact same stuff delivered really through the exact same protocol, because it's wrapped around an app with the monthly service, that was something that the, the person the client was selling to is looking forward to getting. So what I want to do in this episode is just suggest that in podcasting and in traditional computer and phone based streaming, just through the browser and that kind of thing, I believe strongly that the death of the paywall is coming. And I think if you're honest with yourself, you know that too. I mean, there's this great idea that I could get all these people to pay, but. But it's not going to be an industry thing. Now, those aware of the industry, those hip to what's going on, you know, what do you do about Marc Maron or something like that? Well, Marc Maron, remember, is delivering it through an app. So it's the old podcast content that is free for a little while, but then after his window, you get it through the podcast app. Now, what about Patreon? You know my feelings about Patreon. I've chatted about Patreon for quite some time. It's an interesting model, but, man, it serves such a tiny percentage of the people that are actually utilizing and working with it. They have a premium podcasting option. And I listen to. Actually there's one podcast that I support that I get through the Patreon premium podcasting option. But it's not a mainstream thing. It's not going to be widely accepted. The idea of passwords and credit cards and that kind of stuff associated with podcasting, it didn't happen the first 15 years. It's not going to happen the next 15 years. So we have paywalls. They're going to die soon. And if you are planning your future on a paywall model for your podcast, I would suggest don't. I would suggest that it's going to die. I would suggest, though, that just a simple little twist of thinking, just a simple little change in how you proceed. This an app with a subscription service, the good old software as service that delivers that same content might even be through the same backend platform. Platform. That's how you wrap this stuff in a way that makes sense. If you've been a longtime listener or watcher of the podcast report, you know that I've not necessarily been a big fan of paywalls. And I've kind of joked that as much as I love Star Trek, you know, I can't spend the extra. You know, it's the logistics of the seven bucks a month for cbs. It's not the seven bucks a month. It's just another ding to the credit card. And the fact that I'll probably watch the shows over the course of one weekend and then let CBS charge my credit card for the next 24 months, next 36 months, that kind of thing. You know how that works. And if you admit to it yourself, you're the exact same way. So as you look to what's next, podcasting's entering into a really interesting space. The pages at Google, the pages at Apple, the SEO, the search, the basically every audio platform that delivers audio is delivering our podcast that's there. That's our future. Whether you know, and really it's always some sort of ad support, whether it's a third party ad that you get a terrible CPM for or you're marketing and promoting your own products and services, this is the future where we're going to. It's not the paywall, at least not in podcasting. This is the podcast report that's podcastreport.com would love to have you follow, would love to have you subscribe, would love to have you make comments. You can head out to the podcastreport.com Twitter, Facebook, etc to find those things. And of course if you do Want to follow thepodcastreport.com, facebook, Twitter, etc etc etc, you know how to get a hold of me, you know what to do. And for those of you who watch this on Facebook, thanks so much. Always fun to have a live audience. Let's get this thing in the feed and go from there. The coming death of the paywall. I promise you it's coming. We'll chat about it on a future episode. Until next episode, Podcast hard people talk soon. Bye.