[toxik]

Interesting point with the pyramid, a podcaster (Sam Harris) recently turned his free podcast into a "freemium" model where you get half of each episode for free. I imagine this is going to completely kill his following, as it did for me.

Freemium is actually being charitable, it's more like shareware.

[sacado2]

It's going to kill his following among people who want to follow him for free, but by definition they don't bring him any money. If you have enough paying users, meaning your business gained momentum, you don't really care about free users anymore.

[tartoran]

Some of the free users might pay. Small percentage “conversion” into paying users. But this can be done only once a large following was built and that model seems a bit disingenuous to me, free to paid, and I like the model where the content creator gives some extra to paying users.

[Bombthecat]

But how do you get new users? Podcasts are already very niche...

[ishjoh]

Sam also does a number of live appearances, and I suspect that a number of free listeners would buy tickets once in a while to see him. It would be interesting to know if this move would decrease the popularity of live appearances as well.

[toxik]

Podcasts are spread by word of mouth. I will no longer be recommending it to anyone, and I imagine this is not unique to me. This kills the following it the long run.

Consider also the guest’s perspective. They want to teach a wide audience.

[mattferderer]

I just listened to Darknet Diaries for the 1st time. Awesome podcast, especially the Xbox Underground series.

I noticed they mentioned an extra special interview at the end for paid subscribers. Seemed like a fair thing to do to me.

[pbhjpbhj]

>completely kill his following, //

You think people who currently pay will stop paying?

Like, it's some sort of virtue signalling?

If he's changed to that model presumably he doesn't care about his following but instead wants to make a living (or make himself rich, depending how things are for him).

[alexpetralia]

In fairness, he does continue to support a charity model as well. He clarifies very often that if you can't support the podcast due to financial reasons, you can simply email his team and get free access, no questions asked.

[krick]

It's basically (wel... literally) previews for paid content. Has nothing to do with "freemium" indeed.