The number of people lining up for the opportunity to pay for podcasts is exactly zero. But publishers are going to inflict on them anyways, because, after all, they have to pay back all the money they borrowed in order to acquire most of the podcasting services out there. This is exactly what was predicted last May when the carnage began. This article focuses mostly on Apply, which recently announced podcast subscriptions. But you know, we also have services that enable private RSS feeds (Libsyn, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Captivate, Acast, Supporting Cast) and podcasting 'stars' and big name producers (like Radiotopia, NPR, the L.A.Times and Sony). While there may be some 'free' podcasts to attract listeners, the main strategy here will be to force both podcasters (both free and paid) to use the monetized platforms in order to get any exposure at all. If you're not 'pay to play', you just won't be visible to listeners. And that's how you wreck something good that we all used to have.
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