[1rae]

I dunno, I don't think podcasts ever left.

All the podcasts I listen to still ask for donations to help keep the lights on, it became easier now that most of them have started using patreon.com. I would much rather donate than listen to adverts because I think podcasts are kinda personal, sometime I think of it like an old friendship. It's nice hearing from the podcaster every now and then, I like to hear about their lives intertwined into their podcast, sometimes over months, but an advert just breaks the illusion. If my podcasts start getting spammed with adverts I will definitely be unsubscribing.

I think most niche podcasts are still going to struggle to make a profit from their work.

[swah]

The ones I hear do 3-4 ads for 2k-5k USD each, IIUC. Marco Arment even said that Squarespace alone practically financed many podcasts for the first years of this "podcast boom".

[1rae]

Interesting, Joe Rogan's podcast is the only one I happen to listen to that has adverts, and they seem like they always have a Squarespace sponsorship. In this case it's 5 mins of rogan talking about his sponsors and then 3 hours of content, so the ratio of advert to interviews is still not too bad.

I also feel like Rogan won't put up with bad sponsors or vouch for dodgy products because I'm familiar with his personality and some trust has been built up over the time I spent listening to his interviews. Perhaps that's the key.

But if you happen to interrupt the podcast with some techno-music advert and have someone talk about a sponsor or some completely unrelated product, that's not cool at all.

[technofiend]

They seem to have replaced radio in a way since the audience is still being directly addressed by the podcaster. There's nothing as intimate on corporate FM radio. You have to hit NPR, Pacifica or college radio for that experience.

And even my favorite podcasts - Writing Excuses and Five Hundy by Midnight are created by people who have "day jobs" - they aren't depending on the podcasts to pay their bills.

So I'm with you that the appeal is there but it unless you're the J.K. Rowling of the podcasting world, I don't think it's a steady source of sufficient income. Just my humble opinion, of course.