I have been hearing that some podcasters are not making as much money as they were a year ago, even though their shows are growing. My only guess would be the company they work with is keeping a greater share of the Ad revenue. Based on information that I have available to me it appears that some podcasters are only getting paid a 13% share of the Ad revenue.
As a comparison, let me give you a simple example on how the RawVoice podcast advertising compensation works. Lets say we have secured a sponsor and the sponsor is paying us $20.00 everytime a specific action happens. Our compensation to the podcaster is 70% to the podcaster, 30% to RawVoice. Thus RawVoice keeps $6.00 and the Podcaster gets $14.00.
Here is another key-point, what does RawVoice do with our share? We Sponsor podcamps, deliver free stats, provide podcaster publishing tools, support industry events etc. We invest a large amount of money back into the podcasting space and still pay salary and have our books in the black.
Now the reason I asked in the title of this article on what is fair podcast compensation. Is it fair for a podcasting company to take 87% of any advertising revenue that has solely been created by those producing content. I would say in my opinion no. If I were doing the heavy lifting in preparing and recording the content and promoting the show and only earning 13% of the possible revenue I would be pissed.
It would depend on what else the company brings to the table. Our show has been on TalkShoe for about a year now and we’re fine with what we draw from it. We make like a penny per download, but we also get free hosting to the tune of 2.5+ terabytes per month, a free live streaming option, and the baking of a community.
But then, it’s not about the money for us (until we can find a way to make enough to all quit our day jobs;)
You know Todd this is just another example of companies taking advantage of others. It’s sad. I’m happy to see that you guys take good care of your clients. I have to say I was very impressed when talking with you at CES and would suggest people to take refuge into a company that treats its content producers with respect, like yours. Also, I believe content producers need to really look hard into who they are releasing their content to. Why spend all that time if you aren’t going to be compensated for it?