Can Apple get you to pay for podcasts?
The world’s most popular podcast app gets subscriptions
Share this story
Beth Silvers credits paid subscriptions for making podcasting her full-time job. She and Sarah Stewart Holland host
Pantsuit Politics, a show that tries to turn political punditry into “grace-filled conversations.” The two of them launched the show in 2015 and then started experimenting with subscriptions two years later, first on their own website in the form of monthly contributions, and then, not long after, on Patreon.
Three years later, they now have over 4,000 monthly subscribers who pay anywhere from $5 to $100 per month, employ a full-time listener-turned-employee, and fully focus their time on the show. Their revenue is now equally made up of advertising and memberships. “It was still a big risk [when we switched to Patreon],” Silvers says. “We weren’t quite at a sustainable point. We thought to get to sustainability, we’ve got to invest more