02.02.06
Air America Radio takes lesson from crack dealers
What’s the first thing you learn when watching those after-school specials on video in health class in middle school?
The drug dealer always gives you enough free smack to get you hooked. Then, it’s going to cost you.
This is the path that liberal talk radio network Air America Radio appears to be taking with its podcast content. I am shamelessly hooked on listening to the Rachel Maddow Show each morning, and I have been a devoted fan of the show since the beginning of last year. The show’s podcast has taken me from riding the PATH train from New Jersey to New York City early last year, all the way to my commute from San Jose to Sunnyvale on the opposite coast.
I woke up Monday morning and started up my iPod only to hear a scary robotic woman informing me twice that as of February 7, Air America podcasts will no longer be offered for free, and that I would be required to subscribe to the podcast through Air America Radio Premium, the new paid podcast service. After taking a moment to contemplate why Dr. Sbaitso’s wife was chosen to tell me the bad news instead of Air America’s regular voice talent, my heart quickly sunk. I’m so used to enjoying a good thing for free that the thought of having to pay for it is positively irritating. However, I can’t imagine my morning without it, so I’m not really sure what choice I have.
Now that I’ve had a few days of that scary robotic lady in my ear at the beginning of all of my Air America podcasts (I’ve named her Ariana), I’m beginning to realize that charging for these podcasts only makes … *gulp*… sense. In perusing the Wikipedia article about podcasting, I came across an interesting statement that hadn’t crossed my mind previously:
“Some podcasters found that exposure to iTunes’ huge number of downloaders threatened to make great demands on their bandwidth and related expenses.”
It’s really easy to forget that commercial radio is a business - emphasis on the word “commercial”. These podcasts are provided commercial-free at no charge, yet the bandwidth bill is being paid by someone. No advertising money is being made from podcasts, and I would imagine that I’m not the only person who no longer listens over the air now that I can easily bypass an hour of commercials per show, and listen on my own schedule.
So, while it still frustrates me, it makes sense that Air America has chosen to offer its podcasts as a premium service. So, what’s it gonna cost me? This is the pricing structure from the premium website:
$1.95 1-day pass (one time charge)
$6.95 per month
$29.95 billed every 6 months
$49.95 per year
Gold Membership (Access to all shows):
$10.95 per month
$49.95 billed every 6 months
$69.95 per year
Some observations: the “Single Show Membership” is grossly overpriced. If I can have every show for under $6 per month (paid yearly), why would I pay only $1 less per month to have a single-show subscription? I imagine that this is the reason the pricing structure is set up in this way. A little bit more money gets you everything. It’s clearly a better value, which means that most people (including myself) will probably choose this option, but most people may still only download one show. Essentially, that extra dollar pays for the option to download other shows.
The important lesson in all of this is that if something is in high enough demand, people will pay money to access it. Whether it’s being done to make a profit, or just to offset the expense of making the content available, content fees seem to be the only viable way (short of advertising) to capitalize on the popularity of podcasting.
Will there continue to be thousands of free podcasts available for download? Probably. Are we going to have to start paying for the really great ones?
Unfortunately, I think it’s almost certain.
Tags: air america, air america radio, al franken, broadcast, iPod, iTunes, liberal, podcast, podcasting, podcasts, rachel maddow, radio, randi rhodes, talk, talk radio
