[HN Gopher] The first year of "The Program", my fiction podcast ...
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The first year of "The Program", my fiction podcast launched on HN
Author : I-M-S
Score : 37 points
Date : 2020-12-14 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (programaudioseries.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (programaudioseries.com)
| GregMartinez wrote:
| Thanks for sharing an in-depth breakdown of your first year. I've
| been curious on how indie shows can support themselves and it
| seems like it's really not feasible long term which is very
| disappointing. After paying for music, talent, hosting, and the
| payment platform's cut it seems like you'd need a huge listener
| base to get a small percentage of users that donate.
|
| Patreon donations being higher than the others has to be due to
| user familiarity. It seems that most indie creators that ask for
| donations use Patreon so listeners might be more comfortable
| using that versus something like Liberapay or Interac.
| I-M-S wrote:
| I'm not disappointed because I still think the show will be
| feasible long term - just longer term than it's been so far! :D
| joshschreuder wrote:
| I tried Patreon simply off name recognition as you say. With
| that said, I did try to switch over to Liberapay after reading
| this, but they don't support automatic payments via Paypal
| (only Stripe, which the receiver has to support), so
| unfortunately a bit of a non starter for a set-and-forget
| supporter mechanism.
| tunesmith wrote:
| I am so glad that projects like this exist, and I'm impressed
| with the effort and commitment - including your apparently
| amazing marketing abilities in being able to network to good
| result and find pro bono talent. I also know that it's hard
| enough to generate revenue from podcasting, and audio drama
| podcast is harder still. I like though that these episodes are
| apparently build to age well (unlike most pop-culture podcast
| episodes), so hopefully it will build on itself over time. It's a
| hard thankless job to put significant creative effort into
| something that isn't profitable. I've been toying with an idea of
| a choose-your-own-adventure audio drama podcast - we have plenty
| of material written and it would mostly be a production challenge
| - but it feels overwhelming to figure out how to find pro bono
| voice talent, music/sound talent, not to mention the actual
| recording/editing.
|
| If you ever have time, it would be interesting to read an in
| depth description of your production process - what you
| coordinate, what software you use, the editing steps, and what
| tricks you use to automate and save time (and save your sanity).
| I-M-S wrote:
| I think the trick is to find collaborators who are not
| approached too often and then pitch the project as something
| they are going to be proud of and ensure them you're going to
| be maximally respectful of their time. Simply being concise and
| organized is already a sign you are going to deliver on your
| promises to them.
|
| I was thinking of delving deeper into the production process
| behind The Program, but so far my goal has been to keep these
| articles interesting to a casual reader. However, since I do
| get this type of question from time to time, I'll probably
| commit something to paper eventually!
| I-M-S wrote:
| The Program audio series premiered on HN in June 2018 [1],
| followed by an official launch in November 2019 [2]. Since then
| the show received 135,000 downloads and was featured by Apple
| Podcasts in 6 countries.
|
| The community here was nothing but supportive (bberenberg just
| sponsored an episode by paying for audio equipment, and many
| other HN users are show patrons) so I am now trying to give back
| by posting transparent updates regarding the project every 6
| months or so. I write these reports the way I'd like to read
| them, which is to say I divulge concrete numbers and share not
| only the wins, but fails as well. I believe a lot of lessons (and
| mistakes) contained within can be applied to creative projects
| beyond podcasts, so hopefully it comes in useful.
|
| For those who haven't heard (of) The Program audio series before,
| imagine Black Mirror as a podcast. Every episode is a standalone
| story set in a future in which Money, State, and God have been
| fused into a single entity called the Program. The world of the
| Program is neither a utopia nor a dystopia, as the new system
| produced both winners and losers - ordinary men and women who are
| sometimes heroes and sometimes the villains of their own lives.
| And to them, it is not this future they find terrifying - but our
| present.
|
| Comments/questions welcome!
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17425278
|
| [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21704417
| bberenberg wrote:
| Happy to be a sponsor of this great show. I hope to keep seeing
| it grow.
| taniraja wrote:
| Great show, entertaining and thought provoking.
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