Getting Listeners To Commit To Your Plans For Podcast Subscriptions

When creating your own podcasts, it can be difficult to know how to offer your content to potential fans and customers.

These subscription plans are relatively common, but there are several variations that you can choose from – each of them offering a little different, and having different impacts on your audience. 

But what plans are there for podcast subscriptions, and what effect do these have? 

The Best Content Formats

When choosing a podcast subscription format for your new podcast, there are several that you can choose from. 

Ad Free Episodes

One of the major benefits of offering a subscription service is that you can have ad free episodes.

For many people, paid advertising in the middle of their favorite podcast can be a source of irritation and annoyance, so offering ad-free episodes might be incentive enough for some people to pay to listen to your podcast. 

In many ways this is a win-win situation, allowing your listeners to have uninterrupted content, earning you an income from subscriptions, and ensuring that you are not beholden to potential advertisers – as is the norm with most free podcasts (also see, ‘Best Podcast Host For Monetization‘). 

In Apple Podcasts, you can offer ad free episodes as part of an in-app purchase subscription. Many podcast providers have found success in offering listeners the choice between listening to normal, ad-supported episodes, and paying a small fee to access uninterrupted versions.

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions

For podcast listeners, accomplishing this is often as easy as clicking on a ‘Subscribe Now’ button within the podcast app they are using. This will take them to a page where they can purchase the subscription.

For podcasters, setting up ad-free episodes is fairly straightforward – you just need to create an in-app purchase subscription option and link it to your podcast feed.

In Apple Podcasts Connect, for example, you need to create a subscription and enter the RSS feed associated with it. Then, Apple Podcasts will periodically check your podcast feed and automatically add new content to the subscription.

Apple Podcasts subscriptions are a great way to offer ad-free content and increase your podcast’s income (also see, ‘How To Submit Your Podcast To iTunes‘).

It’s an easy, effective way to generate subscription revenue from loyal listeners who are eager for uninterrupted content. With the right setup and promotion, you can create a successful subscription service that will benefit both you and your audience.    

Exclusive Episodes

One other option is having exclusive episodes. 

This works best with a free podcast, and means that you can hide exclusive content behind a paywall, meaning that podcast subscribers will have to pay a small one-off fee to gain access to it.

It has the benefit of allowing the content creator to be a little bit more real, personal, and ‘raw’ with the fans who go behind the paywall. 

This tends to work best with established podcasts, especially those with some celebrity appeal, as this will often create a sense of exclusivity and make paying subscribers want to access the extra content. 

This could also work if you are offering specific advice, or the answers to a specific problem talked about in the previous (or accompanying) free episode.