The Program audio collection — 2023 yr in overview

The Program audio collection yr in overview: 2023

We’re a couple of weeks away from 2024, and the West seems to be like each
dystopian movie from the Nineteen Nineties thought it will look.

Which is by the way the explanation why I began to work on The Program
audio collection, the fiction podcast I write, direct, and produce – I
wished to current a societal system totally different from our personal. Not
essentially higher, thoughts you! Simply totally different. For even when most individuals
have understandably change into too jaded to assume something higher is
doable, I’d hope they’re nonetheless no less than capable of think about an
different.

That’s the impetus behind the present; the explanation why I initially
began to write down annual stories about the present (2019,
2020,
2021,
2022)
was to share what labored for me on my journey. Having achieved 730,000
downloads with no exterior funding, there’s in all probability an thought or two in
right here someplace worthy of emulation do you have to begin a podcast or a
comparable inventive endeavour of your individual (search for strains in
daring).

Since we left off, The Program acquired new present artwork. With the podcast
being an anthology of vastly totally different tales and genres, I opted for
an summary picture that conveys the collection’ mixture of humanities (and what
higher epitomizes the classics than a Greco-Roman statue) and know-how
(and what’s extra consultant of tech than glitches).

The present additionally grew for an additional 5 episodes – a
comedy about the trolley problem, an IT
cosmogony, a drama about a
missing father, a creepypasta
parable, and a
Messiah terrorist manifesto. The inventive points of the present
are by now principally resolved – I understand how to make it and the audiences
know what they’ll anticipate, so the one factor I must do is ship
extra episodes.

Which instantly brings us to an important matter: cash.

Final yr I introduced a plan to lastly make the present sustainable, by
which I imply I began pondering the right way to flip The Program from a glorified
passion right into a livelihood. Primarily based on the (minimal) manufacturing prices and my
price of dwelling (additionally minimal), I calculated I’d must make $2500 CAD
per thirty days to proceed paying my contributors their honorariums and nonetheless
have sufficient to dwell off myself.

Virtually a yr later, I’m glad to report that month-to-month contributions
elevated throughout all income streams (be aware that the next numbers
are my approximate internet earnings after deducting the opposite occasion’s
reduce):

• Patreon: $500 CAD > $1000 CAD

• Apple Podcasts subscriptions: $150 CAD > $300
  CAD

• Rusty Quill advert income: $100 > $200 CAD (in
  months throughout which I launched an episode; in any other case much less)

So mainly all my essential income streams doubled, placing my whole
earnings at someplace round $1500 per thirty days and getting me from 28% to
60% of my objective. Virtually talking nevertheless the state of affairs is much less rosy,
as my calculations had been predicated on me shifting to a decrease CoL space,
which is to say to return from Canada to Croatia. Nonetheless, within the final
12 months inflation and declining requirements of dwelling made each
nations noticeably much less reasonably priced. That is additionally why I felt the necessity
to extend my contributors’ honorariums, which now common $200 CAD.
All of that is to say that my month-to-month flooring went as much as $3000 CAD, and
that in actuality I’m now ~50% in my quest to show The Program from a half
time undertaking right into a full time job. Hopefully the objective posts cease shifting
and I handle to lastly obtain this in a yr or two. I say “hopefully”
seeing we’re working in a purple queen economic system, designed to maintain
suppliers of labour completely in place with all surplus worth going to
house owners of capital and rent-seekers.

Along with above sources of income, that are recurring (if
considerably fluctuating), there are a couple of different much less common methods the present
makes cash:

One-time donations (principally via Paypal), which
totalled $620 in 2023.

Illustration commissions, which stalled a bit this
yr, so I paid the present’s illustrator Carlos for many of them out of
Program’s earnings slightly than having fans sponsor them.
The 2 that did get sponsored got here from my two superfans, Tim
Franklin and Hendrik Richter.

Hendrik additionally sponsored an episode by promoting his actual property
firm withoutrealtor.com within the
present intro. I additionally managed to snag yet one more sponsor – AR firm Matterless, who having
produced The
Cyberdelic Podcast and commissioned a short
SF story from Alastair Reynolds are not any strangers to farsighted
advertising and marketing methods. I say farsighted, as a result of at $500 USD sponsoring
an episode of The Program may not instantly yield one of the best advertising and marketing
ROI, however these are baked-in advertisements that can repay handsomely as soon as The
Program is picked up by Netflix (any yr now…)

Lastly, present merch continues to be the ginger stepchild of monetization
methods, reaching a single digit variety of orders in 2023 at a
revenue margin that hardly justifies the “revenue” moniker. However no less than
it places The Program’s identify out on this planet, which is why I’m
disproportionately completely satisfied each time somebody buys it (talking of which, check out the new
designs and get 10% off with low cost code LITTLESISTERS).

Two greatest gamers within the podcasting house, Apple Podcasts and
Spotify, additionally made nice strides in 2023.

Apple Podcasts launched an analytics replace, not
just for common episode stats, but in addition the a lot wanted subscriptions
metrics.

Then again, Spotify launched a number of options to assist
audiences uncover and eat podcasts, by introducing episode
previews, transcripts, and writer suggestions (“Finest place to
begin”). In addition they invested closely into the community-building side
by permitting listeners to depart feedback via Q&A and Polls.

Spotify’s efforts to create a greater expertise for consuming
podcasts are additionally evident via their surveys and interviews with
podcasters, which I personally took half in. Nonetheless, they’re nonetheless
sorely behind in terms of making a real reference to us,
podcast authors. I say this as a result of — even after making many overtures
to their group — to this present day I haven’t heard again from anybody working in
their podcasting division, whereas the Apple Podcasts editorial group
couldn’t be extra responsive, useful, and simply plain previous form.

Since we’re taking a look at these dashboards anyway, let’s take a second
to meet up with the most recent present stats. Be aware that these come from my
present host Acast, which means the numbers you see cowl solely my tenure
with them (i.e. final 18 months). Additionally please be aware that they’re
IAB-compliant, i.e. Acast is far more strict with their definition of
what counts as a hear (which is why my total obtain quantity is
smaller than the quantity which Apple stories on iOS gadgets alone).

High 5 nations by listenership stay virtually the identical (solely Canada
and UK switched locations since final yr). The massive takeaway right here is that
the present merely wouldn’t exist with out the US, with the States
accounting for ⅔ of the downloads. So in case your podcast isn’t
related to People, assume laborious the way you’re going to make up for
it.

Age-wise, nearly all of my viewers stays of their 30s and trails
off from there in each instructions. I’m glad to say that the gender
breakdown has began to skew a bit much less male – in accordance with knowledge from
Spotify and my very own viewers survey, roughly 57% of The Program listeners
are males, 35% are girls, and eight% are non-binary & individuals who favor
to not disclose their gender. This is a crucial metric for me, for I
attempt to realize listenership gender parity. This isn’t as a result of I need
to unlock some form of a woke achievement, however as a result of it will signify
I’m telling balanced tales with a large enchantment. I surveyed a couple of fellow
audio drama creators and their audiences are much more male-dominated,
which is unsurprising as they’re all fellow sci-fi exhibits (solely Midnight Burger has
demographics corresponding to mine).

Having a background in product administration and advertising and marketing I’m keenly
conscious of the significance of promotion and virality issue, which is why I
all the time inquire how folks initially realized in regards to the present. Listed below are
this yr’s survey outcomes:

Two takeaways right here:

1. Becoming a member of a community made a substantial distinction in
   discoverability of the present, and is a testomony to Rusty
   Quill’s pressure

2. Curiously sufficient, phrase of mouth accounts to simply 5%, which I
   discover stunning seeing how a lot effort I make into reminding present
   listeners to proselytize the present — and what number of of them say they do
   so:

As reported within the final annual writeup, I additionally began publishing The
Program’s episodes on YouTube,
and I’ve been doing so each two weeks for a full yr. Nonetheless the
channel noticed no massive takeoff, having amassed simply 330 subscribers (VS 11.6
okay on Apple Podcasts and seven.6k on Spotify).

I additionally seen a a lot decrease conversion charge between individuals who
eat the primary episode after which proceed onto the second: 789
views > 186 views on YouTube VS 23,095 listens > 14,380 listens
through RSS – which is to say 23.6% VS 62.3%. None of this surprises me,
seeing that YouTube, with its emphasis on video content material, is
(nonetheless) not the perfect dwelling for audio-first tales.

Talking of audio-first, the present’s composer Christien Ledroit and
myself launched the second quantity of The Program audio collection’ unique
soundtrack!

Not like the primary quantity which we launched within the type of an LP, this
time we opted for a CD. Our reasoning was that individuals right now are equally
(un)doubtless to have the ability to play both format, and that any “actual”
listening can be carried out on-line through YouTube
or Spotify.
We reckoned {that a} bodily launch ought to be seen strictly as an
artefact for followers to show on their cabinets, which means the medium as
such is secondary. Because it seems, we had been each proper and flawed. On the
one hand, it’s true that the LP had offered higher than the CD. Nonetheless,
the CD was less expensive to provide and ship, making it
simple for us to swallow the losses (which wouldn’t have been the case
with the LP). So slightly than promoting it, I’ve been sending out the
second quantity of the OST to probably the most loyal followers as a
present.

Yet another factor that didn’t exist on the time I used to be writing the final
annual report is AI generated artwork – particularly not available
corresponding to via Midjourney. And whereas opinions on AI generated photos
are various, my private stance is that it’s a terrific new instrument in
podcasters’ toolbox, particularly as a strategy to generate present artwork.
I personally began utilizing it as an example episode quotes for socials and
I’m very pleased with the outcomes.

Funnily sufficient, for a present (ostensibly) about AI, I’m at present not
utilizing it a lot. I’ve given ChatGPT a attempt to as a non-native
speaker I discover it useful in terms of some grammar
questions, however I haven’t discovered a strategy to in any other case use it in my
workflow.

Lastly I wish to point out Apollo, a newly
(re)launched app designed solely for audio fiction. Their
mission is to change into one of the best place to hearken to fiction podcasts whereas
additionally offering audio drama creators a strategy to earn cash. Listeners can
choose to pay $9.99 USD per thirty days to get entry to ad-free variations of the
present + bonus content material, and this earnings is then shared amongst collaborating
exhibits primarily based on how a lot they’re listened to. It’s a intelligent idea and
The Program was glad to hitch it on its strategy to the moon identical to the
Apollo undertaking (I simply hope it doesn’t get defunded by Congress after 3
years).

That’s it for 2023. My objective for subsequent yr is to launch 5 extra
episodes, hit 1,000,000 downloads, lastly transfer forward with my different
audio drama undertaking (“Roddenberry fields perpetually..? Extra like
Roddenberry fields by no means!”), and hopefully get
one other step nearer to turning into a type of uncommon privileged artists who
really dwell off their artwork. In the event you’re already a fan, you may assist me
attain that objective here.
In any other case try the trailer beneath and provides The Program a hear on
Apple
Podcasts, Spotify,
or via its RSS
link.