Podcast Monetization Through Subscriptions with Jason Sew Hoy, CEO of Supercast

Podcasts have been around for over a decade, but the surge in listenership and engagement has only happened over the past few years. Through mobile internet and its extended reach, people now have a platform to start podcasts and deliver their show to thousands of users. Ordinary people can share their expertise without having to conform to conventional broadcasting standards. With the ever-rising popularity of the medium, many companies have capitalized on the growing market. Supercast is a startup that allows for podcast monetization through subscription services. CEO, Jason Sew Hoy, is our today’s guest, and he gives us a look behind the curtain. In this episode, Jason sheds light on how the Supercast platform works and what they’re doing to foster the passion rather than the gig economy. While the latter has worked out incredibly well on the supplier side, it flattens the creator’s skills and monetizes their time. By creating recurring revenue, Supercast hopes to help podcasters essentially get paid in their sleep along with creating direct, intimate connections between hosts and audiences. We also learn more about how a customized user feed enables the platform to have a better security as well as target their customers with content they want to listen to. Jason believes that we’re only at the very early days of what it means to monetize audio. He shares more on the Chinese podcast market and how it’s reached $8 billion in value. Along with this, Jason also covers Apple and Spotify’s role in the podcast market, how YouTube could be the dark horse of podcasting, and what the future has in store for Supercast. Be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why the podcast space has seen such explosive growth over the past few years.
• Learn more about Supercast, the niche they fill, and what drew Jason to the company.
• Passion economy versus gig economy: The differences and how they serve creators differently.
• Learn about how podcast subscription works and how willing audiences are to subscribe.
• Find out how Supercast allows the audience to have access to premium content.
• How the Supercast architecture works and the protection protocol to keep content exclusive.
• The growth potential of podcasts and a look at China’s podcast market’s incredible success.
• Jason’s take on what Apple and Spotify’s approach to podcasts and where it could go.
• Why Jason has doubts about dynamic ads being as effective as host-read ones.
• Learn more about Descript, an incredible podcast editing service.
• What’s on the horizon for Supercast, how it’s scaling, and how they’re using recent funding
• How podcasters can capitalize on YouTube and leverage the platform’s enormous reach.
• The effect of the lockdown on podcasts and why the decline in engagement isn’t bad.