<![CDATA[Weblogsky: Podcasting for Profit:
This is all very cool, but you know what they say: don’t look a gift economy in the mouth.
Jon takes a refrain I’ve been hearing from folks responding to my revealing I’ve been working with Audible to develop an ecosystem for audio self-publishers, Ev Williams and Noah Glass’ Odeo and other profit-making podcast efforts.
There will always be a gift economy and that’s a fine thing. In fact, we believe that’s a core feature of what Audible has to enable with better navigation and subscription management features, too. However, there is a large and growing number of people earning their livings through creativity that also need to be supported and encouraged. Doing one doesn’t exclude doing the other.
Almost every podcaster I’ve spoken with has said they’d like to make their living do the productions they do, because they love it. They don’t want to make tens of thousands of dollars a month, but the want to get by comfortably. If we can bring that cottage media system into being, the benefits to the rest of us will be huge, because there will be vast numbers of voices to choose from, not the same four or five corporate media voices of today.]]>
3 replies on “It's not profit like Hollywood thinks "PROFIT!"”
It’s cool to make a profit, and podcasting logically points that way; I just worry that the podcasting scene will too quickly settle into a dollar-driven rut.
Jon, I know there’s been a profit motive from the get-go among some producers. Having them succeed won’t hurt anybody who wants to give stuff away, it will only make people more aware of all the choices they have when listening.
I’ll keep the faith. I acknowledge that, in this realm, it’s less likely that the powerful will squelch those less powerful, but it’s still a concern. I’m not worried about your Audible project, though, or Odeo, or other projects that are instigated by the clueful.