Patreon and Acast are working together to make it easier for podcasters to post episodes that are only available to users who financially support them on Patreon.
Most podcast paywall solutions are pretty clunky or limited. That's why Acast launched technology last year that allows publishers to post paywalled episodes that listeners can access on any podcast app.
Patreon, meanwhile, it already supports creating an RSS feed for users only, and Brian Keller, the company's director of creators success, said that "exclusive content is the biggest and most effective benefit that [podcasters] they can offer to their members. "
However, he said that many of the podcasters on Patreon are asking for a better solution, which is where the Acast partnership comes into play.
Through integration, a podcaster can connect to their Patreon account in the public podcast schedule notes. If someone clicks on the link and is not already a user, they can register. If they are a user, their subscription level will be authenticated and they will be directed to a listening experience that allows them to subscribe, via the podcast app of their choice, to a feed that combines whatever user-only content they should have. access, plus all free content included in the public feed.
So, from the user / listener experience, you should only sign up once, so you can get your premium episodes without any additional work. The podcaster, meanwhile, can manage their public and private feeds from a single dashboard, while also gaining access to detailed listening data from Acast.
Leandro Saucedo, Acast's chief strategy and business officer, noted that the companies don't force any Patreon creators to go this route. They can still distribute their podcasts with whatever platform or tool they used before.
"With this partnership in place, we hope that utilization will be as high as possible, but we are not forcing anyone to do so," Saucedo said.
At the same time, he suggested that there should be a seamless migration process for all podcasters who switch to Acast, without requiring listeners to subscribe to a new feed.
Patreon and Acast have already beta-tested this integration with select podcasts, including Sleep With Me and 90 Day Gays.
"I love the A cast integration! "Sleep With Me's Drew Ackerman said in a statement." The analytics lets me know that users are listening to the content and gives me a clear idea of what and how they are consuming it. It is safe and easy for users to set up and the fact that there is only one link to share makes it easy for listeners to find the content and bring new users to our membership! "
