The Best Show: the future

[Chad from The Woodlands]

Say you had a 1000 subscribers at $5 a month.  That a salary for one person.  A good way to  determine interest might be to throw a survey here and on twitter and see how many would subscribe and what price and than cut that number in half, very rough estimate.  Maybe a kickstarter would be a good opinion.  Regardless, I feel like interest is out there.

[spruce]

Tom is definitely in a unique and enviable position among his podcasting peers in that he can start a professional venture from scratch and reasonably expect to have a sizable audience from the get-go. I mean, a lot of people, myself included, would just pay to listen to a podcast solely dedicated to Vance droning out reviews of prog rock albums. That said, getting people to pay for something they once got for free is a tough proposition, even if it is just a few bucks. I wouldn't expect that Tom will become a millionaire off the new incarnation of the show, but I have to believe that he'd make enough to get by and then some.

I don't know if Kickstarter is the way to go or not. I don't know that Tom would need it or its inherent headaches. It seems like if he were willing to invest up front in a solid platform for the show, making sure he didn't get any surprises with regards to the tech stuff (failing applications, flaky paid services, bandwidth overload, etc.) he'd basically be ready to go once he set up some kind of subscription or other payment method. The dedicated FOTs would tune in and continue to spread word of the show. I mean, what do I know, but it doesn't seem like it needs to be more complicated than that. If he gets things going within the next few months, he should be able to carry over a goodly chunk of his WFMU listeners.

It'll be interesting to see how the show becoming monetised changes things. I don't think it'll change things for the worse, really, but it will make the show different. And unshackling the show from the radio gives Tom and Jon a lot of new options regarding how it is presented. It's scary and it's exciting!

[Chad from The Woodlands]

Tom is definitely in a unique and enviable position among his podcasting peers in that he can start a professional venture from scratch and reasonably expect to have a sizable audience from the get-go. I mean, a lot of people, myself included, would just pay to listen to a podcast solely dedicated to Vance droning out reviews of prog rock albums. That said, getting people to pay for something they once got for free is a tough proposition, even if it is just a few bucks. I wouldn't expect that Tom will become a millionaire off the new incarnation of the show, but I have to believe that he'd make enough to get by and then some.

I don't know if Kickstarter is the way to go or not. I don't know that Tom would need it or its inherent headaches. It seems like if he were willing to invest up front in a solid platform for the show, making sure he didn't get any surprises with regards to the tech stuff (failing applications, flaky paid services, bandwidth overload, etc.) he'd basically be ready to go once he set up some kind of subscription or other payment method. The dedicated FOTs would tune in and continue to spread word of the show. I mean, what do I know, but it doesn't seem like it needs to be more complicated than that. If he gets things going within the next few months, he should be able to carry over a goodly chunk of his WFMU listeners.

It'll be interesting to see how the show becoming monetised changes things. I don't think it'll change things for the worse, really, but it will make the show different. And unshackling the show from the radio gives Tom and Jon a lot of new options regarding how it is presented. It's scary and it's exciting!

I think you are right.

[buffcoat]

I agree with Spruce on two significant points, and I only post this because Tom specifically asked for suggestions on Facebook.

1. I think it's absolutely critical that this gets going as quickly as possible. The people who are invested enough to post on this board (yours truly included) will be likely to sign up even if it takes a year, but we aren't going to make up the numbers needed to make it a profitable enterprise. The clock started ticking in October to convert moderate to weakly attached fans. I think getting the sign-up in place even a few weeks before the first show is a good idea.

2. The second, almost-opposing point is that the technology to get the podcast to users should be ready to go from day one of the new show. President Obama's experience with launching a half-ready technology platform should be illustrative. Again, long-term, committed fans are willing to tolerate false starts, but reaching the numbers necessary to make it a sustaining enterprise requires getting money from people who sign up on a lark. Those people will bail immediately if it's hard to get.

The good news as I see it is that Tom has from the beginning of the show attracted a cadre of people with strong skills in both the technology and entertainment industries. Many of them will work for free (especially to help get this started). Witness Mel's contribution to the podcast, or all the people who helped find and make the clips for the sound collages and the final show tributes. These nerds technology gods could really help in getting things started once he figures out exactly what he wants to do.

There may also be out-of-the-box solutions that work for this. I run a company that has substantial, er, e-operations, and we have had to use a blend of existing and custom-designed services to make things work.

[Sashamak]

I think a live show would be interesting.  I kind of see it as a Spalding Grey type set up with Tom at a desk and Jon Wurster characters "phoning in" and the sound college being this multimedia fearfest.

[effecT]

I don't have facebook either...
Any news coming from Tom these days?

[Cubmaster]

Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something.  I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.

Perhaps he pulled it to edit it? 

[YuriDedman]

Or perhaps

Rollins Band - Do it

[joe]

Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something.  I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.

Perhaps he pulled it to edit it?

He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.

[justinmh05]

Just a few minutes ago, I glanced at my Facebook feed and briefly saw that Tom had posted about the "first bricks" being laid for something, something.  I went to his Facebook page but didn't see anything like that posted.

Perhaps he pulled it to edit it?

He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.

It's happening, people! I'm so excited for whatever is in store.

[fonpr]

[
He posted a website where you could sign up for a mailing list but there were some technical problems with the signup (I know, I tried, it didn't work) so he took down the post to get it fixed. Still, it's exciting to see things are in motion.

Sounds like the ACA.

[buffcoat]

I agree with Spruce on two significant points, and I only post this because Tom specifically asked for suggestions on Facebook.

1. I think it's absolutely critical that this gets going as quickly as possible. The people who are invested enough to post on this board (yours truly included) will be likely to sign up even if it takes a year, but we aren't going to make up the numbers needed to make it a profitable enterprise. The clock started ticking in October to convert moderate to weakly attached fans. I think getting the sign-up in place even a few weeks before the first show is a good idea.

2. The second, almost-opposing point is that the technology to get the podcast to users should be ready to go from day one of the new show. President Obama's experience with launching a half-ready technology platform should be illustrative. Again, long-term, committed fans are willing to tolerate false starts, but reaching the numbers necessary to make it a sustaining enterprise requires getting money from people who sign up on a lark. Those people will bail immediately if it's hard to get.

The good news as I see it is that Tom has from the beginning of the show attracted a cadre of people with strong skills in both the technology and entertainment industries. Many of them will work for free (especially to help get this started). Witness Mel's contribution to the podcast, or all the people who helped find and make the clips for the sound collages and the final show tributes. These nerds technology gods could really help in getting things started once he figures out exactly what he wants to do.

There may also be out-of-the-box solutions that work for this. I run a company that has substantial, er, e-operations, and we have had to use a blend of existing and custom-designed services to make things work.

I totally nailed this whole thing two years ago. Everything I said has come true, in a sense.

























* In a more accurate sense, nothing I said came true.