Did you think they were never going to ask people to subscribe again? Just like Cyclingtips before, it seems they will be the NPR of cycling asking people to pledge their support.
Personally, I don’t like the vibe for a for-profit business but I’m guessing the appeal method works on people.
Yeah, that’s not how I remember it. Sadly I don’t even have time to listen to new podcasts, let alone time to relisten to a year old pods.
@AJS914 I sure did not, but it’s a long way from “for us to grow and (…) we need a wider subscription base so if you like our work, please subscribe” to “Our little independent business won’t survive with its existing number of members.”. That to me means it’s either of those two possibilities I wrote above.
I seem to recall the same kind of rhetoric at CyclingTips. It rubs me the wrong way for a for profit business. Offer something for sale. Tell me how great it is. But don’t tell me you’ll go out of business if I don’t buy it.
They do…the content they create.
Thumbs down. The last part of my post was the salient point.
Tell me how great it is. But don’t tell me you’ll go out of business if I don’t buy it.
Well, since you only gets those pitches through pods or newsletters, you are choosing to consume them. So you are free not to hear them, as well.
As a subscriber, I don’t want to hear the pitch on every one of their pods, but I also know that there is a wider audience that is consuming that content for free and that is who EC is targeting. At the end of the day, a quick tap on the “+30s” button a few times and the issue is resolved.
Didn’t they post the list of everyone’s “membership level” initially?
Quick look, they have 21 employees, at 50k/head w/o benefits, that’s already a $1m. Add in hosting and all that, you need at least 10k people paying $100/year.
Maybe you can say they scaled up too quickly, but paying employees ain’t cheap.
I agree it should be easy maths, even taking into account conservative scenarios where X% of subscribers drop out. But I’m not their businesses consultant, I merely follow them on SM and see what they are up to (and where, how long…)
Not part of what I wrote at all. I never once complained about having to listen to ads on their free content.
I disagree with their “oh, woe is us, we will go out of business”, marketing strategy. They are a for-profit business, not NPR. Even NPR doesn’t say they won’t exist if more people don’t sign up.
As noted, skip over it or don’t consume the content in which it is present.
Maybe it’s quite unorthodox but on the other hand people easily forget they are business. I support them not for content, as I comsume mostly podcasts, but for them to exist. People just take many things as given forgetting on the other side is normal business to run with people to pay. We are just accustomed to free content on podcasts or yt where you consume content without paying creators as they find revenue in other sources.
Third option:
They bought a boat. Those things are money pits! 
My point is that they are a business, a for-profit business. We got the same pitch over and over from Cyclingtips but in the end Wade, the owner, got his exit money.
Someone is an owner. I assume it’s Wade and Caley.
They are not some non-profit doing the lord’s work.
At some point, if subscriptions don’t work, they will sell ads and do all the other stuff these business’ do. And farther down the road, if Caley and Wade get a buy out offer they can’t refuse, we’ll get new owners.
I agree but they are trying to do this thing in other way. Do they have a chance? Personally I do not think so - they are living on a good will of people and there is no chance there is enough such people to sustian bigger entity. They are not yt channel with one host.
I am fully behind the idea and I want it to work, but they are postponing inevitable (ads and sponsoring). But maybe they will find formula to integrate this in some slick way.
I do not belive they will can bough because no one will buy business in niche as cycling, and they were fired from only corporation that is interested in cycling media.
They have been pretty transparent that ads are an eventuality, but that they didn’t want to launch the effort with advertising.
IMO, they are paving the way now for ads with the 3-4 “let’s take a break” interludes, followed by the xylophone tune. Absolutely zero reason for them to “take a break” because it is a podcast…but I feel pretty certain that those spots will eventually be filled with ads. They are just “training us” for the placement. We’ll see…
Maybe, but as they are the best from journalistic point of view I can be happily exposed to some ads, even as a paying member.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t listened to a pod in a long time. The volume has gotten out of hand, so I just end up listening to none of them. I’ve gone back to mostly using that free time for music.
I think it’s a mistake to try to cover ever possible niche in a short amount of time. I think it would have been smarter to start small and amass a loyal reader/listenership well within their budget.
Having said that, I don’t find it unusual at all to get an email that says “we can’t survive without your money”. I don’t see it as any different than the daily email I get from Specialized or Rapha or Handup or Wiki or Ticketmaster or…whoever, asking me to go spend more money. The more people who subscribe, the more they can either keep costs down or expand (as mentioned before, I prefer to keep costs down) or delay adverts.
Oh yeah…i didn’t mean that comment as a knock against EC. They have always said ads were coming and, if my theory is correct, this is a smart way to slowly introduce the change in the flow of their podcasts.
And I like to have one cycling podcast per day. This makes shopping or things that require walking in the city more pleasurable. Recently I discovered that I also prefer podcast on indoor trainer than movies.
I can’t focus on the discussion while doing other things. I’m too much of an active listener. I can’t just let it drone in the background. I end up hitting rewind over and over and over.