Joe Budden brings his podcast to Patreon

Four months after the end of his exclusive contract with Spotify, Joe Budden brings his podcast to Patreon and has been appointed an advisor to the company, assuming the role of head of creators’ capital. Like many other podcasters on Patreon, his show will be available for free on most podcasting platforms – with the notable exception of Spotify – and paid supporters will have access to additional perks. Both his show, The Joe Budden Podcast, and its network, The Joe Budden Network, will be supported through the same Patreon page with the same subscription cost.

Subscribers can pay anywhere from $ 5 to $ 25 per month for bonus content, private Discord, and exclusive touring offers. Budden tells The edge He and his team will also be offering new shows exclusively for Patreon subscribers, which can be broadcast more widely after a certain time.

The message of the move is clear: Although many podcasters engage in exclusive deals, Budden doesn’t see them as the future of podcasting.

“It’s so prehistoric,” he says, explaining that when he signed his Spotify deal three years ago, he and Spotify both wanted to see if exclusive deals could work. He says he proved the model, as well as his audience’s potential, but didn’t want Spotify to use their fans and reach out to prove the value of the platform and make money.

“For many years the record companies and the system I came from made us think they were doing us a favor by capitalizing on our talents and lending us money, and that’s the norm. time, ”Budden says, adding that he already knows how this system has worked for creators.

When Budden announced his separation from the tech company, he said that Spotify was “looting” its audience and only caring about his show’s contribution to Spotify as a whole, not his actual podcast.

Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon, says Budden is on a standard Patreon plan, where the company takes a portion of its subscription revenue, but having it as an advisor sets it apart from other creators and underscores the value of it. business to hear it directly. .

“It’s about tech companies paying creators the minimum amount they can get away with instead of paying creators what they’re actually worth,” Conte says. “Creators upload gold to these platforms – billions of hours of energy, enthusiasm, passion, creativity, storytelling, and excitement – everything we love to read, listen to, watch. , see and hear, and creators get a fraction of what they’re really worth. And not only that, they are disconnected from their audience. They don’t own the relationship with their audience. They don’t get any data. They cannot run their own business. They are excluded from their business. “

Budden isn’t the only one to have spoken about the way Spotify treats creators. The hosts of The Nod, which became a Spotify-owned show after the company acquired Gimlet Media, spoke out in June about its issues with the show’s ownership. Hosts Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings say they built their show and audience but didn’t own any.

“At the end of the day, investing in someone’s talent is not the same as having the talent yourself,” Luse said. The edge. “It’s very strange that [Spotify and Gimlet] are the only people who can claim ownership of [The Nod and its segments]. “

Still, Spotify continued to sign deals with top talent, including Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian West, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. He also continued to encourage small creators to try podcasting through his creative software, Anchor. Patreon is promoting itself as the antithesis of exclusives – a place where podcasters can reward their most loyal fans while still having the freedom to do whatever they want with their show.