Enough.

From the beginning, Relay FM has been a community for podcasters, listeners and follow-uppers to share their common interests and passions. Now, with a Relay FM membership, you can directly support the hosts of your favorite shows.
Each show has three options for membership:
  • Silver: $5/month
  • Gold: $10/month
  • Annual: $100/year
Oh my goodness. I get it. Stratechery ("business forward" enough I forgive him, and you actually get serious goods for the price), Gimlet (less goods), Overcast (zero goods), Six Colors (nearly zero goods), Bielefeld (aspires to have monkbent-like goods), now Relay FM.

It's cool to hold out the bum cup now. Who knew?!! There's money to be had.

(Aside: Actually, everyone knew. You know how there are people at the highway exit that look like they're eating well and could actually do some work to pay off their REI boots? They figured out $25 an hour to sit beside the road with a two minute cardboard cutout was a pretty good gig. (Obviously not all cup-holders are bogus. I'm just saying folks figured out even begging is exploitable.) How about the tip jars at Starbucks? It's a revenue stream, guys. If you're not using it, you're losing it.)

But I'm tired of it. Telling me you'll take my money for nothing is not informative. Please at least be understated about your begging. Affiliate link? Fine. A link in your About, even the home page? Okay. But enough already acting like asking for money is interesting. It's not.

So what's Relay FM giving? Let's see...
  • Bonus episodes of every show during Relayโ€™s anniversary week in August
  • Monthly behind-the-scenes newsletter
  • 15% off anything in our merchandise store
(We plan on adding new perks as we go, and we will keep you posted on that front as soon as we have news!)

One, if you don't have your business plan in place ("new perks as we go!"), stop it. Why rush to beg for cash?

Two, I think you have fund driving all wrong. You're supposed to post completely unlistenable shows for a week or more to force us to pay to make the screeching stop, not give those that pay more shows. Interesting. That said, I've got more podcasts than I can keep up with now, thanks. (I think Under the Radar is the only Relay FM show I listen to regularly now.) You may also keep your newsletter, I believe, though I admittedly really like it when Ben Thompson screws up and makes his weekly letter free via RSS.

Three, well, I guess a 15% discount is kinda like a t-shirt. Or a sixth of one. Or something. But even if I pay for a single month, I'm not saving anything serious. ($3.75 a shirt. Guess I need to buy in bulk.)

Why not keep it simple? Give me something I like (a shirt of a podcast I like, or an app with useful features) and I'll give you a fair amount over what that shirt costs ($15-20, maybe $22). So thanks, Gruber.

You know, if we all want to complain about Arment making Overcast free, creating a race to the bottom in the podcast app category, we should also complain, I suppose, about all the free podcasts, heck, even the broadcast model in general. It'll be hard for anyone to go behind a paywall when I've got days of podcasts to catch up on as it is. Maybe the podcast peeps should start a syndicate and collude like mad.

Gosh I hope he doesn't go patronaging soon.

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