Podcasters take their shows on the road
Beyond YouTube, podcasters are increasingly finding benefits to cultivating a fan base via another method that emphasizes visuals over audio: in-person events.
“We’re still going to have the same fun you have on the podcast, but now it’s going to be live,” said Jared Freid, comedian and co-host of the modern dating podcast “U Up?” with Betches Media co-founder Jordana Abraham. “It’s a community event.”
Momentum around podcasters’ hosting live events — some of which are recorded, edited and uploaded to YouTube and other platforms — briefly stalled during the coronavirus pandemic, but a resurgence that started last year is expected to continue in 2023, according to media executives and podcast experts.
After launching in 2019, Acast’s “Reality Gays with Mattie and Poodle,” for instance, was unable to initially host live shows. But in late 2021, they sold out a theater in Los Angeles. “People came in from Hawaii. People came in from all over the country,” co-host Jake Anthony said. “It was super cathartic for everybody there.”
While there appears to be an appetite for these events, there’s a lot more room for them to grow, according to the Morning Consult survey. Only 13% of podcast listeners said they have attended a live podcast recording. Meanwhile, 15% of listeners said they would be willing to pay between $10 and $25 to attend a live recorded podcast event, though 46% said they would not pay at all.
Some podcasters and executives, such as KPMG’s Purdy, noted the challenges with live podcast-style events, including logistics and operations, production costs and competition for consumers’ time and money.
“The video component to podcasting will be a much bigger component of the evolution than live events,” Purdy said. He called live events a “different product proposition,” competing with other entertainment like concerts, sporting events and movie theaters, rather than with other actual podcasts.
Freid said podcasters who host live shows must give the audience “a reason to leave their house,” beyond just being a recorded version of the podcast they can listen to (or watch) at home. He said live shows need to be “a multimedia event,” where he and Abraham host games and other segments that can’t be effectively replicated via an audio-only format, like a dating profile makeover.
While other companies mull how to invest further in live events (Patterson said Jomboy is determining how to produce events that do not distract from the main business), those already immersed in the space are seeing positive returns.
Freid said 800 to 1,000 people attended each “U Up?” show in a six-city tour last summer. About 9,000 people attended the “Men in Blazers” World Cup tour, where tickets cost between $30 and $90, according to the show’s publicist, with four more live events tentatively planned for 2023.
Barstool Sports’ pop culture podcast “Chicks in the Office”, which hosted eight live events last year, sold out a 1,000-person show at Manhattan’s Webster Hall in December in one minute, a spokesperson said.
“KFC Radio” completed a three-city West Coast tour last fall, with 300 to 1,000 people attending each event, according to the program’s publicist. On average, tickets sold for $30 to $35. Clancy admitted he almost decided live shows weren’t a fit for his podcast, but the trip through Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles “rejuvenated and revitalized” him.
“When you go on stage, your show is done and everyone loves it, it’s a great rush,” said Clancy, who expects to co-host around 10 live shows in 2023. “It’s f*cking incredible.”
ncG1vNJzZmiooqR7rrvRp6Cnn5Oku7TBy61lnKedZMGzsc2dZKydpKmys7%2BOqaadm5GowbR5y6KqrZ2eYsSiwMKhZLChpJ16t7XDnqY%3D