In the last few years, the rise of several platforms has led to the creating of a creator economy. As a result, independent artists have been leveraging strategic collaborations with audio streaming platforms and eventually reaching global audiences, to build sustainable careers. Platforms like Spotify, Pocket FM, and Kuku FM among others not only allow these artists to create but also monetise the same. “ Creators often benefit from revenue sharing with platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, which distribute a portion of ad revenue or subscription fees to the creators. Licensing and syndicating content to other platforms or networks can generate income. Sponsorships provide another significant revenue stream, where companies pay to advertise their products or services within the podcast. Additionally, affiliate marketing allows creators to earn commissions by promoting products or services,” Abe Thomas, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd told BrandWagon Online.
It is believed that streaming platforms play crucial partners in building careers of these independent artists. For instance, Spotify provides a suite of features through its ‘Spotify for Artists’ platform which includes real-time analytics and fan engagement options. Typically these artists are signed via contracts. “ At Kuku FM, we have two ways through which creators and artists monetise their work. For audio shows that we own, we pay the creators one time for their production. Then there are audio shows that we co-own with writers or publishers. We operate on a production plus revenue share basis to show performance. To maintain transparency, creators can track the show’s stats in real-time. Last year we paid Rs 15 crore as payout to creators,” Lal Chand Bisu, co-founder and CEO, Kuku FM said.
Interestingly, not only video content creators or for that matter audio platforms have begun to facilitate writers, too. Pocket FM, an audio series platform claims to offer a stage to writers. The platform claims to comprise over 2.5 lakh writers and voice actors. “The journey for writers commences on Pocket Novel, our online reading platform, where they uploaded one lakh novels as part of the writer community. Starting from this phase, writers begin earning through an incentivised and revenue-sharing approach, with an average daily reading time surpassing 100 minutes per user. The success of these novels led to Pocket FM converting the top-performing ones into audio series, effectively doubling the writers’ earnings,” Suyog Gothi, head – India, Pocket FM said.