The marriage of on-demand podcast and live interaction with fans continues to gain traction. Deepening its embrace of social audio, Podbean is adding several new features to its live two-year old streaming service Podbean Live. Some are targeted toward improving the money-making odds for creators.
While several apps now offer both podcasts and live streaming – Spotify launched Greenroom last month and Facebook began rolling out Live Audio Rooms in addition to adding podcast listening capabilities – Podbean is sending a “welcome to the club” shot at the newcomers.
In an announcement about the updates, it said the biggest users of its live streaming platform are now earning “significant revenue” from its monetization features. “In May, the top host made over $1,900 and the average for the top 10 hosts was just over $400,” the company said.
The latest enhancements to Podbean Live include a “Fan Club” option that will allow livestream fans to secure special privileges by joining, while also creating a new source of revenue for hosts. The new features will also allow listeners to send donations to hosts, cohosts and call-in speakers.
Podbean also recently added private livestreaming for their business clients –mainly companies creating private, internal podcasts – so that only authenticated members of their organization can join.