How do you fund a podcast with crowdfunding?

What can a podcast campaign pay for?

Anything one defined season or upgrade needs. Listeners back a list they can read, so name each cost line in the campaign.

• Gear: microphones, an audio interface, headphones, acoustic panels for the room.
• Editing: your hours, or a freelance editor paid per episode.
• Hosting: a year of the service that serves your feed.
• Cover art and music: a designer, and the licence for your theme.
• Guests: travel for the interviews you can't record remotely.
• Transcripts: for accessibility and for search.

Leave the monthly running costs out. A campaign is one project with a finish line, not a subscription.

How big should the goal be?

Big enough to make the season, small enough for your regular listeners to fill without strangers. Count the people who write in, rate or reply, not your download numbers.

For example, a season of 10 episodes: editing at $40 each ($400), two microphones ($200), cover art and a music licence ($150) and a year of hosting ($100). That comes to $850. Add the cost of making and sending the rewards, plus the fees, and you land near $1,000.

Then check it against your listeners: 400 regulars, 1 in 8 backing at an average of $20, makes about $1,000. The goal planner runs both sums. If they don't meet, make the season shorter.

What rewards work for podcast listeners?

The best ones are built from the show itself, so they cost you time more than money.

• Your name read in the credits of an episode.
• Episodes a week early, on a link only backers get.
• A bonus episode: the outtakes, a listener questions special, the story behind the season.
• A question you send, put to a guest on air.
• A seat at a live recording, if you record in a room.
• Stickers, a mug or a tote bag with the cover art.
• A call with the hosts, for the top tier.

You have up to 5 tiers. Make the cheapest one the name in the credits, since it costs nothing to deliver. The reward tier planner shows what each tier leaves you after costs.

When should you launch it?

Between seasons, with the deadline set before you need to pay for anything. The money only reaches you after the deadline, and only if the goal is met.

A deadline of about four weeks covers four weekly episodes, which means four chances to ask on air. Record the ask yourself, near the start of the episode, and say what the season will be.

How do you get listeners to back it?

Ask in your own voice, in every episode, and put the link where listeners already look. A podcast audience hears you but rarely sees your posts.

• Read the ask on air, with the one thing the season will make.
• Put the link at the top of the show notes of every episode until the deadline.
• Ask each guest to share the episode they're in.
• Give an update when the total moves: listeners like to hear they got you there.

You can also set a share reward, from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge, paid by the program to whoever shared the link. How to share your campaign, from the free course, covers the first week.

What does it cost?

Writing and previewing a campaign costs nothing. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan.

Each pledge then pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and the share reward you set comes out of the pledge too. The minimum pledge is $10, so set your cheapest tier at or above it.

The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.

Every plan is on the pricing page.

What if the goal is missed?

If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).

You keep the feed, the listeners and the episodes you already made. Look at who backed, cut the season down to what they covered, and launch again.

How do you start?

1. Sign up in the app with email or Google.
2. Write what the season is, the cost lines, the goal and the deadline.
3. Add your reward tiers, at least one.
4. Set the share reward and publish.
5. Record the ask and put the link in the show notes.

How to set a crowdfunding goal walks through the number in more depth. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.