All templates
Six shows · independent · founded 2019
Two different people read this page.
If you want to advertise, you need real numbers and a rate card. If you make a show, you need to know what a network takes and what it gives back. Those are two pages pretending to be one, so below they sit side by side instead of tangled together.
The shows
On Mic
Weekly conversation, one guest, no format. The oldest show here and still the biggest.
Short Circuit
Twenty minutes on one idea, twice a week. Made for a commute and it shows in the numbers.
The Long Field
Narrative documentary, six-part seasons. Small audience, absurdly loyal, best completion rate of anything here.
Off Book
Two booksellers argue about what's actually selling. The one advertisers ask for by name.
Night Kitchen
Food, late, unhurried. Skews older and further from cities than anything else on this list.
Sixth Form
Teenagers interview adults about their jobs. The one we lose money on and would not drop.
Replace these with your own, and say something true about each audience rather than something flattering. "Small and loyal" sells better than "growing fast" to anybody who has bought audio before.
If you want to advertise
Host-read, from a brief — Not a script read aloud. It performs better and it means nobody is made to say a sentence they don't believe
Rates are per thousand — Published, the same for everybody, and not negotiated upward for people who don't ask. Ask and you get the card
Minimum spend is small — Deliberately. A network that only talks to media agencies stops hearing from the interesting advertisers
You approve the copy — And nothing else. You do not approve the episode and you never hear it first
Numbers before a call — The raw export is sent on request. Nobody has to sit through a deck to find out whether this is the wrong size for them
Rates are per thousand — Published, the same for everybody, and not negotiated upward for people who don't ask. Ask and you get the card
Minimum spend is small — Deliberately. A network that only talks to media agencies stops hearing from the interesting advertisers
You approve the copy — And nothing else. You do not approve the episode and you never hear it first
Numbers before a call — The raw export is sent on request. Nobody has to sit through a deck to find out whether this is the wrong size for them
If you make a show
Seventy per cent to you — Of the advertising sold against your show, paid monthly, with the invoice attached so you can check the arithmetic
You keep the feed — The RSS is yours, registered in your name, and it leaves with you. A network holding your feed is holding your audience hostage
No exclusivity on you — Only on selling ads. Write, present elsewhere, start a second show somewhere else — none of that is ours to permit
Editorial is yours — Entirely. We sell the ads; you make the show. If those two ever conflict, the show wins and that is written down
Leaving takes ninety days — One notice, no penalty, no clawback, and the back catalogue goes with you
You keep the feed — The RSS is yours, registered in your name, and it leaves with you. A network holding your feed is holding your audience hostage
No exclusivity on you — Only on selling ads. Write, present elsewhere, start a second show somewhere else — none of that is ours to permit
Editorial is yours — Entirely. We sell the ads; you make the show. If those two ever conflict, the show wins and that is written down
Leaving takes ninety days — One notice, no penalty, no clawback, and the back catalogue goes with you
What the numbers actually mean
A download is not a listener — It is a file request. One person working through six episodes is six downloads. Anybody quoting downloads as an audience is quoting the wrong number, and usually knows it
Say how you count — Ours: one request per address per day, over the first thirty days, known bots excluded. Put your own definition here — two networks counting differently cannot be compared at all
Completion rate matters more — It is the number that decides whether a mid-roll is heard. It is published per show here, because some of ours are much better than others and averaging them would be a way of hiding that
Where and on what — Country split and app split, both included. The app split matters because it tells you whether dynamic insertion even reaches these listeners
What can't be told to you — Whether anybody bought anything. Attribution in audio is genuinely poor, and a network claiming otherwise is selling you a survey with a confident font
Ask for the export, not the deck — Sent on request, without a call first, in a spreadsheet. If a number in it looks bad you will get the reason rather than a redesign
Say how you count — Ours: one request per address per day, over the first thirty days, known bots excluded. Put your own definition here — two networks counting differently cannot be compared at all
Completion rate matters more — It is the number that decides whether a mid-roll is heard. It is published per show here, because some of ours are much better than others and averaging them would be a way of hiding that
Where and on what — Country split and app split, both included. The app split matters because it tells you whether dynamic insertion even reaches these listeners
What can't be told to you — Whether anybody bought anything. Attribution in audio is genuinely poor, and a network claiming otherwise is selling you a survey with a confident font
Ask for the export, not the deck — Sent on request, without a call first, in a spreadsheet. If a number in it looks bad you will get the reason rather than a redesign
What we won't advertise
Written down in advance so the next borderline pitch is a two-minute conversation instead of a two-week one.
Gambling and trading apps — Including the ones that describe themselves as something else. Parts of this audience are younger than the deck suggests and this one is not negotiable
Supplements making health claims — A supplement advertisement is fine. One that says it treats or prevents something is not — the line is at the claim rather than at the product
Anything with a countdown in it — "Only until Friday" read into a show that stays online forever becomes a lie in about a week, and it is the host who gets the emails about it
Political advertising — Of any kind and in any direction. That is not a position about politics — it is a position about being able to say no to the next one without arguing
Anything a host doesn't want to read — Any host may refuse any advertisement on their own show, without giving a reason, without it affecting their share and without it coming back up
What the list costs — Real money, every quarter. It stays written down because a rule you can look up is worth more than a rule somebody has to be persuaded of each time
Supplements making health claims — A supplement advertisement is fine. One that says it treats or prevents something is not — the line is at the claim rather than at the product
Anything with a countdown in it — "Only until Friday" read into a show that stays online forever becomes a lie in about a week, and it is the host who gets the emails about it
Political advertising — Of any kind and in any direction. That is not a position about politics — it is a position about being able to say no to the next one without arguing
Anything a host doesn't want to read — Any host may refuse any advertisement on their own show, without giving a reason, without it affecting their share and without it coming back up
What the list costs — Real money, every quarter. It stays written down because a rule you can look up is worth more than a rule somebody has to be persuaded of each time
How the ads are read
Host-read, mostly — The host writes it from your brief in their own words. It outperforms a read script by a distance, and it means the sentence is one they will stand behind
Dynamic insertion where it fits — For campaigns with an end date. Those come out when the campaign ends rather than living in the archive for the next decade
Nothing appears in the back catalogue quietly — A two-year-old episode does not acquire a new advertisement overnight. Where back-catalogue campaigns run at all, it is said here first
Ads are labelled — In the audio and in the notes. Not because a rule demands it — because a listener who spots one unlabelled advertisement stops believing the recommendations as well
You approve copy, not content — The wording is yours to sign off. The episode around it is not, and you will not hear it before it goes out
If a host is critical of you — Nothing happens. Buying an advertisement does not buy editorial, and that is worth more to you than the alternative, because it is the entire reason anybody believes the read
Dynamic insertion where it fits — For campaigns with an end date. Those come out when the campaign ends rather than living in the archive for the next decade
Nothing appears in the back catalogue quietly — A two-year-old episode does not acquire a new advertisement overnight. Where back-catalogue campaigns run at all, it is said here first
Ads are labelled — In the audio and in the notes. Not because a rule demands it — because a listener who spots one unlabelled advertisement stops believing the recommendations as well
You approve copy, not content — The wording is yours to sign off. The episode around it is not, and you will not hear it before it goes out
If a host is critical of you — Nothing happens. Buying an advertisement does not buy editorial, and that is worth more to you than the alternative, because it is the entire reason anybody believes the read
Talk to us
Say which of the two you are in the first line and it goes to the right person the same day. Both get answered; only one of them gets a spreadsheet.
Talk to us
"No idea — advise me" gets the same answer as a media plan does, and it is picked more often by good advertisers than by bad ones.
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.