How Relay FM Proves That Podcasts Aren’t An Overnight Success →
Great profile of Relay by Romain Dillet.
This part really captures why Relay is so great to work with:
But you can feel that all of these hosts want to be part of Relay FM as they interact with each other — on their podcasts, they reference other Relay FM shows. In many ways, Relay FM works like a comic book universe. If you want to know the entire story line, you need to listen to multiple shows.
But wanting to be part of a family isn’t enough if the numbers don’t add up. If Relay FM takes too big a cut, chances are many of these hosts would want to make a podcast on their own. “Our revenue is going up every month, which is great because it means that there is more money for our hosts, which is what I care about the most,” Hurley said. “Our number one thing is that everybody enjoys working with us and is happy with us and is well compensated for the work that they do. Our business is based on the people we work with.”
“Of all the money that comes into Relay, about three quarters of it goes out to hosts. Then the rest we use it to pay expenses and we take profits as owners — we are very lean,” Hurley said. While the number of shows has tripled during Relay FM’s first year, monthly revenue has quadrupled over the same period. Yet, the team doesn’t want to take any outside investment to fuel its growth.
Working with a close-knit group of old and new friends and doing conversational shows about your geeky interests and having enough listeners to make money and getting paid such a large portion of the gross revenue is almost completely unheard of in the rest of the podcast world.
That’s why Relay has such a bright future: they keep talent happy and attract new talent easily, so they’ll keep publishing great shows with ever-increasing audiences, and everyone wins.