Not all podcasters want to monetize their podcast. In fact a lot of indie podcasters start a podcast because they love podcasting, have an overwhelming passion for something and simply want to share it with the world. As time goes on (if they don’t podfade!) their passion grows and they begin to mull over the podcaster golden question:
How can I make money podcasting?
This post is not about monetizing your podcast. There are a gazillion ways and tons of folks that are willing to walk you through a myriad of models. The aim of this post is to provide you with a little simple checklist in order to save you some heartache IF you decide you do want to monetize your content from the beginning, even if that’s not your initial intention.
4 Ways To Impede Monetization Of Your Podcast
- 1. Use trademark images for your podcast artwork
- 2. Use trademarked words in the title or subtitle of your podcast
- 3. Use copyrighted music as your theme music, intro or outro music within your podcast.
- 4. Read, sing or perform full or parts of copyrighted works.
(NOTE) Generally speaking if you have been given specific permission by owners of copyrighted material for your podcast you will be unable make money off of those podcast episodes. You would have to strip that material from all the media that contains this content if you want to monetize your work.
Podcast Content That Hinders Monetization:
- Images or graphics of realistic violence
- Sexual content or nudity, particularly in podcast artwork
- High levels of profanity
- Alcohol, tobacco, or drug use, particularly in podcast artwork
The beauty and power of podcasting is that you can say, do and create any kind of content that you desire. If you want to create an awesome podcast replete with sexual content, with lots of profanity and tons of illegal substance use, then go for it!
Just know that your ability to find ways to monetize your podcast will be more limited, although not impossible. You’ll have to work a little harder to find the best match in terms of sponsors and joint ventures.
The whole copyright/trademark world, particularly for new media content is a bit complicated. The information seems to continually deepen and shift.
It’s up to content creators to choose to educate themselves and stay up to date on all this information.
Tools and resources that are necessary to have in your podcaster tool belt:
Websites and Documents
- Electronic Frontier Foundation- the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.
- What’s the difference between copyright and trademark? (WikiAnswers)
Copyright/Trademark Podcasts
Some of those podcast have podfaded but the information is still very good.
Bottom line:
If you have content in your podcast that causes you to wonder if you might infringe copyright or trademark laws, don’t put it in! You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle 🙂
Have you had issues with copyright material and have knowledge to share or have other resources that you’d like to let us know about? Leave a comment!
I’m sure as podcasters, we could all benefit from as much knowledge as we can.
PS.
If you are ready and optimized to monetize your podcast and take it to the next level we have podcast apps to extend your reach and monetization capabilities of your content and advertising programs available!