In the past 6 years, the number of paid podcast events has increased by more than 2,000%, according to independent ticket vendor data reviewed by Axios.
The explosion of live events represents a reliable secondary source of revenue for popular podcasts.
Personality-driven podcasts like Peter Sagal’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! on NPR are some of the most successful.
Podcasting critics explain the success of these people-powered podcast events with an “intimacy thesis,” arguing that podcasting’s fundamental value lies in its ability to cultivate a feeling of intimacy between a speaker and a listener.
My Favorite Murder and Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! — 2 personality-driven podcasts — charge the most per average ticket, at $117 and $113, respectively.
It’s likely that other shows will follow suit: The number of paid, live podcast performances increased from just 21 in 2012 to 460 last year.