As I just found out, the Ricky Gervais show on podcast now charges money for their podcast. Up to $1.95 per episode. That will be a nice little revenue stream for them, as some of the episodes have been downloaded more than 250.000 times (even though this number is now most likely to decrease a lot).
I don’t think I will pay in order to continue to listen. There are so many other podcasts – may be not as good, but at least for free. We’ll see.
This will be the start of a whole new debate: how much can you charge for a podcast? How much for a show done by professionals, but sounding rather improvised – like amateurs podcasts (which is how I perceive the Ricky Gervais podcasts)?
And, from a users perspective: how good does a podcast have to be, in order for you to willingly dish out $2 per 30 minutes?
I have no answers, as I only now thought about these questions myself… May be later.