Deal highlights

• The first podcast marketplace: a platform for listening, engagement, and revenue
• From 0 to 600K MAU in first 12 months; listeners average 72 minutes per day
• 600+ podcasters participating in Paid Listens, the first tier of our marketplace
• Led by media and tech veterans from PRX and the podcast network Radiotopia
• Raised $3M+ from The New York Times, Project 11, WGBH, Bose Corporation
• Verified podcasters who invest get a 20% discount in their CrowdSafe
• RadioPublic is a Public Benefit Corporation

People love podcasts, and podcasts are booming

People who listen to podcasts really, really love podcasts. The US podcast audience has doubled in the last 4 years. There are 73 million people in the United States listening monthly, and once they start, they listen a lot: on RadioPublic people listen for 72 minutes each day. The podcast industry is booming, and RadioPublic is building the missing marketplace for creators, fans, and brands.  

We help listeners find podcasts they'll love

Podcasts are not easy to skim or scan, so how does a listener know where to start, or what to listen to next? And once you find something, how do you support the show, or keep track of things you heard?

• RadioPublic is free, no account or social login is needed to start listening.
• Our apps do not gather or share your personal information by design.
• Start listening on the web then “take it to go” on your iPhone or Android device.
• Our in-house Podcast Librarians hand-pick great podcasts and create playlists.
• We partner with curators and publishers to create collections across diverse topics.
• Use our “start here” episodes for the best first listen for a new show.
• Enable “Radio Mode” and let our prioritization algorithms suggest episodes.
• Select a station like “Daily news” or “Food & Drink” for a lean-back experience.
• Share an episode with a friend.

Happy listeners

We unlock new revenue opportunities for podcasters

Podcasters have numerous pain points with current podcast listening platforms. There is no way to identify loyal listeners and engage with them directly, and distribution is fragmented across apps that lack actionable data. Revenue opportunities are limited for all but the most popular shows. Our marketplace will help podcasters: 

• Identify customer leads via Affinity Messaging to target offers for merchandise, tickets, etc.
• Earn money through Paid Listens each time episodes are heard on RadioPublic.
• Measure advertising spend & effectiveness with Marketing Attribution.
• Sell enhanced audio & visual ads with higher CPMs via a Supply-side platform.
• Offer custom paid subscription/membership bundling directly to listeners.

How does RadioPublic make money?

RadioPublic is purposefully pre-revenue during our seed stage as we test and build the marketplace. We will generate revenue from two primary sources: our supply-side ad network (audio and interactive/visual inventory), and enabling—for a percentage—in-app subscription/membership packages on behalf of publishers. At scale, we will also enable and monetize lead generation and affiliate commerce for podcasters.

RadioPublic's go-to-market strategy is B2B2C

We provide podcasters and their web visitors a frictionless on-ramp between podcast discovery and listening via universal web links and embed players. Publishers are incentivized to drive audiences to RadioPublic to gain greater listener insights, engagement, and revenue. This approach drives RadioPublic’s organic user acquisition and retention.

We also leverage a market advantage through strategic partnerships with top publishers, including our founding partners and investors PRX, The New York Times, American Public Media, WGBH, and McClatchy as well as our strategic investor Bose Corporation, who brings deep insight and access to consumer audio products.  We have also partnered with both Wordpress and Medium to whitelist the RadioPublic embed player for use on thousands of web pages.

Competition

Apple has the largest podcast listening platform, but has never made podcasting a top business priority and does not generate any revenue for podcasters or advertisers. Spotify, Audible, Google, and other major platforms that now offer podcasts are helping grow podcasting’s visibility, but are unable to sustain long-term focus given strategic priorities in their core business and the competitive pressures that affect their bottom line.

Numerous independent and startup-up podcast apps vary widely in quality, focus on super-users, lack publisher relationships, or are experimenting with features and UX that have not yet proven successful in driving significant adoption.

Our Investors

RadioPublic’s investors represent a synergistic network of institutional, strategic, mission, and angel investors.

Our founding partner is PRX, public radio’s leading distribution platform. PRX is home to the Radiotopia podcast network, The Moth Radio Hour, and Dovetail — the dynamic ad-serving platform that powers This American Life, Serial, and S-Town, among others.

Press

What's Next

Listener focused

• HearMarks™ - keep track of and share interesting moments while listening
• Improved algorithms and scaling editorial curation
• More connected listening platform integrations
• Integrate community ratings and reviews
• Financial backing for podcasters including Patreon, Drip, and direct support
• Ad-free option for participating podcasts

Creator focused

• Help creators better understand their audiences
• Build out the RadioPublic marketplace for podcasters
• Methods to send direct in-app calls-to-action to engaged listeners
• Expand marketing support with attribution-enabled social and email campaigns

Brand focused

• Enhance integrations with podcast publishing and ad-serving systems including PRX’s Dovetail, Art19,  Megaphone/Panoply, NPR and Remote Audio Data (RAD)
• Expand Paid Listens platform ad inventory and display options, including “micro-series” concept for serialized interstitial ads
• Agency partnerships to utilize RadioPublic tools, data, and inventory

We are also integrating "one-touch podcasts" into partnerships with connected car/home companies with an API of podcast channels customized on a per-user basis and personalized over time by consumption patterns.

We love podcasts, public radio, and the Internet.

We believe there is unique power and connection in the spoken word, the human voice, and the conversations, stories, and information transmitted through the intimacy of sound. We believe podcasting — audio files delivered via the open protocol of RSS — will thrive as an open ecosystem for diverse and creative voices across entertainment, journalism, and communication of all kinds.

But we also believe podcasting must evolve to realize its full potential.

We are fusing podcasting with the simplicity, serendipity, and community of radio. And we are unlocking the immense value of podcasting’s latent link economy — the embedded web of information, relationships, references, and sharing that is currently trapped in audio files and limited data.

RadioPublic is dedicated to the transformation of radio into the open and networked world of podcasting and the Internet.

Members of Team RadioPublic

The RadioPublic team is led by media pioneer and founding CEO Jake Shapiro, along with veteran tech co-founders Matt MacDonald (Chief Product Officer) and Chris Rhoden (Chief Technology Officer).  

An early innovator who has helped shape the podcast and public radio industries, Jake Shapiro co-founded and is the former CEO of PRX, the award-winning distributor of independent audio content, including This American Life, The Moth Radio Hour, and the Radiotopia podcast network. PRX is the recipient of several Peabody Awards, Webby Awards, and the prestigious MacArthur Foundation’s Creative and Effective Institutions award. While at PRX, Shapiro also helped found Matter Ventures, the accelerator and investment fund for mission-driven startups.  Jake is the former associate director and now a senior fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University (where podcasting was first invented in 2003), and a fellow at Ashoka, the global network of social entrepreneurs. 

Working together for the last decade creating native audio apps for programs like This American Life, The Moth, and Radiolab, as well as major market public radio stations like WNYC, KQED, WGBH, KCRW and WBUR, the RadioPublic founding team has unrivaled domain expertise, technology product experience, and insights and relationships across the creative, advertising, and fan communities of podcasting.

Being mission-driven is core to our values, our brand, and our competitive advantage in an abundant media landscape where trust is scarce.

Equity crowdfunding aligns with our values of openness and inclusivity, and invites passionate participants in the podcast ecosystem to become stakeholders and advocates for RadioPublic.

Our Mission

Our mission is to help listeners discover, engage with, and reward creators of podcasts.

We share public media’s educational, artistic, and journalistic mission, and the democratic values of open access to information.

We are committed to operating a platform that fairly values creators’ work, respects users’ privacy and information rights, and benefits all participants.