We are proud to have recently partnered with RedCircle, the leading podcast platform for independent creators, to help mid-size podcasts innovate, grow, and become more lucrative.
The podcast industry is booming these days, but as the industry grows, the majority of revenue is being pocketed by the big publishers, leaving independent creators locked out. The ironic thing about this scenario is that the independent podcasters have been propelling this medium forward and building it up from its foundations.
The main focus of RedCircle is to flip the switch on this narrative. Founded in 2018 by Mike Kadin and Jeremy Lermitte, RedCircle provides a platform for podcasts and brands to scale their message. The platform supports podcasters with distribution, growth, and monetization, and its advertising platform helps brands purchase advertising efficiently, guaranteeing high ROI.
RedCircle Provides Tools to Help Podcasters Make Money
The premise behind RedCircle is simple: RedCircle is the business that helps podcasters get paid. According to Kadin, RedCircle provides “a bunch of free tools to podcasters for distribution and analytics, and [also] some marketing and growth tools for them.” But that’s not all. He added, “[Most] importantly, we offer tools to help them earn both through a tool that lets them collect payments from their listeners.”
Coupled with RedCircle’s automated advertising platform, which they use to hook you up with advertisers for what Kadin calls “a sort of host read endorsement style deal”—RedCircle helps fully automate the podcast revenue process from end to end.
“You sort of get an invite to an advertisement, pricing terms, the script, and everything like that. You accept the deal, you upload your ad read, and then our system takes care of the rest, inserting [your content], running the campaign, and providing analytics for the advertiser, and moving the money into the podcasters’ bank account when the campaign is done,” said Kadin.
In short, RedCircle makes it simple and easy to run advertising campaigns, collect payments, and create growth through distribution while simultaneously providing all the tools that a podcaster needs to run their podcast as a business. For this reason, RedCircle is geared more toward the serious podcaster, those who, as Kadin would put it, “want this thing to be a revenue source for them.”
Now, for those who may be thinking: but aren’t there are other players in the industry that are doing this same thing—providing enterprise tools and the like? Kadin would call your attention to one (of several) big differences that sets RedCircle apart. Those other players being alluded to are expensive.
These players are so pricey because they are predominantly designed for large teams, which also means that they are complex by nature. None of which benefits the independent podcaster RedCircle is trying to serve.
By placing its sights on serving the independent, mid-size market, RedCircle also shows it’s on the cusp of the current trends. Why? It is no secret that the middle market has an immense amount of pull with audiences right now—and that audience popularity and pull translates into power. Or maybe an even better wording is great potential.
For instance, Kadin shared that hard data shows that a huge portion of the listening audience is tuning in to podcasts that “have less than a New York Times worth of listeners, or less than the U.S. NPR-level of listeners.” Specifically, RedCircle’s research data revealed that the majority of the audience is listening to shows that fall right into that sweet spot of the middle market that the company targets.
“Our data show that 65% of the audience is listening on shows that are in this middle market that we target. And this particular segment of the audience is really not served very well by those enterprise pieces of software,” Kadin shared.
“Our software is designed to make it just as easy, if not easier, to deploy a campaign across a large volume of mid-size shows while still being able to gather data, still being able to assure brand safety, and still being able to have something else that you do as a part of your job as a marketer and not just be a full-time podcast media buyer,” Kadin added. “So that’s really what we’re doing is it’s helping marketers gain access to these intimate relationships on these smaller and more niche podcasts.”
How RedCircle Creates Equal Opportunity
In a bid to level the playing field for the smaller and middle-sized market, Kadin explained: “We built RedCircle to ensure that podcasters of all sizes can benefit from the industry’s growth. Simply put, we believe in democratizing access to podcast revenue.”
Thanks to the combination of RedCircle’s technology for distribution, cross-promotion, dynamic audio insertion, listener payments, and automated advertising, independent creators are now empowered—given all of the same (and necessary) high-level tools that major publishers have at their disposal. No longer are independents forced to settle for sub-par anything.
As RedCircle puts it, it’s essentially making your podcast its own 2.0 version—“Podcast monetization, democratized.” And who doesn’t like a democracy, where everything is fair game, and there is equal opportunity for all?
Clearly, we are not alone in finding this approach exciting, by bringing powerful tools to independent podcasters, RedCircle has seen its growth skyrocket since its inception in 2018. It would be an understatement to say that its podcasters are more than happy, with thousands of monthly active podcasters having earned several million dollars this year. The case studies and testimonials alone are enough to sway any doubts about whether these clients feel their investments have been worth it. The answer is a resounding yes, with numbers and ROI to speak for itself.
Due to this new Series A funding (thanks in part to the partnership with us here at Refinery Ventures), RedCircle is making big plans, and we are thrilled to be a part of it all.
So, what’s next? RedCircle has set its sights on expanding its team and enhancing its already generous and extensive offerings even more—the sole reason being so podcasters can finally start to earn what they deserve.
