Joyride offers crowdfunding business model for podcasts

Joyride screenshotJoyride is a service designed to improve the business options available for podcasts, particularly for in-car listening. The platform, which was initially a voice-activated service for navigating mobile apps in a car, now aims to help listeners find more shows that they will enjoy while helping the show creators to make money. In its current form, Joyride is a method for searching shows, but the company is adding a crowdfunding layer to the business. Under this model, listeners pay a monthly fee for the podcasts they already like, then receive access to an RSS feed of ancillary content or special perks from their sponsored shows in addition to the usual downloads.

“What we’ve found is that podcast listeners are very willing to pay for the shows they love, but the key is finding the sweet spot for what kind of additional content to offer,” cofounder and CEO Jeff Chen said in an interview with VentureBeat. He said the goal is to pay the show creators between $500 and $1,000 for every 10,000 episode downloads.

Joyride is out on Android devices, with the crowdfunding features currently in beta. An iOS app rollout is expected in January 2015.

Anna Washenko