I’m your nerd host, Chris Hardwick
Nerdist is a place where we nerds come together and share the nerdery that we find. It's also my home to various elements of the Nerdist Empire. You might recognize me from TV. You don't realize that's where you know me from, but it is. You think you went to college with me or I look like your cousin's friend, but that is not the case. At one time or another you stumbled upon me on your moving picture box in such cerebral gems as MTV's "Singled Out" and Noam Chomsky's "Shipmates." and so much more...
Say hello to the contributors.
Kevin is awesome, can’t wait to listen to it at work tomorrow. I remember listening to Chris on Kevin’s show it wasn’t that long ago (for me) but have been subscribed ever since and have listened to the older ones.
Pollak = Class Act
I like Kevin. As for paying for podcasts, I’ve often admired Marc Maron for not charging 99 cents a podcast cause I know his numbers are high and doing it would get him the long deserved wealth he’s always resented others for.
But the problem is if all the podcasts start charging I know I will drop most of them, few hour long podcasts are worth a dollar. Nerdist should charge for the two hour live shows that I’ve always thought were worth money , help Matt with his insurance.
I say we hunt down and bring these criminals of the podcast world to the light and dispense some Nerdist justice. Which mainly consist of 3 nerds arguing over who was the best captain in Start Trek, just within listening range.
please, please, please do not switch to a video format. the way the show is now is so intimate and so laid back. from the start of the show it’s had the feeling of sitting down with your nerdy friends and just getting to be yourself. and as the audience we get the treat of getting to listen in and laugh along.
as you’ve said before, if it changes to video, the people on the show won’t be able to miantain this, they’ll have to worry about hair, makeup, lighitng, etc and i think it’d just ruin it.
i’m going to nerd out here, but the show means a lot to me, i’ve been with it since episode 5, and as any good nerd i’m a little obsessive and a little possesive, so please, don’t change to format.
I was crushed when Mr. Pollak announced that they will be charging for his Chat Show from now on. I just got hooked on the podcast and I love listening to it. It makes me sad that he’s going the way of Jimmy Pardo. I think that what Chris mentioned in the podcast is that sure, if one person starts charging that might not be a big issue for people, but once everyone starts charging then it’s going to be a problem. I think he’s going to lose some listeners/viewers because of it. I know that I won’t be buying it since I have to watch my expenses as it is. It’s really unfortunate because I truly enjoy the Chat Show.
I agree with Annecoultersadamsapple, charging for the special and longer episodes is a better way of making some money off podcasts. I like the model that Doug Benson has adopted and I think that it could work really well for the Nerdist as well. I’ve been with you since the beginning and it would be a big bummer if you chose to start charging now…but I would be into buying extra episodes if you choose to go down that road.
I have no plans to charge for the podcast, nerdlings! It will continue to be free. Also, I don’t want to go the video route either. I like the vibe and flow of the show the way it is.
Charging for bigger specials every once in a while could be an interesting way to go, just so that we could pay all the people involved. I dunno.
I just want the largest number of nerdfolk to be able to listen as possible, so a monetary exchange for regular content just seems like a bad idea to me.
I like the idea of micro-charging. I probably wouldn’t justify a dollar or two for most podcasts, but I wouldn’t bat and eye at dropping a dime out of my PayPal account. I have no idea what number of “hits” you get on these, but a hundred thousand dimes gets you 10 grand and pays a few bills…
I do think Kevin is awesome like I stated in the first post but I really can’t justify a dollar a podcast. Like Chris said a dollar for a big special I could deal with as it would only be once a month or two. I’m glad you go the free route w/ ads.
Chris highlighted the inevitable problem of the $.99/episode model; that $.99 ends up being much more when the 15-20 weekly podcasts all start charging.
I worry this model could lead to iTunes creating a tiered packaging model similar to cable/satellite providers.
* Basic iTunes podcasts for $12.99/mo add premium podcasts bundles for $5.99 more. Something like that. *
I’m not opposed to content providers looking to monetize, though I do hate myself a little for using the word monetize, but think there needs to be a longer view when figuring out the best way to support both the creators and the consumers.
As soon as I figure that out, I’ll market it to all of you for a nominal fee.
Chris! Is there anyway I can get in contact with you about using one of your songs in my student animation? It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Not sure what the protocol is. Even happy to send along a copy of my animatic to show you how appropriate it is!
Yay for a new episode. I’ve chewed up all the episodes while I’ve been working. I’ve spent more time listening to you than my girlfriend.
Sure Azz! Send it to [email protected] and let me know what you want to use!
Loved the show!!! Haunted Mansion plus Pollak great stuff. We just added this #45 to our main blog and will mention it on our show this week at: http://rfrpodcast.com
Keep up the great work.
Personally I would like a way to support the show. 99 cents can add up when you get a lot of podcasts. Maybe a $9.99 a year model would be cool. Free is great though, but reprint some nerdist shirts so I can buy one!
Oh and Kevin Pollak was great.
is Pollak on depressants…..thought we were about to break out the defibrillator
I was listening to this podcast while working on photo editing, and I kinda missed the part where you talk about Shatner impressions, and all of a sudden I wondered when Shatner got on the show…. Kevin Pollack does an amazingly accurate Shatner!
Man, I could listen to Kevin Pollack talk all day. Great interview. I’m always a little crushed when a great free thing decides to charge, but given the kind of content KPCS produces, it’s understandable. One thing I have to absolutely applaud him on is going about it through iTunes. It is SO much easier than signing up for a account on a seperate website and paying that way. I would probably have subscribed to Pardo’s podcast by now if they were selling it through iTunes.
It is a relief to hear that you don’t plan on charging, though. I’m totally fine with hearing the occasional advertisement if it means the podcast continues to be free.
Really enjoyed the show.
Personally, I think merchandising is the way to make money with a podcast. Look at all the webcomics that are making a living, not through ads, and not through paywalls, but through merch.
http://topatoco.com/hey/
I was in a touring band for a few years, and our policy was that we’d play anywhere for just about any price as long we could be fed dinner and have a place to sleep. We played a LOT more shows that way, and made enough off of merch to pay our bills and end the tour with some extra cash.
As Chris and many others have pointed out, $0.99 per episode REALLY adds up. $3 isn’t a lot to pay for a comic book either, but I had to go cold turkey on comics a few years ago because I was spending $20 a week. If even half of my podcasts charged a dollar an episode, I’d be pretty close to that.
Charging for podcasts really doesn’t feel right and I can see Kevin doing it more because he’s from a different generation.
What podcasts do is provide promotion for the host and exposure for the guests. I’ve been turned onto a lot of comedians, musicians and authors though the net and paid for their shows and albums because of it. That seems to be the model that’s developed organically.
Special episodes of shows never seem as good as the regular ones to me. The hosts just try too hard and they lose the loose casual feel that only the net really has in favour of a fast paced showcase. I can get that on the tv box already.
I firmly believe that this podcast is one of the top three out there, along with Doug Loves Movies and the Adam Carolla Podcast, and I include Marc Maron’s WTF Pod if he wasn’t so full of self hatred . You always know what to expect, and they always deliver. That being said, we all know that people need to make money. I absolutely agree with the idea that there should be once or twice monthly bonus podcasts up for sale, especially the live shows and the music based episodes.
Possibly sometime soon there could be a Double Deductible Telethon on one of the free podcasts with a Paypal link to help out your struggling cohosts.
I love the stand up comedy of Chris Hardwick, monkey sex jokes and all, but can’t ever seem to make it to Addison, TX or FLorida, which seems to be where he sets up shop to sell himself. I’d like to help in a way that doesn’t involve extensive travel.
Perhaps the Node could have a contest to design a new Nerdist Tshirt….because hipsters may think of the current shirt as so last year. Everybody could get involved in the design process and they could put the best one up for sale. It seems like the sort of thing that the Node was made for, and the site might make some money from it.
In an unrelated note: one of my personal favorite Chris Hardwick moments was on the Fitzdog Radio Podcast, when he was paired up with Greg Fitzsimmons and an adult performer named Joanna Anger. Chris tried so hard to convince the porn star not to do her site in Flash because she would be limiting herself to current and future portable devices. It seemed so obvious to Chris, and important, but she seemed like she couldn’t care less. If ever there was a time for someone to nerd out and talk programming code, it was certainly in front of a woman who gets naked and has sex on video.
I didn’t even know about Pollak’s show until listening to this podcast — I hopped over there and watched the Chris Hardwick episode. Good stuff, I learned a lot about you.
So, when are you going to get your old pal, TV’s Wil Wheaton, on the podcast?
I’ve wondered about a viable business model for podcasts, too. I just don’t see how an Open Source world can last forever no matter how altruistic the podcasters are. People got bills, yo. I do think it’s valuable and worth charging for but I don’t think even a 2 hour podcast is the same as a 3 minute song. A song arguably has infinite repeatability. A podcast, even great ones, don’t have nearly the repeatability factor that a song does. I think it’s the wrong metaphor. Maybe the metaphor is more jukebox than iTunes.
seriously one of the best podcasts out there.
I wonder why he didn’t mention the game show he is hosting now… just saw the commercial. He didn’t say anything about it, right?
I listen to Kevin’s chat show and Nerdist but although I automatically download them all right now I end up listening to maybe 20-30% because often the guests just aren’t interesting to me. So, I could see myself paying for episodes here and there but it’ll be a small fraction of the number of episodes that get auto downloaded on my iTunes right now.
I don’t mind people charging for podcast because I subscribe to enough that I don’t know who I can ever listen to them all I could drop the pay ones and that would really free up memory on my Sansa player. I rather pay indirectly.
I wonder why more advertisers don’t use podcasts. Many of us buy books we heard on podiobooks.com or use products that advertised on podcasts. Currently we have some trust that the people making podcasts believe in products that advertise in their podcasts. Which is likely to change as podcast go mainstream.
I don’t know if I would have seen Paul and Storm if not for their podcast but mainly because I would not have know they had a performance near by and on a day I was not working.
Agh I’ve been trying for like 30 mins and I can’t remember what the song is for the first 20 or so seconds at the start of this episode. It’s driving me insane…
I would pay money to watch the largo shows. I wish you thought of that before.
I just finished listening to this episode and was wondering if you guys ever get Kevin Pollak back to talk about how the pay to listen structure didn’t work out?
I know it didn’t pan out like he had wanted, but I was hoping to hear about Mr. Pollak’s experience. I feel like a lot could be learned about how content is valued in today’s market.
On a side note: Thanks for keeping this free!
Thanks