I bet they’ll be very happy with a listener like you.
I am sure you are right. They have a great number like me too. Like them, I and quite of few of their listeners apply ethical standards to things we do, endorse and sell. It is like a little club. Helpful, decent, honest and actually doing very well thank you. It is an ethos that needs to be encouraged do you think?
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OK Stupid user question, I subscribed, paid the fee but cannot for the life of me figure out how to actually get to the ad free episodes to play them. Part of the problem I am sure is that I have always used Safari and gone to listen to the episodes from there. I figure that won’t work so I tried using the Podcasts app but it’s only pulling up the standard episodes. I only listen to 2 podcasts, this and Focused so please be gentle.
Log in here and it’ll let you subscribe to your specific feed: https://relayfm.memberful.com/account/feeds
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:bangs head against desk: Thanks, I knew it was a stupid user error type of question.
I am probably in the minority here, but I LIKE the commercials in Mac Power Users! Unlike ads in other media, yours are informative about the product, give personal experiences and use cases, and are content in and of themselves! I would not be using the following apps if it weren’t for your ads:
- Omnifocus
- Drafts
- 1Password
- Text Expander
I am sure there are others that I will get in the months and years to come as I listen to your show! So the “no ads” thing in More Power Users is something I see as the loss of a perk, rather than a benefit!
Keep up the good work, @MacSparky and @ismh!!
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I like the Ads. I know I have been introduced to some good ones here. At the same time I would prefer to skip some ads too. Like the repetitive ones. Sometimes the ads are good as I’m listening to the podcast and I have to focus on something it’s a good Segway as I don’t have to pay attention. I let the ads run and get back to podcast after the hosts come back.
So in a way I like them. I am subscribing to the More Power Users to support the podcast directly. Instead of no ads they should probably add in more content. May be some workflows, some tips some more advanced features that is inline with the weeks podcast.
You guys know Squarespace.
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Everyone’s job has repetitive tasks 
Those long-term sponsors are long-term because podcast advertising works.
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I only had the chance to listen to an ad-free podcast for the first time today, and I loved the experience. Unlike others here, ads really bug me. I pay where I can to remove ads and support the outlets I’m using (newspaper, Youtube Premium and too many apps to count), but I’m lucky that I’m in a position where it’s affordable.
I also really enjoyed the extra section. Keep up the awesome effort!
Thanks again for giving us this option.
Absolutely.
I’m very happy for the ads, because a lot of shows wouldn’t exist without them. But I, personally, have already internalized the ad copy of several long-term podcast sponsors. However, when there’s a new one, I will often listen to it. I just listened to a Mint Mobile one the other day because I was curious what their offer was.
For More subscribers it makes sense to offer skip ads. Right now I have to keep skipping multiple times as not all ads are of equal duration. If you bookmark them as chapters and we could chose to either listen or skip.
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We bookmark toward the end of the ads now. Feels like a good middle ground.
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Two requests: could you provide some transparency on this appeal? Did your income decrease? The assertion about budgets is only a general claim, not one specific to MPU. It doesn’t help me connect to, or evaluate, your ask. It obliquely references the state of the world in 2020, offers us a new product, and leaves open some wide assertions.
What’s up with those assertions? My other request: Could you avoid personifying things like “advertising budgets” as a “casualty” of COVID-19? Like, I think I get what you’re saying, but the comparison—the way this works as a figure of speech—is pretty grim.
What’s at stake? Readers may conclude that your advertising budget has dried up or that you see human mortality as comparable to financial loss in some casual form. My sense is that you mean neither of these things. But it’s hard to tell what you’re driving at and why you’re hitching your wagon this particular horse.
The great value of MPU has always been clear to me in the hundreds of episodes I’ve listened to and learned from. I’d like to support you guys if you need it. But I’m finding this offer to be kinda murky while coming from voices I’ve come to trust over the years.
If you guys haven’t lost revenue from advertising, and you do know of podcasts that are struggling to make ends meet, could you let us know?
Anyway, no blame here. Some clear details would be helpful.
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I tried to get some answers - check out the thread below:
https://talk.macpowerusers.com/t/mac-power-users-advertising/18218/22
This topic was closed by @ismh (I reserve my comment on this). I found it somewhat interesting that @ismh closed this topic down, though.
Anyway, it’s their business and they know what’s best for them. We are listeners and it’s our decision whether we want to support them. For me personally, I have taken this opportunity to donate my time and money to charities. It is not a comparison. I can only decide for myself and with limited resources and uncertainty about future job prospects, any extra funds I have is going to charities I support. One of them also happens to be St. Jude which @ismh introduced me to and I remain grateful for that. I would have never found out about them otherwise.
I’m easy to get in touch with.
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Ok, these answers and the thread offer some additional generalizations that start suggest that parts of Relay FM took a hit but not all. Helpful, yes. But we still don’t know about MPU, which were being asked to support. So my question hasn’t been answered.
So we can interpret the appeal to read: MPU may or may not have taken a financial hit. We are offering a new way to support.
Does that feel I’m getting it?
The answers from Steven also suggest that they are “leaning in” to the COVID moment to try something they had been planning beforehand. This makes David’s language and appeal even more confusing to me. Why draw a comparison—even a figurative one—to the “casualties” of the pandemic with this banner?
Some shows are taking a bigger hit than others, and as I said in the other thread, you’ll notice fewer ads on many shows, MPU included, in Q3 and Q4. I’m not going to share specific numbers, but if you compare episodes over the next few months, you’ll notice the gaps.
As that’s how we all pay our mortgages and feed our kids, this time has been unsettling to say the least.
Also as I said in the other thread, Relay wasn’t going to be put in the ground over this, but we took it as an opportunity to launch this new type of membership, which we’ve been talking about for a while. Did COVID prompt us to finally move into it? Yes, of course. But things aren’t as dramatic as you’re trying to make them out to be.
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