Podcast Payola: Guests Are Paying Up to $50,000 to Appear on Popular Shows

A recent report from Bloomberg reveals that some podcast guests are paying as much as $50,000 to appear on popular podcasts.

Bloomberg reports that a new era of pay-for-play podcasting has emerged where guests are paying large sums of money to appear on popular podcasts. Bloomberg conducted interviews with dozens of podcast industry sources and found that this is most popular among podcasts in the wellness, cryptocurrency, and business arenas.

Many of these podcasts accepting large payouts fail to mention when a guest has paid for an appearance. Craig Delsack, a New York-based media lawyer, commented: “As someone who’s making money for that type of advertorial content, it should be disclosed. It’s just good practice and builds trust with the podcaster. It can’t be the Wild West.”

An FTC spokesperson said that it cannot comment on specifics, saying: “But this is our general guidance: Regardless of the medium in which an advertising or promotional message is disseminated, deception occurs when consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances are misled about its nature or source, and such misleading impression is likely to affect their decisions or conduct regarding the advertised product or the advertising.”

However, the practice appears to be growing in popularity amongst podcasters. The online platform Guestio recently raised over $1 million to build a marketplace devoted to brokering paid guest appearances. Guestio’s founder, Travis Chappell, noted that people regularly pay public-relations firms to pitch them to podcasts as guests but that this money is better spent going directly to the podcaster.

“I was starting to realize these podcasters are working their asses off to build this audience, and then this agency makes money because they charge this client for the booking,” he said. “The only person who doesn’t make money is the person who took the time to build the audience in the first place.”

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