Paul,

Is it your opinion that Libsyn will go out of business? They have been offering “unlimited bandwidth” for almost two years. I must admit, it is a wonder that they can keep going sometimes.

Jason

Are you happy with them / do you think they can keep doing this?

P

I recently created a little calculator for figuring out how much bandwidth and storage a podcast actually needs. Its handy for figuring out if and when you’ll actually hit the 1000 gig mark.

http://okaytoplay.com/podcast-hosting/calc.html

I only use Libsyn to store the media files for one podcast. So far I’m happy. I’ve not had any major problems.

As for whether they can keep going…

I Imagine that at the very least the $5 package is not profitable for them. I really wonder how long they can keep it up. To tell the truth, I think their $5 package is still worth paying $10 for.

For the first year I was leary about using them because i wondered if they could stay alive. They are still here. So I’ve decided to give them a try. I guess time will tell.

Jason

Just a guess but natural phenomena usually follows a bell curve. So it’s possible that libsyn podcasts do so as well. So if libsyn pays, say, $2000/mth for their “pipe”, plus overage, and they have 1000 members at $5/mth, that’s $5000/mth gross. But if only a very few podcasts are eating big bandwidth and the total use is still under their gross, they’ve got a profit.

I’m not sure if they’re a not-for-profit, but if they are, that could explain their ability to hold on at potentially low net revenue levels.

One possible alternative for big users: Amazon storage, which apparently can handle heavy hits, in case your podcast gets “dugg”. It’ll cost you more than libsyn (and less than regular website hosts) but can libsyn - or other podcast hosts - handle big traffic spikes?

I have over 500 shows and 300 download extras that I wish I could release for free to my listeners. But my bandwidth would easily hit 1,000GB in a few days. There doesn’t seem to be anyone out there that can host my bandwidth needs. I am currently using a subscription model and have been for almost a decade. I am considering re-encoding all of my shows and youtubing them.. and simply ask for donations.. while providing something completely new for my 500 or so gold members.

Paul? You are the guru.. what do you think?

There’s a general cost of doing business. For Podcaster, part of the cost of doing business is bandwidth.

Now, anyone making any money on their Podcast - there is no reason they can’t put part of that revenue stream into bandwidth.

Those not making money on their Podcast, no problem, but … someone has to pay for the bandwidth.

I personally host everything on S3 right now. Yes, I have a bill every month (and it’s more than $5 promised by some unlimited types). But, my show get delivered and I don’t mind at all paying for what makes this all possible.

Youtubing fine but it really, in the end, promotes YouTube more than it ever promotes your brand.

Paul