776. News about changes to LEP & LEP Premium (A)

*Update 24/06/2022 - problems are now fixed!*Episodes of LEP have disappeared from podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play - sorry about this! I'm changing podcast host, and my podcast feed is being updated. This is causing a few technical issues, but they are being fixed. Details below 👇I have moved to a new podcast host - one which is based in Europe and which just suits me much betterCool things are: You’ll be able to get LEP Premium much more easily - in your podcast app of choice (details on the website - coming soon)You can support the podcast a lot more easily, if you’d like to be a stakeholder in LEP. This is all part of my attempt (over 13 years!) to become a self-sufficient podcaster who can devote more time and energy to this project, and make episodes better and more useful and entertaining for youYou will notice some ads in episodes, depending on where you are. Not every time.Also you might hear me mentioning podcast sponsors at the start of episodes sometimes.Previously I used to have sponsors, but the pandemic stopped that, basically. I used to talk about italki, spoken, audible, but those things stopped fully during the coronavirus pandemic.But I have to find ways to keep the podcast going and so the new host I’m working with (Acast) gives the option to put some ads in my episodes and they might also let me read some sponsorship promos too.This is the way podcasts are going, as the technology develops and the medium becomes more established, little automatic adverts and sponsorships are part and parcel of that. This is how an industry develops around this sort of thing.Back when I started this in 2009 it just wasn’t possible because the technology wasn’t there but these days it’s normal to either have some advertising in the content or you have the option to pay for a subscription with more content and no ads. Just like YouTube, you get some ads on that platform and it’s just normal. Some people get YouTube premium to go ad-free and get all the music and stuff.Or Spotify - if you use the free version to listen to your music there are ads on that too, unless you pay for a subscription.So that’s what’s happening with LEP.It’s not going to make a huge difference to you, I have to say, but I thought I would at least mention it, just so I can be transparent. So here’s how it’s going to work.You’ll get all the free episodes as normal, and the whole episode archive will continue to be freely available as normal.You’ll probably hear a few ads sometimes. They’ll be short - certainly shorter than if I did them myself!If you want to remove those ads so you never hear them while listening to LEP you’ll also be able to sign up for ad-free episodes. That’ll cost about $2 per month. You’ll be supporting me too if you do that.You’ll be able to access LEP Premium episodes more easily than before, and it should be a system that you all should have access to (unlike with my original system which seems or seemed to block certain credit cards from different countries - the Acast system should accept all of you) and you’ll be able to get your premium content in your normal podcast app - not just through the LEP App. And if you become a premium subscriber, that will also remove all the ads. And you’ll be supporting me too.This way I can keep the archive free, but also reward people who support me by giving them my premium content which I always work hard to produce.For LEP Premium subscribers - keep an eye on your LEP subscription because I will be uploading an announcement about that too, and also some new premium content is in the pipeline. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.