New Media Show (Audio) - Can Creator Economy Build a Better Podcasting? | Sam Sethi, TrueFans #671 (Audio)

In this episode of The New Media Show, host 2017 Podcast Hall of Famer Rob Greenlee welcomes Sam Sethi, founder of TrueFans and co-host of the Podnews Weekly Review. They had a wide-ranging conversation about the future of podcasting inside the larger creator economy. Podcasting helped create the independent creator movement through RSS, niche audiences, direct publishing, and long-form content that builds audience trust. Today’s creators are building broader businesses around video, memberships, newsletters, live events, merchandise, premium content, clips, community, and direct fan relationships. So, can the creator economy help build a better, more sustainable podcasting industry? Rob and Sam explore why podcasting can no longer think only in terms of feeds, files, downloads, and ad impressions. They discuss the rise of creator portals, the importance of owning the relationship with audiences, and how platforms such as Patreon, Substack, Beehiiv, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple are changing creator expectations. The conversation also examines whether advertising is becoming less central to the creator business model, and how subscriptions, premium content, micropayments, stablecoins, and value-for-value models could create new ways to share revenue among creators, listening apps, platforms, and even audiences. Sam shares his perspective on HLS streaming, watch time and listen time analytics, activity streams, super fans, publisher feeds, and “super feeds” that can connect audio, video, events, merchandise, blogs, and community into a more portable, creator-owned media presence. Rob and Sam also dig into the impact of AI on podcasting: AI-generated shows, human engagement as a discovery signal, AI bots scraping media, the rising need for clear content licensing, and the tension between making content available to AI discovery systems while protecting creator rights and value. This episode is a deep look at where open RSS, creator ownership, platform control, AI discovery, video, monetization, and audience relationships may be heading next. Topics covered in this episode include: • The evolution of podcasting into a broader creator-led media business • Why creators need direct relationships with fans, not just platform reach • Creator portals – memberships, newsletters, live events, merchandise, and premium content • Whether ad-supported podcasting is becoming less important • HLS streaming, listen-time and watch-time measurement, and better advertising accountability • Micropayments, value-for-value, stablecoins, and new revenue-sharing models • Activity streams, super fans, community engagement, and audience signals • AI-generated podcasts, discovery, AI bots, and licensing creator content • Publisher feeds, super feeds