What You Get When You Sign up for Luminary (and 8 Other Paid Podcast Platforms to Try)

Luminary is only the most recent attempt at a growing walled-garden strategy.

Nothing concentrates the mind quite like the prospect of your credit card being charged. So, as my Luminary free trial comes to a close, I have one question on my mind: Do I pay the $8/month to keep access to their premium shows or save that money for better values elsewhere?

Luminary might be the largest walled garden in the podcast space, and it might be the one that’s going up the quickest, but it certainly isn’t the first. There have long been options to get premium content of various kinds if you are willing to pay for it. The most traditional walled gardens within podcasting are premium subscriptions like Stitcher Premium or Slate Plus. There is also an increasing trend towards technology platforms like Spotify or Pandora going all in into the original podcast content space. Several large podcast networks paywall bonus content, and Patreon allows creators to provide ad-free or extra content to their supporters. This type of creator control over paywalls is only going to continue, with the recently announced Acast Access and Slate’s Supporting Cast.

But what exactly do you get with these premium networks and platforms, and how much does it all cost? It’s a confusing landscape of large companies each laying garden wall bricks in different ways with completely different strategies.

This article serves as an introduction to the major players (but not every single one) and should help get your head around the options.

(Note: Click the header link of each option to see more information.)

PODCAST APPS WITH PREMIUM CONTENT

Luminary

What it is: A free podcast player with a paid subscription layer that gives you access to dozens of ad-free original shows. Luminary wants to position itself as the Netflix of podcasts, but with an honest assessment of how podcasting works, they are more like the free public library that charges a fee to access a small shelf of exclusive books. They have had a rough start, but time will tell how well this model can be supported by the market.
Cost: Free for their basic podcast player or $8/month to access premium content.
What you get: The free version has your normal selection of ad-supported shows (currently with some notable exceptions) and the first episode of the premium shows. The paid version gives you access to 20+ shows currently and 40+ shows within the near future.
Is there a free trial? Yes, 30 days and up to 90 days with certain promo codes.
How do you access the content? Everything is accessed via their website, iOS app, or Android app.
How exclusive is the content? The full feed of the shows will only be available through a premium subscription within the app. There is an impressive mix of shows with an established loyal following (Love + Radio, Note to Self) and new shows from established creators (The AM Archives, The Passion Economy).
One-Sentence Review: So far, nothing about the app itself will make it my primary listening destination, and I’m not sure if people will be willing to pay so much when there are so many other free options available, but to give them credit they have quickly jumped to the front of the line in terms of truly original, premium content.

Stitcher Premium

What it is: A subscription service that unlocks original and extra content within the Stitcher app and website.
Cost: $4.99/month or $35/year.
What you get:

• Access to thousands of hours of premium content. But confusingly, premium content can mean either ad-free, extra content, or full archives, and the distinction between these are not well labeled. For example, WTF with Marc Maron serves you an ad immediately, even within the premium feed. This is because for some shows, the ads are baked into the audio, and there is no way to easily remove them. Their claim of WTF being ad-free has to do with the fact that there are no inserted ads.
• There are plenty of true ad-free shows, even if it’s not immediately obvious which ones they are. These include over 20 shows produced for the Stitcher Network (The Dream, Wolverine: The Lost Trail), and all of Earwolf’s back catalogue (Comedy Bang! Bang!, Voyage to the Stars).
• Bonus episodes of some premium shows, including WTF with Marc Maron, and How Did This Get Made?
• Full archives of some shows, including Superego, Imaginary Worlds, and WTF with Marc Maron.
• Over 300 comedy albums.

Is there are free trial? Yes, one week for monthly payment option or one month for annual payment option (the better deal).
How do you access the content? Everything is accessed through Stitcher’s iOS app, Android app, or website.
How exclusive is the content? Very little Stitcher Premium is exclusive. All of their originals can be found in other podcast apps (but with ads), with Wolverine: the Lost Trail and Stolen Idea being two notable exceptions. However, Wolverine’s seasons do become widely available after several months of being exclusive to Stitcher Premium. Even with full archive shows it is a bit confusing. With WTF, you truly do get the full back catalogue, which isn’t available anywhere else, but with Imaginary Worlds, the back catalogue is still available for free on the show’s website.
One-Sentence Review: It is frustrating to parse out exactly what you are getting before hand, but if you like Earwolf’s content, want WTF archives/bonuses, or want ad-free versions of Stitcher originals, this is a no brainer.

Pinna

What it is: An ad-free subscription-based podcast and audio service geared towards kids ages 3–12.
Cost: $7.99/month or $79.99/year.
What you get: There are at least 17 original shows and dozens more kids podcasts, audio stories, and audio books. You can filter content by age, and the app is designed to be a safe space for kids to explore.
Is there are free trial? Yes, 30 days for either monthly or annual plan.
How do you access the content? Everything is accessed through Pinna’s iOS app, Android app, or website.
How exclusive is the content? The original content is mostly exclusive to Pinna, although popular shows like The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel become widely available shortly after new seasons come out.
One-Sentence Review: This is great content for curious young ears, and as a parent I appreciate that the entire experience is curated to be a safe space for kids (unlike YouTube Kids, which I still would not let my kids use unsupervised).

Spotify

What it is: A music streaming giant based out of Sweden that is pushing into the podcast space in a big way. They are increasingly prioritizing podcasts within their app and have made a series of large acquisitions that signal an emphasis on original podcast content going forward.
Cost: Free with ads, $9.99/month, or $4.99/month for students for the premium, ad-free version. Premium removes ads for music, not podcasts, but Spotify might experiment in this area moving forward.
What you get: Within the free and paid plans, you get a large collection of freely available podcasts and an increasing number of originals that can only be fully accessed via Spotify’s platform.
Is there are free trial? Yes, 30 days.
How do you access the content? Podcasts can be accessed from Spotify’s iOS app, or Android app, or web player.
How exclusive is the content? Spotify has a growing number of originals, including Dissect, The Joe Budden Podcast, and Amy Schumer’s 3 Girls, 1 Keith. For now, all of their original content is accessible in the free ad-supported Spotify plan, and only limited episodes are available on other podcast platforms. They recently made three big acquisitions — Gimlet Media, Anchor, and Parcast — and it will be interesting to follow how they leverage these deals in terms of exclusive shows. For Gimlet at least, all their existing content will continue to be freely available everywhere that it is now (as promised in this interview with Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber). The big question is if they are ever going to put any content fully behind a paywall for only premium members or continue to prioritize driving listeners to their platform regardless of whether they are paying subscribers or not.
One-Sentence Review: Spotify is quickly improving their app UI/UX for podcast listening; the biggest downside to their push into original content is that even if it is currently available at the free ad-supported tier, it’s one more platform to have to open up if it’s not your main podcast player of choice.

Pandora

What it is: Another streaming music giant that is experimenting with original podcast and audio content. They were recently acquired by SiriusXM, which will allow for some unique content partnerships.
Cost: Pandora has three tiers. All three allow for full access to their podcast content, with the only difference being around music. They are:
1) The free ad-supported plan that allows for the tailored music stations that made Pandora a household name
2) $4.99/month for Pandora Plus, which is the same as the free plan but removes ads and allows unlimited skips
3) $9.99/month for Pandora Premium, which is a direct competitor to Spotify or Apple Music and allows users to play any song or album. One important note is that Pandora Premium is $12.99/month instead of $9.99/month if you sign up within the iOS app, so be sure to sign up via the web and not your Apple account. There are also discounts for students and military at this level.
What you get: Within the free and paid plans, you get equal access to a robust catalogue of podcasts similar to most third-party apps, plus original audio content like Pandora Stories (more below) and 20+ SiriusXM talk shows released as podcasts.
Is there a free trial? Yes, 60 days for Premium (website is 60 days, within iOS app it’s 30 days) and 30 days for Plus. But again, you don’t need to take advantage of these to access their podcasts.
How do you access the content? Everything is accessed from their web player, iOS app, or Android app.
How exclusive is the content? The free collection of SiriusXM talk shows that Pandora now has available as podcasts cannot be found in any other podcast player, but they are available in various ways as a paying subscriber to SiriusXM. Notably, Howard Stern is not available as a podcast on Pandora. The other unique content that Pandora currently has is Pandora Stories. Think of them as traditional music playlists from select artists but with short interview clips before each song. Some of these are pulled from various SiriusXM interviews, so expect lots of developments and experimenting with this strategy. This blog post from Pandora will link you directly to some of them, and if you know an artist has original content in the form of Pandora Stories, it can be found by searching the artist under “playlists” in your app.
One-Sentence Review: Pandora is not likely to win anyone over as a standard third-party podcast player, but it’s worth checking out for their free SiriusXM talk show content and for playing around with Pandora Stories.

Audible Channels

What it is: Audible, which is owned by Amazon, has a section in their app called “Channels”, which you can think of as mostly original content in the form of podcasts, audio short stories, and audio news. You can access Audible Channels as either an Audible subscriber or a member of Amazon Prime.
Cost: Audible is $14.95/month and Amazon Prime is $12.99/month or $119/year.
What you get: Access to several original podcasts like Extra Credit and Genius Dialogues, daily news briefs from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and Audible comedy originals like The Comedy Show Show Presented by Will Arnett. In 2018, the team behind Audible Channels was suddenly let go, so most of the content has not been updated in well over a year. One exception is the news channels, which are still updated each weekday. Most of the original shows went for one or two seasons.
Is there are free trial? Yes, Audible and Amazon Prime each have a 30-day free trial.
How do you access the content? Everything is accessed through the Audible app for iOS or Android.
How exclusive is the content? Some content, like the first season of Extra Credit and the second season of Authorized, can be found in third party apps, but for the most part you need full access to the Audible app to listen to all of their original content. Curiously, The Butterfly Effect from journalist Jon Ronson, one of their biggest hits, is no longer in the Audible app at all. It can now be found in any podcast player as The Last Days of August (which is The Butterfly Effect plus a new season), or as an Audible Original for paying Audible members only.
One-Sentence Review: I would say it’s not worth it to subscribe to Audible or Amazon Prime just to access Audible Channels, but if you are a member of either you owe it to yourself to browse around the content.

PODCAST NETWORKS WITH PREMIUM CONTENT

Wondery+

(8/5/20 update: For an updated review on Wondery+ and their new app, check out the Bello Collective newsletter from 7/22/20).

What it is: A subscription that gives you access to bonus and ad-free content from select Wondery shows. You can choose between two bundles of bonus content, True Crime Plus or The Wonderer.
Cost: $5/month.
What you get: Wondery is a network with over 60 shows, but the bonus content is focused on only some of them. If you choose True Crime Plus, you’ll get bonus content for six shows, including Dr. Death and The Shrink Next Door, and if you choose The Wonderer, you’ll get bonus content for a different six shows, including Business Wars and Tides of History.
Is there are free trial? No.
How do you access the content? There is a member portal on Wondery’s website and a private RSS feed that works with many podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts.
How exclusive is the content? Wondery content is available across podcast players, but Wondery+ bonus and ad-free content is only available through subscription.
One-Sentence Review: I would have assumed more shows in the large Wondery network would have ad-free or bonus content, so this is only worth it if you are a die-hard fan of their popular shows included in either True Crime Plus or The Wonderer.

Maximum Fun membership

What it is: A monthly donation that gives you access to bonus content from Maximum Fun, .
Cost: $5/month is the minimum level to get bonus content, and there are additional non-content related extras at higher levels, like membership cards and t-shirts.
What you get: Bonus content from each of Maximum Fun’s 40+ show. These include popular shows like The Adventure Zone, Sawbones, Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, and Mission to Zyxx. Sometimes they even add secret spin-off shows like My Sister, My Sister, and Me.
Is there are free trial? No.
How do you access the content? You gain access to the bonus digital content hub on the Maximum Fun website and a link to a private RSS feed.
How exclusive is the content? Can only be accessed by paying members online or on any podcast app that works with the private RSS feed.
One-Sentence Review: This is a great deal if you like Maximum Fun shows because bonus content is available for each of their shows.

Slate Plus

What it is: A subscription that gives you access to ad-free Slate shows and numerous bonuses.
Cost: $35 for the first year, and $59/year each year after.
What you get: Ad-free feeds for all Slate podcasts (36 as of writing), bonus episodes of Slow Burn, extended versions of Dear Prudence Podcast, Political Gabfest, Culture Gabfest, and early access to Slate events and private groups.
Is there are free trial? Yes, 2 weeks.
How do you access the content? You can access all bonus and ad-free content through the Slate iOS app, via a private RSS feed that contains all Slate shows, or individual private feeds for each show.
How exclusive is the content? The bonus and extended content can’t be found anywhere else, and Slate Academy content, like Reconstruction, a nine episode series about the era following the Civil War, is exclusive to members except for one free episode.
One-Sentence Review: Compared to the other networks, this to me is the gold standard for premium content, where all of their shows are ad-free, it costs less than $5/month, and you can access the shows from the Slate app, a private RSS feed with everything, or an individual private feed for any shows you choose.

WHERE DOES THIS ALL LEAVE LUMINARY?

Taking the current landscape in, it seems clear that paid premium content is largely a means for passionate fans to connect more with their favorite shows via ad-free feeds, bonus content, and full archives. After reviewing the main players, I found that complete paywalls are less common than I assumed.

This highlights how much of a departure Luminary’s model is. The typical non-Luminary approach is to take listeners who become passionate about free, ad-supported podcasts and give them extras in return for their monetary support. The Luminary approach is to convince listeners that the paid content the platform offers — content that listeners often have no relationship with other than one free episode — is better than the 750,000+ free shows out there. The usual path is to build passion and loyalty, and then charge money. Luminary is attempting the opposite. They could certainly disrupt the whole podcast market with a new path forward, but only time will tell.

If you are ok with ads, you will be able to access over 99% of podcasts for free for the foreseeable future. The question then becomes how much forcing listeners to switch between different apps to catch all the shows will be a drain on the podcast ecosystem. The free-to-listen-but-only-in-our-walled-garden approach could start frustrating listeners. But if someone comes out with the Roku of podcasts, where I can sign into every app in one place and more creators ultimately find success because of these new models, this would become a non-issue for me.

So, we are left pondering the original question. What to do with this $8 that you’ll be charged after a free trial to Luminary? For that, I have three answers: 1. keep with them if you fell in love with several shows, 2. but consider that money could get you some nice perks on shows you already love, 3. or you could use it to directly support creators you love, even if you get nothing extra in return. If you have kids, another option is to take that money and grab a subscription to Pinna instead, which was more of a true Netflix of podcasts (but for kids) before Luminary came around. Either way, please explore all the free trials listed above to compare for yourself.

Whatever you do, do it fast, because the subscription-pocalypse is coming, and our limited subscription budgets will have to soon compete with Disney+.

The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.

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