“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
Warren Buffet
The audiobook market exceeds $2 billion by most estimates, while most small and independent authors earn a few dollars per audiobook sale. Platforms such as audible have served to boost audiobook accessibility and with the ACX platform, many independent authors can source high quality voice actors to narrate. Unfortunately, like most online sales platforms, an intermediary such as Apple or Amazon sits between the author and the listener. Large companies take a significant cut of the already small revenue authors can hope to receive. Not only does the publishing platform create a financial barrier, it also creates a social barrier. The listener interacts with an audiobook platform not the author. The buyer pays Amazon and then Amazon pays the author. The authors feeds an already growing machine that isolates them from their fans.
Most authors accept this situation, know they will never get rich but still write. Their ideas need to get out. Without the ability to write, the idea consumes the mind until it is released into the world for others to enjoy. For the first time, authors can receive value for their work directly from the people who enjoy their writings and audiobooks.
Audiobook as Podcast
Podcasting has occupied a refreshing space in the media landscape since its inception in 2004. Listeners without an intermediary subscribe directly to podcaster’s feeds and interact directly with the creators. Although many platforms have hoped to create walled gardens of podcasts, the podcast has roots firmly in open-source protocols such as RSS that allow for open, censorship resistant publishing. A podcast is nothing more than a series of audio files, published in a timestamped order. An audiobook is nothing more than a series of audio files published in chapter order.
Adopting the same open strategy that has serve podcasting well for over a decade, audiobooks can easily be adopted to the podcast publishing medium. In fact, long form investigative journalists have created audio series such as the popular Serial podcast as audiobook equivalents. Although episodic, they are nothing more than stories presented in an audio format. It is an audiobook published as a podcast.
Streaming Value
Since podcasts are open, monetization has always been a challenge. Short of advertising the only other means of monetization has involved placing the podcast behind a paywall. Many platforms have offerings for private podcast feeds, but a walled podcast harms discoverability. Since most authors want income and want to receive value from their readers, paywalls may sound like a good option. In reality, paywalls are terrible. The paywall is no different than making a reader buy the book before having a chance to read a few chapters and get drawn into the plot. Any barrier to entry decreases the chances that a reader will listen.
Enter Bitcoin
Bitcoin, as internet native money, allows peer to peer transactions. With bitcoin there is no intermediary between the consumer and the producer. Like podcasts, there is no intermediary between the creator and the listener. An author, without a payment processor or publisher can receive value directly from the reader. Authors give their stories and listeners give their money. The transaction creates a direct relationship with perfect incentives. If readers enjoy a story, they can provide value proportional to their enjoyment directly to the author.
The Lightning Network
It is worth a small detour to explain that bitcoin can be sent in many different ways. It can be sent from one address to another directly on the bitcoin blockchain, or it can be sent using alternative protocols that help create friction-less payments. The lightning network, which is beyond the scope of this piece, allows for large or small payments to settle instantly between peers. Sub 1 cent payments can stream instantly from a listener to an audiobook author or producer. Bitcoin can be subdivided into any number of divisions. When you send money using the lightning network, you send satoshis (sats), which each represent 100 millionth of a bitcoin.
The original podcast specification, developed before the invention of bitcoin did not include any payment information. The new specification includes a value block that allows the publisher to specify where money is sent for enjoying the content. The money is sent as satoshis on the lightning network.
The Setup
As an example, I have published an audiobook as a podcast feed. In just a few steps, any author can do the same. You just need audio files for your audiobook, a podcast host that will store your files and create the rss feed, and a lightning node to receive the streamed payments.
Step 1: Podcast Host
Take control of your audio files. If you do not have a copy of the individual chapters of your audiobook, download them from your publisher or request individual chapter files. Many audiobooks are published as one large file but for the ease of adapting the format to a podcast feed, individual files per chapter work best.
Upload your audio files to a host (I recommend Buzzsprout or Fireside). Keep the chronology intact to ensure that listeners receive the correct chapter order. Podcasts feeds are ordered by published date and time.
Step 2: Lightning Node
Create a Lightning Node. For most authors this will be the most challenging step. Think of your lightning node as the payment terminal at a store checkout. Your node will receive the satoshis that listeners send. Although you can certainty setup your own self hosted node, the easiest way to get started is to use a service such as Voltage. They ensure that you can receive money over the lightning network and they will also keep your node up and running.
With a node, and a podcast host, your are now a self sufficient author, publisher, and payment processor in one. You control the content and you control the payments. Value can now stream directly from your listeners.
Step 3: Link everything together
Add your node information to the podcast directories. Since streaming value is still a new development in the podcast ecosystem, you will need to tell podcast players the address of your node. Otherwise listeners will not be able to send payments. Your node has an address or public key similar to a website address. This public key is displayed on your Voltage dashboard. Your listeners do not need to know any of this information as it is aggregated by the podcast player and the podcast index. Voltage or any lightning node setup will provide the public key for your node. Create an account on podcasterwallet.com, enter your node RSS feed from your podcast host (step 1) and lightning node public key (step 2).
Although only a few podcast players currently support steaming payments, the Breez app offers the easiest setup for listeners. Listeners on breez will be able to choose the satoshi amount per minute listened in addition to sending extra value boosts.
Create a Community
Now that you are a self sovereign publisher and author, you can leverage the same lightning network infrastructure that you use for receiving payments to create a community for your readers. Messages can also be sent over the lightning network using applications such as Sphinx Chat and your readers can discuss your book and listen to it at the same time.
Please reach out on twitter if you have any questions or need help setting up your value for value audiobook feed.