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I understand that some people think I'm taking this The Ringer thing too seriously, but it's a serious issue (within a silly format.)
Podcasting is still the wild west, but really big money is starting to get involved, case in point... https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-ringer-deal-price-250-million-podcasting-bill-simmons-report-2020-2
Podcasting is still the wild west, but really big money is starting to get involved, case in point... https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-ringer-deal-price-250-million-podcasting-bill-simmons-report-2020-2
I don't think I invented fantasy drafting - I don't even think I invented fantasy drafting things that aren't sports - but I know I'm the only person who built a non-sports fantasy drafting podcast up from the dirt and it turned it into a successful enterprise...
I know it's been successful, because last summer, The Ringer tried to acquire us and add us to their network. We declined for a number of reasons - we love Headgum, the wanted us to make the episodes shorter, but the main one... they wouldn't let us have a Patreon.
So they were asking us to take home less money so they could own all of our content. They ALSO wanted TV rights to All Fantasy Everything, even though we were already developing it and even though we were more than 100 episodes in to our format.
They obviously saw the potential, but they wouldn't cut us in on the profits and they wouldn't let us have creative control, so we thanked them for their time and consideration and we stayed the course and kept making our shit.
The first 100 or so episodes of AFE (roughly 300 hours of my life? At least?) were like a pilot. Will this work on a podcast format? Whats the best way to do this? What kind of topics work well, what don't? How many guests, how many rounds, etc etc etc. That's real work we put in
We put that work in to prove that AFE worked, and now a massive multi-million dollar company is just straight up doing it.
@SpikeFriedman didn't invent having takes, but he did show that it could support a podcast. He put that work in to figure it out. They jacked his shit too.
@SpikeFriedman didn't invent having takes, but he did show that it could support a podcast. He put that work in to figure it out. They jacked his shit too.
The irony in all of this is I love The Ringer. I've written for The Ringer. I probably consume more Ringer content than like 99% of the world. I almost cried when Bill Simmons called me to talk about AFE. Dude was mad important to me and remains important to me. HOWEVAH...
