We received two requests from podcasters that are contracted (aka “Owned”) by Podshow to have their listing removed from Blubrry.com. Podshow informed them that can no longer be listed on our site because we are now a competitor of their product offering. This is a pretty amazing admission by Podshow podcasters.
We at Blubrry pride ourselves on not locking people into contracts or interfereing in a podcaster’s right to list his/her show anywhere he/she may see fit. Podshow’s recent adoption of placement limitations on their podcasters is clearly an attempt to control their podcaster’s exposure and earnings capability.
This response, however, is not surprising given Podshow’s prior stance on advertising with outside networks. Past promotional opportunities made to Podshow podcasters listed on blubrry have been met with silence. This confused us until we were told by several other vendors that Podshow podcasters are not allowed to respond. They are instructed to forward any outside ad deals straight to the Podshow sales department. This all very sad. It seems that even when a podcaster is capable of earning revenue on their program, Podshow is limiting their ability to do so.
Now Podshow has gone one step further by not only limiting the revenue potential of a podcast but also its ability to gain exposure. We hope that given such apparently severe restrictions these podcasters are actually making some money with Podshow and not just getting screwed out of the rights to manage their show.