The story so far ...
Bavarian Podcast Works was started by us, the writing staff here on Bavarian Football Works, years ago under the SB Nation podcast umbrella. We’re just regular football fans doing what we love, which is talking about Bayern Munich and having our voices heard in the community.
Things were going great until last year, when Vox Media decided to shut down our podcast, as well as many others on the network. For a while, we didn’t know what we would do. We didn’t know if we could keep doing this without the backend support provided by Vox.
Many other shows closed down for good, but we decided to persevere. Since March 2023, Bavarian Podcast Works has been completely independently run, with all of us here doing shows — including recording, editing, writing, scheduling, ad-reads, and more — on our own without any external funding.
We’ve been blessed with a trickle of ad-revenue from our viewers, which we’ve not touched so far. Yes, that means that we’ve all been working for free for more than a year, just to build up to this moment.
Bavarian Podcast Works is now an LLC.
Yep, it’s official. The paperwork is signed and sealed. Of course, nothing will change in terms of access — whatever you get right now for free, stays free.
Why it matters
Over the last year, we’ve realized that we want to keep doing this for as long as possible. We want to grow BPW into the best version of itself.
With growth, comes expansion.
Becoming an LLC means we can actually start using our ad-revenue to build up the pod, which includes a move to Megaphone — opening up sponsorship opportunities that were closed to us since we first went indie.
It also means we can start paying our podcasters, and maybe bring on more people to boost the show further. That’s not all, though. For the long term viability of this show, we need as much support as possible, which is why we’re going through with the next step.
We’ve started a Patreon
Patreon, if you didn’t know, is a platform for fans to support their favorite creators directly via donations. Some of you may be familiar with this model already.
People have asked us why we didn’t make one sooner. Simply put, we weren’t ready. Before starting a Patreon, we wanted to be rock-solid in terms of consistency — releasing a full-length flagship show every week was our bare minimum. It’s been a huge struggle getting to this point, coordinating hosts who are scattered across continents, sometimes having to record at 2am on a school night or just before work on a Monday.
Still, we did it — BPW has achieved maturity.
We didn’t want to start asking for money before getting our podcast to a point where we knew we could provide something of value. Now we’re sure we’re at that point.
We know from our analytics that we have a dedicated listener base that (probably) likes what we do (or at least finds it entertaining).
We’re not demanding your support. Simply listing to our podcast is all we want. Still, if you want to support a crew of indie creators who like Bayern Munich the same way you do, that option is now open to you.
Here’s what we’ve come up with.
Supporters Club
Anyone who decides to support us at BPW will join the Supporters Club, which comes with a few perks including access to ad-free podcasts, special edition recordings, and more. Here’s what we have so far:
Tier 1 (Member) — $1 per month
- You will get access to all our podcasts ad-free.
- Access to Supporters Club events (still workshopping that one).
Tier 2 (Season Ticket Holder) — $3 per month
- Access to a BPW Discord server.
- Access to all our podcasts ad-free.
- Access to Supporters Club events.
Tier 3 (Ultra) — $5 per month
- A shout-out at the end of all our podcast episodes.
- Access to all our podcasts ad-free.
- Access to a BPW Discord server.
- Access to Supporters Club events.
Tier 4 (Sporting Director) — $8 per month
- A special shout-out at the end of all our podcast episodes.
- Access to all our podcasts ad-free.
- Access to a BPW Discord server (with added perks).
- Access to Supporters Club events.
- Suggest and vote on discussion topics for future podcast editions.
Tier 5 (Board Member) — $15 per month
- A special shout-out at the end of all our podcast episodes.
- Access to all our podcasts ad-free.
- Access to a BPW Discord server (with added perks).
- Access to Supporters Club events.
- A special section of the podcast where we answer your submitted questions.
- Potential guest appearances on the show, if you want that.
Sponsorships: Additionally, if you are a business owner and would like host-read ads on the shows, please contact us for rates: bavarianfootballworks1@gmail.com
This is just our first draft of what the tiers and perks will look like and are subject to change upon feedback. We’re completely new to this so any advice or constructive criticism you may have is invaluable to us.
We don’t expect BPW to make us millionaires or even pay the bills. Remember, we’ve been doing this for free for well over a year — we’re in it because we love it and we love the club. Your support only opens up options for us.
What are these options? Well, here are our immediate goals:
- Better branding, including a professionally done logo instead of the placeholder we have right now. We’d like to pay a graphic designer to do it, not an AI.
- Investing in better recording equipment.
- A subscription to Zoom so we can host live shows with our viewers.
- A Discord server with badges and roles and all that jazz.
- Just being better at everything we do.
That’s what we have so far. Of course, it’s all open to suggestions. For now, even if you don’t want to donate, just keep listening to our episodes and sharing the content as far as you can.
That’s all we can ask for — everything else is just a bonus.
