So you say, I want to support you for three pounds
a month, and when the next episode drops, I will
give you the value of that episode only. So the
episode might be worth 50p or a thousand sats.
Welcome to Fanzone, your bite -sized guide to
getting the most out of the TrueFans podcast
app. In each episode, we'll discuss an aspect
of the app and hopefully answer any questions
you may have about it. Plus, when you listen
to Fanzone in TrueFans, you can earn as you
listen and use your earnings to support your
favourite podcasters. I'm Clare Waite Brown,
independent podcaster and all -round podcast
enthusiast. And I'm Sam Sethi, the CEO and founder
of TrueFans. We've covered a lot so far in this
first series of Fanzone. And in fact, Sam, this
is the final episode of the first series. I don't
know whether to cry or go phew. I don't know
which way to go. But there's more to come. We've
got more series. Indeed. Now, we have already
talked about the icons. on the show screen. So
back in episode six, which is called the show
screen, we covered, you know, all the kind of
things you see on the show screen. And we also
said that we would talk in more detail about
the hand and heart icon in a future episode.
And now that time has arrived, that future episode
is here. Can you tell me a bit more about that
icon and what it does, please, Sam? So that icon
is the funding icon. And there are two ways of
funding or supporting a podcast. In your host,
if they support the funding tag, which is one
of the podcasting 2 .0 new tags, you can put
in a URL to a third party funding platform. So
for example, Claire, you buy me a coffee, but
some people use Patreon. Some people use PayPal,
for example. So when we as an app read your RSS
feed, if you've put a URL in your RSS feed for
the funding tag, it will then display as a link
within the podcast page. So when somebody clicks
on that heart icon over the hand, it will take
them to the page that you've chosen for them
to give you more support. But we've noticed that
90 % plus of podcasts do not. have any support
for the funding tag now either their host doesn't
support it or they have no url in that actual
tag field so we decided that we as true fans
would create a funding capability for true fans
so when you click on the heart icon and they
don't have an external funding link then it will
pop up with a box that says i'd like to give
this podcast three pounds three dollars three
euros you choose your currency it's yours to
choose the amount now that is your monthly budget
what happens is that amount is allocated from
your true fans wallet so you're not actually
paying again it's just allocating it from your
true fans wallet now the difference between us
and other third -party funding supporting platforms
If you pay Patreon or you pay Buy Me A Coffee
three pounds a month, if the creator does no
more work, you still end up paying them that
three pounds. So what we do is we use what's
called value for value. So you say, I want to
support you for three pounds a month. And when
the next episode drops, I will give you the value
of that episode only. So the episode might be
worth 50p or a thousand sats. And that's the
amount that gets taken from your £3 budget. And
as those episodes drop, it comes out of your
budget. Once that budget is empty, we do not
take money from your main wallet. So you're not
actually going to get your main wallet emptied.
You've limited the amount for that podcast to
the £3, £5, £10 that you wanted to give in that
month. And that's all that happens. At the end
of the month, it then renews. So we will then
take another three pounds from your wallet and
allocate that back to that podcaster. So as they
produce more podcast episodes, they get paid.
So we think that's the fair way of doing it.
You get a new episode and then you pay them in
advance for that episode before you listen. Brilliant.
What I don't understand is the actual streaming
thing of it. What is that rate set at? So you
set that rate. In the information icon, you have
to set a value for play. So the way that it works
is that even though you set a budget for three
pounds a month, you still also have to set the
value you're willing to pay for an episode. When
you go in, you say, I'm willing to pay 10 sats
or 10p for each new episode times the amount
of time. which will give you the total value
for that episode. And that is the value that
we will then subtract from your £3 budget so
that you can basically pay that creator for the
new episode. If you don't put a value in there
for play, then we don't remove any money from
that budget because you've not said how much
you want to value that episode up. Okay, cool.
So we do explain that. I hadn't realized that
was connected to the streaming, which we do explain
in the streaming icon episode of Fan Zone. And
we do talk again then about how to set up your
defaults. And the icon on the episode as well
changes from a currency icon, so pounds, euros
or sats, to a supporting icon, which shows you
that you've supported that podcast. And it will
also show you on the episode how much you paid.
to support that episode. And that means you can
just listen to that episode multiple times without
actually having to pay for it the second or third
time. Okay, brilliant. Thank you so much. Thank
you, Claire. Thanks so much for listening. There
are lots more episodes of Fanzone for you to
get stuck into and that show you how to make
the most of the fab features that this forward
-looking podcast app has to offer podcast listeners
and creators alike. We'd love to hear from you.
You can send us a comment on TrueFans, more
about that in the Fanzone episode on comments,
or email support@truefans .fm.