I love that you are thinking outside the box. That is cool, and well, so very “podcasting.” You did miss some things. You mentioned making money from “ads, sponsorship, or elective support by die-hard fans which make up just 1–3% of your total fan base.”

You missed the #1 way to make money with your podcast: Sell your own product and services. You also missed #2 Affiliate marketing. While you have to have a large audience for affiliate marketing to work, I’ve made a few car payments with money from Amazon. I once made (what calculated to) $50 CPM promoting the right product to the right audience via affiliate marketing.

Advertising with a CPM model, even with a $35 cpm is not going to work for 90% of podcasters who get 300 downloads an episode/1200 a month. That’s $42 for the month. Enjoy your Ramen. While I realize that the obvious answer is, “Well, we’re talking about podcasters with a bigger audience.” That is the problem. Most podcasters don’t have a bigger audience. Hence, CPM is not the answer. It is for those who work hard, and grow their audience over YEARS, but most people want to make a living now with their 180 downloads per episode. I’ve heard of people trying to monetize with 30 downloads per episode. ( just so you know who you are dealing with at times).

So if we pull our feeds out of Apple, is someone not going to take my place? I’m sure in Nashville if a musician decides not to “Pay to play” at the local bar, there is a long line of people who will gladly step up and take the opportunity to be heard. Speaking of musicians, Spotify is going to pay the artist/podcaster next to nothing? Shocking… ( I do appreciate the details)

So I agree with you. If we don’t stand up and demand to be paid we are setting ourselves up to be robbed. We also need to look in the mirror and realize if we want to get paid, we have to deliver unquestionable value. Is your idea the answer? Dunno, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this spurs people to brainstorm.