Joe Budden is opening up about his podcast network’s $1 million-plus monthly revenue from ads and listeners to encourage creators to stay independent unless equity is on the table.
Last month, the rapper-turned-podcaster flexed on social media, posting a Patreon traffic screenshot showing how the subscription platform, where fans pay creators directly, can often out-earn big brand deals. Although Budden blurred the numbers on his Patreon screenshot, internet sleuths pieced it together and estimated the monthly haul at over $900,000.
After revealing his network pulls 30 million visits a month, Budden later confirmed to The New York Times that the Joe Budden Network brings in about $1.04 million monthly on Patreon. With roughly 70,000 subscribers paying between $5 and $50 each month, and more if you factor in paid advertisements, CEO Ian Schwartzman says the network is on track to clear over $20 million this year.
“Joe is in a league of his own,” said Jack Conte, chief executive of Patreon. “It is not common for people to make a million dollars a month on Patreon.”
Since 2016, Joe Budden has been all-in on the podcast grind. He’s worked with Spotify, turned down deals that wanted a cut of his ownership, and kept full control of what he built. Now, with The Joe Budden Podcast pulling in a steady $1 million a month from subscribers, he’s hoping his journey inspires other creators to bet on themselves.
While revealing the revenue numbers can be “uncomfortable to put any money situation out there for the public and competitors to see,” Schwartzman said. The goal is to promote equity in the podcast game because “How else will they know they can do it this way?” Schwartzman added.
Even with Budden shelling out over $1 million to pay his 30-person podcast team, his decision to share the show’s earnings online has his crew calling for their own slice.
“Now everybody’s asked for a raise,” Budden joked.
It’s proof of how far Budden’s grind has taken him, from his Complex days on Everyday Struggle, where he joked about being “on allowance,” pulling in just $500 a week. Even while working with Complex and later signing a two-year exclusive deal with Spotify, Budden kept building his podcast independently, turning down partnership offers that demanded ownership, YouTube takedowns, and control over the platform he built from the ground up.
“The bigger the money gets, the more strings that are attached,” Schwartzman said. “We wanted someone to acknowledge how valuable we were by showing that they would be comfortable giving us skin in the game.”
Next, Budden is locking down his podcast HQ for good, dropping around $2 million to buy the Edgewater, New Jersey, waterfront condo where The Joe Budden Podcast is filmed and recorded. He currently rents the space, but after ongoing complaints from neighbors about his crew, he’s locking up the space.
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