Important: Podcoin is no longer in business, but if you're really interested in getting paid to listen to podcasts, the best (and fastest) way to do that is to help other podcast creators. There are multiple services and skills you can learn to make this a reality. Check out these free workbooks to learn more.
Podcasts are one of the most widely consumed forms of content in the world, and their popularity is growing every day. According to Music Oomph, 26% of the US population listens to podcasts at least every month.
That's over 80 million monthly podcast listeners in the US alone.
It's easy to see why podcasts are becoming such a popular form of content too. You can listen to them while you're driving, running, walking, or even flipping pancakes. Can't say the same for blog posts or Youtube videos.
Plus, there's such a huge variety of podcasts. There are podcasts to make you laugh, podcasts to help you learn, and everything in-between.
To make your podcast listening even more worthwhile, Podcoin was created. Learn more about what it is and how it works in this in-depth Podcoin review.
What is Podcoin?
Podcoin is an app that pays you a digital currency called ‘Podcoin' to listen to podcasts. These Podcoin can then be used to redeem various rewards.
The Podcoin mission is to increase the time people spend listening to podcasts. They also want to give podcasters a better way to reach new listeners.
How Podcoin Works
For Listeners
As you listen to podcasts through the Podcoin app, you'll earn 1 Podcoin per 10 minutes of listening. You can increase the amount you earn by having a streak:
To earn and maintain a streak, you must earn at least 1 PC each day. That means you have to listen to something for at least 10 minutes.
Once you reach a 3-day streak, you'll earn 2 PC per 10 minutes instead of 1 (until you lose your streak).
You can earn even more by listening to Bonus podcasts, which are listed on the Discover tab of the app. Bonus podcasts will pay 1.5 PC per 10 minutes. If you have a streak, bonus podcasts pay 2.5 PC per 10 minutes.
Important things to keep note of:
- You will not earn any Podcoin for listening to a podcast that you've already listened to.
- You can only earn Podcoin for up to 6 hours per day.
For Podcasters
If you have your own podcast, promoting it on Podcoin is a great idea. Here's why:
- You'll earn 1 PC for each 10 minutes someone listens to your podcast. That means you're actually getting paid while your podcast is being promoted.
- You'll get in-depth data about your listeners. You'll be able to see how many people are listening to your podcast and how long they listen for.
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Podcoin Rewards
Once you've earned some Podcoin, you can cash them out for rewards. Podcoin offers a few types of rewards:
- Cash – in the form of gift cards (Amazon) or PayPal.
- Physical products – The physical products that are available change often so check back in the app to see what you can get.
- Give to causes – Trade your Podcoins to help the world. Give grains of rice to end world hunger, fight global warming, feed rescued animals, and more.
Podcoin Referral Program
If you refer another user to Podcoin and they enter your invite code during sign up, you'll both get 150 Podcoin added to your accounts.
The only problem with this referral program is that it caps out at 4 invites. That means the max you can earn from inviting people is 600 Podcoin.
If you want to get the 150 Podcoin sign up bonus, you can use my invite code: Dylan9bv.
Cheating
At first, it might seem like Podcoin would be extremely easy to game: just leave your phone playing podcasts and earn free money.
Well, it's not that simple. Podcoin has advanced algorithms in place to detect cheating.
Plus, it's just not worth it. First of all, if you're caught cheating you could lose some – or all – or the Podcoin you've earned.
Second, if you cheat and get away with it you're just potentially ruining the platform for other users. Don't be the rotten apple!
How Does Podcoin Make Money?
It seems a bit weird at first, doesn't it? A free app that pays you money just for listening to podcasts?
If you're like me and you're a bit skeptical, you're probably wondering, “What's the catch?”
Well, there is no catch. In the future, once Podcoin has grown its user base (a lot), they plan to charge podcast owners a small fee to reach their engaged audience.
When this happens, nothing will change for listeners. You'll still earn Podcoin for listening.
How Much Money Can I Make With Podcoin?
I'll start off by saying this:
Not very much.
Right now, 1 Podcoin is worth about $0.0025. (Yes, that's a quarter of a cent.)
That means without a streak, you'll earn 6PC/hour, meaning you're earning about 1.5 cents/hour.
With a streak, you'll earn 12 PC or about 3 cents per hour.
If you listen to a Bonus podcast while also on a streak, you'll earn 15 PC or about 3.75 cents per hour.
However, Podcoin isn't meant to be a side hustle or to make you rich, it's more of a very tiny passive income stream.
Podcoin also makes it easy for you to make the world a better place. The earnings are so low that you may choose to simply donate all of your Podcoin to your favorite charity.
Either way, look at it like this:
Before Podcoin, listening to podcasts made you nothing. Somethings better than nothing, right?
What I Like About Podcoin
- I can donate to my favorite causes – When I used to listen to podcasts, I was the only one really gaining anything. Now by listening to podcasts through Podcoin, I can also donate to causes that are important to me.
- It helps me discover new podcasts – Podcoin has a section within the app that shows the top podcasts and top episodes making it easy to find new content to listen to.
- There are a ton of podcasts available – Podcoin has over 538 thousand podcasts available and over 37 million episodes. They basically have every podcast you could think of.
Where I Think Podcoin Could Improve
- Increase earnings – I understand this is probably hard to do as Podcoin isn't generating any revenue yet, but maybe this will change in the future. Either way, earning something for listening to podcasts is better than nothing.
- Add more rewards – There are a good amount of rewards on Podcoin but some more variety in gift cards, physical products, and charity choices would be nice.
- Improve the referral program – Right now you can only earn Podcoin for inviting up to 4 people. Once that cap is hit, there's no incentive for users to invite more of their friends to the app.
- Can't create a queue of episodes – With the Apple Podcasts app, I can create a queue of episodes that play automatically after one finishes. I can't yet do that with the Podcoin app.
Podcoin Review: Is Podcoin Legit?
Podcoin is definitely a legit company and I think what they're doing is awesome. This app could have a huge impact in the podcasting world and I'm really excited to see how it develops.
If you enjoyed this Podcoin review and you want to start earning money for listening to podcasts, sign up and use the code Dylan9bv for 150 free Podcoin.
Note: If you already have a Readercoin account, you can use that same account to log in to Podcoin.
Already signed up but forgot to use an invite code? Don't worry, you can still get the free 150 Podcoin bonus. Here's how:
- Go to the “Me” tab on the app
- Click the settings icon at the top right of your profile
- Hit “Enter Referrer Code”
- Enter Dylan9bv
It's as easy as that.
Let me know your favorite podcast in the comments below!
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It’s good that it has shutdown, that was a shitty retarded app. Hours of podcast for few cents, I bet that is shut down, people aren’t stupid. I don’t pretend to make thousands of dollars just listening to podcasts, but come on, there was also a reward requiring 399,000 podcoins giving you 1000 dollars in paypal, you had to run it for 100 years to get that amount. They fool people and this is the result, YOU SHUTDOWN, good riddance.
Unfortunately, Podcoin is no more. I liked the idea of listening to podcasts and earning rewards for it, even if they were small, because I find podcasts to be educational, informative, or just plain entertaining. As such, I downloaded the app, set up an account, and started listening on pretty heavy rotation. I downloaded a few self-empowerment podcasts, some informational podcasts on topics of interests, I even downloaded some sci-fi audiodramas that I wound up enjoying. I even downloaded some ambient music podcasts to listen to either to motivate me while I was working, or to relax to when I needed something to help me sleep.
Unfortunately, I got the notice that Podcoin was going to discontinue service on September 24. Fortunately, I was able to accumulate enough points to redeem for a $5 Amazon gift card before the cutoff date (which I did get in my email), but I would have liked it to continue. Even if it wasn’t much, it was still a good incentive to discover new podcasts out there, and I went back and subscribed to them in the iOS Podcast app. But ohh, how nice it would be to still be earning Amazon gift cards on those!
Thanks for letting me know about that Eric, that’s really too bad that Podcoin has shut down :/
I have been listening for weeks and now all of a sudden as of September 22nd everything has stopped updating
Are quite a few bugs.
So to try and fix it I signed out and try to log back in, and now it tells me no account exists with my email address.
I also have uninstalled the app and reinstalled and still can’t sign in.
With my listening I have accumulated quite a bit of podcoin.
I was really happy up until this week I’m really dismayed.
I tried to contact the developer twice and left a review on Google and they got back to me with a generic response and then told me to contact a specific email for the developer, which just comes up an error page and it cannot be done in the mail is sent back to me.
If you can fix it please do so cuz I do enjoy listening to it and I don’t want to give bad reviews.
I switched all my podcast over to you.
If there is how can I get some somewhere from someone
Hi Deb, unfortunately, it looks like Podcoin has shut down. 🙁
At first the app was great and I was starting to build up coins then one day I could not sign into my account. I even tried to reset my password and I was getting an error message after trying to sign in with the new password. I lost my full balance of podcoins.
That’s really unfortunate to hear, Rob. Have you tried contacting Podcoin support?
Me too
Hi! I LOVE listening to podcasts and decided to try out Podcoin with your referral code. I am now listening to my favorite podcasts while generating a very small passive income. I love coffee so anything that gets me free Starbucks cards is my jam. Thanks for the referral code!
Glad you found the post helpful!