Today I review, link to, and excerpt from The New York Times‘* article How Much Do Podcasters Really Earn? One Star Pulls Back the Curtain: Joe Budden, a former rapper who now oversees a robust podcast network, gave a rare look into the finances of the industry.
By Jessica Testa
July 22, 2025
*This link to subscribing to the New York Times is NOT an affiliate link. I just think that everyone should consider subscribing to the New York Times.
What follows is from the start of the above article. Note to myself reread the whole article.
The podcaster Joe Budden, an ex-rapper who has been called the “Howard Stern of hip-hop,” wanted to flex a little. He accidentally over-flexed.
Last month, he posted a screenshot of his traffic from Patreon, a subscription service that allows fans to pay creators directly through monthly contributions. It showed more than 30 million visits in 30 days.
Revenue figures on the Patreon data had been scribbled over. But sleuths manipulated the image, and to them, it appeared that he had earned more than $900,000 — a number that made headlines.
Yet that was just his earnings from the month of June. Overall, the Joe Budden Network is on a pace to generate more than $20 million this year, according to its chief executive, Ian Schwartzman.
