When you have a Spotify billboard in Leicester Square like The Receipts do and are selling out live venues like the 90s Baby Show, you can probably safely say you’ve made it.
This is the reality for these two popular podcasts, which have accumulated millions of listeners across various platforms in just a few years.
They are undoubtedly among the most successful Black British podcasts around. Still, there are so many more like them, building lucrative brands and sustaining full incomes off the sheer popularity of their shows.
However, the podcasting industry is relatively new and it wasn’t always a certified money-maker.
‘When I quit my full-time job, I don’t think I knew I could do it then,’ Tolly T, one-half of The Receipts podcast, admitted to Metro.
It was about taking a leap of faith but one that clearly paid off; The Receipts launched in 2016 with Tolly and Audrey Indome behind the mics alongside Milena Sanchez and Phoebe Park who have since left the podcast.
Due to their unprecedented success, Spotify signed The Receipts to an exclusive deal in 2019 with listeners craving their unfiltered, relatable and hilarious discussions about life, relationships and pop culture.
So yes, it was a leap of faith worth taking.
‘The reason I quit is because I wanted to see what this looked like if someone gave it all the attention,’ Tolly continued.
‘I left my job so prematurely, we weren’t making any money yet. I just wanted to see what it looked like,’ she added, noting that they hadn’t even hosted a live show at this point.
Audrey, more hesitant about her own career path, added: ‘I was a little bit more scared, it took me ages to quit my 9-5. For me, when we started getting money from Spotify, I knew I could do this full-time and not really need my job as a crutch but I think that was a mixture of greed and fear.
‘One of the guys from 90s Baby joked, “Wow, you still work? You’re greedy”.
‘When we started getting income when we signed our deal, I knew I was making way more than I was at my 9-5.’
Speaking of those 90s Babys, Fred Santana, Temi Alchemy and Dennis aka VP offer a similar brand of familiarity that The Receipts ladies bring to their audience – the male-centric podcast is comprised of childhood friends who just happened to stumble upon the industry.
Through their unique brand of humour, the 90s Baby trio share their thoughts on entertainment topics, marriage, fatherhood and even debunking random science facts, making for wholesome yet hilarious listening in equal measure.
Dennis explained: ‘The way our podcast is, we argue, we crack jokes but if you argue with people you’re not actually friends with, that can go the wrong way but because it’s us, it can be more entertaining rather than it getting to serious places.’
Their podcasting formula is so natural that it’s surprising that Fred admitted: ‘I didn’t actually listen to podcasts before starting one.’
It’s similar for The Receipts who say authenticity is the key to their blossoming brand.
Tolly said: ‘For so long there’s always been this version of what womanness is. It’s either this back-in-the-day rom-com version of the prim and proper woman, but The Receipts fills this version of girls who are just trying to figure it out.
‘It feels like the really nice bits of girldom. When you’re drunk and you go to the toilet, you see a bunch of girls and have a little chat. It feels like a really lovely WhatsApp group and because we’re genuinely friends you can feel that too.’
Audrey agreed: ‘It’s the authenticity because we really are ourselves and that’s what’s kept us going for so long as well. When you’re being organic, no one can take that from you. The audience can sense what’s genuine and what’s fake and we’ve always been very true to ourselves and that lands really well.’
‘There’s no pretentiousness, we’re not trying to teach you anything. We hold your hand as we go through this thing through life and we’re not above holding our Ls,’ Tolly added.
The 90s Baby Show was born in 2014 but it wasn’t until the end of 2022 when they received funding from YouTube Black Voices, which supports rising creators.
‘From there, we gambled on ourselves. It was a lot of money but we thought, it’s something anyway,’ Dennis explained. ‘We can try this for a month and if not we can go back to finding jobs.
‘Luckily for us, as soon as we went full-time in November, we had a trial with PlantMade as a sponsor and that went really well for them so fortunately we didn’t have to struggle to find funds after that. That rolled into the next year and allowed us to get our foot in and from there, we went from strength to strength.’
Dennis was originally the man behind the camera working on the visuals before taking up a third mic alongside Fred and Temi. When the latter two first started 90s Baby, monetising podcasts was still relatively a new notion.
‘The landscape has changed a lot. It was an interesting journey,’ Dennis reflected.
It’s no secret that the world of podcasting can be lucrative, and Tolly stated matter-of-factly: ‘Now you can make a lot of money. We have a deal with Spotify and when it first started, it was fully exclusive, this was only available on Spotify. Over the years that’s changed a bit. Some people don’t have those deals but they have ads. I think ads are relatively quite normal now.
‘And there’s Patreon where the money goes directly to the creator. People sign up and your consumers, your customers pay monthly, yearly or however you set it up and they pay you.’
She continued: ‘There are so many ways compared to when we first started and there are live shows, that’s another way to make money. When we first started, honestly we didn’t have a pot to p**s in and we were paying for the studios ourselves.
‘The only money we would make is if we did a live show here or there occasionally and there weren’t many ads.’
Audrey revealed: ‘What we’ve realised now is people will buy into you as a brand, people have merch lines, you’ll be so surprised how much people are willing to invest financially in you.’
The 90s Baby Show and The Receipts regularly host live shows where they essentially host an elevated version of their episodes giving fans the chance to see the action up, close and personal. It’s not unusual to see Temi, Fred and Dennis somewhat transform into mini music stars during their shows, throwing song battles and dancing on stage.
With podcasts clocking up thousands of views each week and, with the UK music industry in a strange space at the moment, it feels as though podcasters are the new rockstars.
Tolly said: ‘I think firstly they spend a lot more time with you. Our audience has listened to us every week for at least the past eight years.
‘Musicians release a three-minute song, podcasters talk to you for an hour. Podcasters give a lot more of themselves in terms of their content, especially in the way we do podcasts it’s about our lives, and what we’re up to.’
Praising their dedicated fanbase, Audrey said: ‘One thing I love about our audience is that they’re so appreciative. A lot of audience members are like, I don’t think I could do what you do.
‘A lot of it is, “Thank you for what you do, I’m going to invest my money”. What other way do they get to see you outside of live events?’
Despite their enormous success, Dennis admitted that there’s still a stigma around podcasting as ‘not everything’s for everyone’ but both sets of podcasters prefer to tune out the noise.
Instead, they channel their energy into making sure they are positive representation for the Black community – especially for young Black men.
‘I definitely feel a responsibility growing up as Black men in the areas we grew up in, we know how it is and we can relate to the youth and the struggles they go through in terms of navigating through this world.
‘We had an episode where we discussed our salaries and journeys into our actual 9-5 careers so I think it was eye-opening for people to know we still needed a workforce to get to podcasting.’
Temi continued: We know we’re not only speaking to our age group, we’re speaking to a younger audience too. We understand that we just can’t use this platform to chat rubbish or just have fun, but life is about balance. There’s a time to have fun, to talk about finances or how it is moving to a predominantly white neighbourhood coming from inner city London. Things we can tell in jest but it’s in truth.’
Podcasting doesn’t come without its challenges – negative feedback on social media doesn’t leave them unaffected but they’re always able to bounce back.
Sharing his favourite thing about being a podcaster, Fred said: ‘When we just get to laugh and continue the conversation but when something’s keeping us laughing, those are the best moments.’
As for Audrey, she tries her hardest to keep her ego grounded but some compliments are just too good not to immerse in.
‘Things people say, they’re getting more creative. Someone called us “vessels of God” and that’s always really overwhelming but in a good way,’ she laughed.
The 90s Baby Show is available on all streaming platforms as is The Receipts podcast, which is also brought to you by Spotify.
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