Pushkin’s venture into audiobooks is of bigger consequence for podcasting than every premium service combined.

Opening up a market for non-serialized narratives that are directly sold to consumers puts actual dollars in creators hands rather than speculative revenue shares and option prices.

It allows people to be paid for their work in audio rather than for the audio’s potential to be adapted into a different medium.

It pushes distributors to open up a way to sell podcasts directly to consumers, allowing creators to have more control over how they monetize their work

It means opportunities for different types of stories and structures because it won’t be limited by the constraint of episodes.

And it can result in less middlemen between creators and their audience, which can lead to more diversity in talent and definitions of success for our medium.