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Listen-and-Earn allows Bitcoin payments for podcasters and listeners

The Fountain podcasting app announced a partnership with ZEBEDEE to allow podcast creators and listeners the ability to earn Bitcoin for their time spent with content.

Crypto has tapped into various industries over the years to enable users with the unique ability to micro-monetize their actions. Play-to-earn gaming, along with earning from music streaming, has been the forerunner for this type of crypto integration.

On Jan 24. Fountain, a value-for-value podcasting platform, announced a new partnership with ZEBEDEE, a financial services company that helps monetize games and apps, to enable Bitcoin (BTC) micropayments for podcast listeners.

Oscar Merry, the founder and CEO of Fountain, called the ability to listen to a podcast and earn money for it, a powerful combo and the future of content creation.

“A few years from now, we’ll look back at paid subscriptions for content platforms that aren’t related to how much we actually use those platforms and laugh at how basic and inefficient it was. ”

Additionally, through the partnership with ZEBEDEE, users don’t need to know anything about cryptocurrencies to take advantage of the rewards through debit and credit card integrations.

The CEO told Cointelegraph that through the use of the Bitcoin Lightning Network specifically, instant, permissionless, and low-fee payments can be programmed that work both within the Fountain app and other open RSS standards.

According to Merry, such a development connects a “fragmented podcasting industry” which currently operates across numerous unsynchronized apps and hosting providers.

He went on to highlight that every minute spent viewing ads and consuming or creating content increases a platform’s value.

“Why shouldn’t you participate in the financial upside of the value you create on the platform?”

As developers continue to prioritize utility in new protocols, adoption of emerging technologies becomes almost unnoticeable. Recently, a “party-to-earn” initiative targeted the electronic music industry to create a currency that is universal across festival goers, clubbers and fans.

Netflix bans crypto commercials on ad-based streaming service: Report

Desperate to boost revenues, Netflix announced in July that it would be launching a cheaper subscription tier that features commercials.

Streaming giant Netflix has reportedly banned cryptocurrency-related commercials on its ad-supported subscription tier, which is scheduled to launch in November months ahead of schedule.

Citing local sources, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday that Netflix has decided to reject all advertising campaigns related to politics, gambling and cryptocurrency on its new subscription tier. The new tier will also not run ads selling products to children. The same sources indicated that restrictions on pharmaceutical ads were also being considered.

According to Variety, Netflix has moved up the timeline for launching its cheaper ad-supported tier to November to compete with Disney+, which is launching its own ad-based plan on Dec. 8. Initially, Netflix was planning to launch its ad-supported tier at the start of 2023.

Netflix’s new subscription tier will go live on Nov. 1 in several countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and France, Variety said.

With global subscribers declining in consecutive quarters, Netflix announced in July it would launch a new ad-supported service to boost revenues. In the second quarter, the streaming giant lost 970,000 paid subscribers after losing 200,000 in the first three months of 2022. Faced with slowing revenue growth, Netflix disclosed in June it would cut costs to keep its margins at 20%.

Due to regulatory scrutiny, crypto bans are nothing new for the digital asset industry. In 2018, social media giant Meta (formerly Facebook) banned crypto ads across its platform before reinstating them later in the year. In 2021, Google-parent Alphabet reversed a ban on crypto-related advertisements, allowing exchanges and wallet operators to again promote their services on the search engine.