5 by 5 Studios and Dan Benjamin - Champion of the week!

Color me impressed! (Is that an actual thing people say or did I make that up?)

Regardless I've been impressed this week by Dan Benjamin and his newest creation.

Last Tuesday when the entire world seemed obsessed with Apple, Dan posted on Hivelogic the following

I have some big news: starting today, I’m podcasting for a living.

This is something I get giddy upon hearing. This is what the new media economy is all about.

I'm 37, I know I will not have a chance of being a rock star at this point, but I could someday give up the day job if the right opportunity presents itself.

So what is 5 by 5 studios? Dan described it as network for all of the current shows he works on (except for The Talk Show). What I found compelling is the new content added to the roster.

The Pipeline - an interview show talking with designers, developers, writers, and entrepreneurs.

The Conversation - a live-streamed talk show featuring topical discussions, reviews, special guests, news and, your calls, all live.

So far I've heard the premiere episode of The Conversation and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll be listening to The Pipeline shortly.

The underwriting premise appears to be sponsorship based. If the quality maintains what I know of Dan, this network of shows will keep a place in my podcast feed for sometime.

This will likely remain true even if the underwriting moves to a subscription based model.

Back in 2007 Ken Ray announced on Mac OS Ken that he was going to try something new and asked for support in the form os subscriptions to his new show. Each week he presents a premium show for a fee of $10 a month. I have been a subscriber since the first show. At last count there were over 140 shows available for subscribers. This service is worthy of a ten dollar monthly fee. A compelling force keeping me subscribed is nothing has changed with delivery of the daily show, it remains free and is carried through sponsorships.

Another podcast I'd been listing to for years is The Bitterest Pill. The Pill moved from a free podcast to subscription based content. Subscribers get full shows, everyone else? Partial shows. This was not something I agreed with and so I decided to forgo the podcast.

Content does not have to be free, it just has to be compelling. Dan has talent and connections enough to bring good insights and guests. All of this translates into a premium level of content that has monetary value.