Including a free tier, and a premium tier with over 40 podcast originals

The premium version is available for $7.99 a month following a one-month free trial for U.S. subscribers. The Luminary app is also available in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The free app is available in the App Store and in the Google Play store.

• I Am Rapaport
• Under the Skin with Russell Brand
• The Axe Files with David Axelrod
• Hollywood & Crime from Wondery
• On Second Thought with Trevor Noah
• Now What? With Arian Foster
• LGBTQ&A
• Tabloid
• Locked Up Abroad from Wondery
• The Rewatchables 1999 by Bill Simmons from The Ringer

Twenty-five of its 40 originals launched this week. The free app includes ad-supported, publicly-available podcasts including programs from NPR, TED, WNYC, and The New York Times. Other shows will be added over the next few months including podcasts featuring Lena Dunham, Celeste Barber, Team Coco and others. Trailers are available on the Luminary website.

“We’re thrilled to introduce Luminary’s free podcast app and incredible premium content to podcast listeners,” said Matt Sacks, co-founder and CEO, in an April 23 news release. “We created Luminary to make it easier for podcast listeners to find great content and be the place where podcast creators can do their best work. The quality, breadth, and diversity of our content means you can always find something great to listen to on Luminary.”

The $100 million venture-backed podcast company launched amidst controversy after tweeting in March that podcasts don’t need ads, reports Podcast Business Journal. Podcasters and fans alike took to Twitter to fight back, saying they believe podcasters should be paid and they’d rather see a few ads than paying a subscription fee. In protest, some creators are withholding their shows.

In a conversation with The Verge, Sacks says they made a mistake. What the company meant to say was that consumers should have a choice – listen to ads in exchange for free content or pay a subscription fee for an ad-free experience.

The Verge suggests that this controversy and Luminary’s business model present a problem for the podcast industry. Podcasts have traditionally been free to listeners. By offering them via subscription, Luminary is disrupting the industry, and forcing creators and consumers to look at podcasting differently. Will listeners be willing to pay for podcasts? How will creators be compensated for their work, and what control will they have over the distribution of their content?

Insider Take:

According to The Verge, Sacks believes Luminary will be successful, despite the shifting dynamic of the podcast industry. The industry is young and may evolve as other industries have. Look at the streaming video market as an example. People have traditionally been willing to pay for streaming video on demand services like Netflix and Hulu, and still are – but this too is shifting. Ad-supported, free video on demand services are growing in popularity, showing there is room for more than one business model in the industry. The keys to success are the quality of the experience and exclusivity – what can Luminary do, or offer, better than anyone else, and are people willing to pay for it?

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Senior Staff Writer, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, and reports.  

Read Full Bio