The Joe Budden Effect: What Black Creators Can Learn From His $20M Podcast Network

You can say a lot of things about Joe Budden, but stupid isn’t one of them.

In fact, if you’re a Black podcaster, media personality, or heck, business person in general, Joe Budden can actually teach you a lot of things. But some aren’t ready to have that conversation. 

A former rapper turned media personality, Budden rose to fame with his 2003 hit “Pump It Up” and later gained renewed visibility through Love & Hip-Hop and a string of headline-making podcast controversies.

And now, he’s showing us exactly why that conversation is long overdue.

Because while Budden has been running his mouth for quite some time, he’s also running to the bank, which was recently revealed by a routine screenshot he posted to Instagram. In sharing his Patreon traffic of over 30 million visits in 30 days (which he had carefully scribbled over the revenue numbers, trying to keep the financial details private), digital detectives worked their magic on the image to reveal what appeared to be more than $900,000 in earnings for June alone. 

The number made headlines, but those figures only scratch the surface of what Budden has built (and while “Pump It Up” may forever be a classic, no, it’s not that).

According to a recent New York Times report, Budden has been pulling in $1 million per month on Patreon for eight straight months, and his Joe Budden Network is projected to generate more than $20 million this year.

Now why exactly should more of us be paying attention to this news? Well, first and foremost, most podcasters can barely scrape together rent money from their shows. But Budden has got 70,000 people paying him between $5 and $50 a month on Patreon alone, with each of those subscribers getting different levels of access—more episodes, spinoff content, etc. That subscription money will likely hit $12 million this year, making him Patreon’s biggest earner, but could this also signal the rise of other Black podcasters behind him?

Now that’s just the subscription side. Advertising also brings in millions more each year, according to his CEO Ian Schwartzman. And to really see why I said you could never call Budden stupid, it’s for the simple reason that instead of partnering with big networks like iHeart or SiriusXM—who would take a cut of everything—he sells his own ads. Most networks dangle upfront cash at podcasters but then control how many commercials run and what they pay. Budden said no thanks to all that.

His team keeps it selective, working with just three sponsors max at any time. “The bigger the money gets, the more strings that are attached,” Schwartzman noted. It’s a philosophy that’s clearly paying off.

And while Budden himself may be larger than life, running this empire takes serious manpower. The Joe Budden Network has over 30 contractors handling everything from production to admin work. The co-hosts alone cost more than $1.5 million a year—Trevor Robinson (Queenzflip), Marc Lamont Hill, Melyssa Ford, Parks Vallely, Antwan Marby (Ish), and Lamar Burney (Ice). After Budden accidentally flashed those revenue numbers to his 1.7 million Instagram followers, he joked that “now everybody’s asked for a raise.”

The company is also dropping about $2 million to buy the Edgewater, New Jersey waterfront condo where they currently record. They’re renting it now, and apparently some neighbors aren’t thrilled about sharing their building with a podcast operation.

Now if you’re a Black creator who wants to, or has ever thought about getting into podcasting, Budden is proving not only can you do it, but do it on your own terms. The global podcast industry generated $7.3 billion in sales last year, with ad revenues alone reaching more than half of it. But let’s be real—that money hasn’t exactly been flowing to Black podcasters in equal measure.

Most podcasters make pennies compared to Budden’s millions. The typical show earns $18 to $50 per 1,000 downloads, maybe $100 if you’re really popular. For smaller shows with 10,000 to 50,000 listeners, we’re talking $50 to $1,000 a month. Meanwhile, Joe Rogan got a reported $250 million Spotify deal, and Dax Shepard signed an $80 million deal with Amazon’s Wondery for his “Armchair Expert” podcast.

Budden’s model flips the script on how Black creators have been locked out of traditional media money. By keeping ownership of his content and his audience, he built something that can’t be taken away. As Patreon’s CEO Jack Conte put it, “Creators have more leverage and control than actually ever before in the history of the arts.” 

While media companies are cutting jobs left and right, Budden’s blueprint is showing other creators there’s another way forward. All you need is real community connections, consistent value for subscribers, and the business skills to manage multiple revenue streams. Most importantly, you need the confidence to bet on yourself when everyone else is telling you to play it safe.

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