Investigating a Podcast Scam (EARLY ACCESS)

I listen to Paula Poundstone's podcast, and she was complaining about this with her former podcasting network, Starburns Audio. Starburns Audio collapsed, and she's out about $40,000 in ad revenue that was never reimbursed. I have a feeling a lot of these podcast networks are running with the same playbook: Attract big shows by promising advertising minumums, then finding out you're promising more payout than you get in revenue. In most podcasts, you pay for your own expenses for producing the podcast, then run ads from a podcast network who is supposed to reimburse you for the ads. Same story with Starburns Audio. They delayed payments, then paid partially, then collasped (soon after their CEO died too.) leaving all their podcasts in the hole.

David Weintraub

Coffee this video was incredible. How do we share scams with you that we think you should investigate / report on?

Raj Dua

Coffee I love your work - not sure if you have heard of Legendary Marketing - the way you addressed this CEO should be done to David Sharpe. He was behind the nasty MLM empower network and now he has a new company. People are losing tens of thousands from a repeat fraudster. The way you handle these snake oil salesman is aspirational.

JW

I'm just going to say, dude lives in a 1.5 million dollar home, films his interview in potato vision, in a kitchen, and is constantly brushing his nose while ranting non-stop off subject... I think we all know where that money went.

ultima9

Out of curiosity are you a fan of pro wrestling? I was shocked to hear Cornette's name. The man's advertising game is so good he has a 3 hour omnibus of him just selling whatever Ad there is for the week

Doktah Doktah

Yeah cool video and all, but I thought we agreed Dr. Maxwell is part of the team now...

FYI the smoke machine's emission trajectory in the background makes it looks like you are emitting a never-ending series of burning farts.

Evan D

Forgive me for my naivete, but aren't online payment systems automated? As in, so long as things are running as intended, there's NO reason why deposits would be withheld?

Aaron Woo

Smosh got hit with this once upon a time, I think when they were in Defy Media.

Aaron Woo

All good, thanks, I like the early access but it isn't a big deal, just wanted to let you know. Basically the video would paused after about 20 seconds, pressing play didn't do anything and the only way to get the video to play again was refresh the page. I was watching on a phone

Danny Hickling

Dillon Danis 🤣

Jan Sapper

Yes i agree his is really good, hahaha most people have their computer notifications on during recording 😂

Charmoré Nel

Water we dune here. 😺 (Stop clicking the pen)

Nate

Noted. I saw someone else had the same issue.

Coffeezilla

GREED knows no limits .

Randoir

Gave up 2 mins in, I will watch it when it is public

Danny Hickling

I had playback problems as well

Danny Hickling

Theo's getting hit from all angles. He's also got that crazy surfer 'Kai' going after him as well :0.

g0at

Isn't TFATK still with them?

Bryan Lawson

The Dillon Danis reference 😂😂

Zorana Gavrilović

Salary depending on investment. It sounds kind of like a Ponzi scheme.

Davefoto

Nice job!

Tsimur Shved

I really enjoyed this one, and it was great to get another video so soon after the last investigation. I’ve had friends caught up in nightmare contracts as creatives. Easy targets which is sickening

Liv

Yeah, I don't like these podcast networks. Some of them include so many ads the show becomes unlistenable, like iheart. And all the ads (at least for me) are for other podcasts. I understand that they make money, a youtuber could never have ads like that

Precious Cinnamon Bun

I mean, if you compare Coffee's sound to the people who run a whole bunch of podcasts...

Precious Cinnamon Bun

great investigation

AKCSL

Coffeezilla you’re the man 🤙

Felix Herrmann

so…when is the coffeezilla podcast coming out?

Ema

Amazing video! But I had such playback problems, the patreon video playback is much worse than YouTubes videos 😅

Jonathan Fritz

I was mesmerized by your pen-flipping. That’s all- carry on!

Andy Jump Cannon

Excellent job as always!

Magic Plants

This was a good one coffee, you don't always hear how these deals come together, but knowing people are still jumping into contracts based on just word of mouth is crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if they would sign their business away on a napkin & a handshake. Great video as always & looking forward to the next one.

Humberto Muñoz

Clarity vx from Waves is a great one, or even in Final Cut or DaVinci resolve they have really good ones,

Charmoré Nel

My only critique is to maybe do a bit more voice isolation on your mic, maybe look at just running a plug in on it or uploading to Adobe podcast or Auphonic to get some of the room reflections out Other than that amazing video!

Charmoré Nel

I think the shady thing is not the fact that he’s hiring asset protection, lawyers but the timing of the house purchase, and the fact that he denies trying to protect assets. Says a lot imo.

Coffeezilla

I dont think asset protection necessarily is a bad thing, I run a multi million dollar company and am constantly in contact with asset protection attorneys. The cold hard truth is businesses fail quite often thus there must be a division between personal vs business assets. This is why you must do ur research when dealing with companies no matter what the size.

Aaron

Ol' boy whining about getting threatened (which he really wasn't). Instead he was doing the 'threatening.' But, as I heard it, 0 sympathy. If you scam/steal, etc. you deserve to get threatened and more. It's the politeness and decorum that contributes to the perpetuity of the 💩.

Manav Misra

next big takeaway is coffee's pen twiddling game is on point! lol

Phil Sowers

I just am so flabbergasted that these podcast management companies carried unpaid invoices like these for so long without some sort intervention. I know start ups play fast and loose, but by this point aren't there some basic internal control processes start ups know just to make sure they stay solvent and acquirable?

Emi O

I was going to say… I know where the money is! Look at that cabinetry! Great video. Wish these ponzi/embezzlers got held accountable

Connor Watkins

I've listened to Jim Cornette and Brian Last talk in length about their dealings with Colin Thomson / Kast Media. What's the odds that there are more investigations to come from all of this?

Sean Valentine

The irony is, I don't really blame this dickhead, he thought the podcast gravy train would last forever, and since he has absolutely zero knowledge of the business, he got his face ripped off.

Alan Goldstein

C-Zilla for president

Sarah Watson

Yep I feel horrible for these creators. I can’t mention enough, there’s so many people you’re not seeing on screen that I spoke to. This is the tip of the iceberg, many people were scared to talk. 😕

Coffeezilla

Thank you Alexander! Really went in depth on this one. Couldn’t do this without the support of patrons honestly. It’s a privilege to have the time to do so much research.

Coffeezilla

It was a joke about not reading contracts. 😂 Logan is horrible and has multiple scams under his belt, But doesn’t apply.

Coffeezilla

Ahhh man what a great video once again. Your investigations are always so in-depth and well made. It truly is devastating how common of a problem this is. But people like you going out and exposing this scummy behavior is the exact attitude that'll get people to listen and think about their actions more. Because even if they do decide to go through it, they'll always have that thought in the back of their head that Coffeezilla could be watching. Incredible job again Stephen! Your videos are truly some of the best on the platform

Alexander Demers

Dang.... Thing is you keep hearing this and all my brain was saying was Ponzi, ponzi, ponzi. Like oldest trick in the book isn't it. Promise million dollar minimum guarantee contracts, pay old talent with new talent money. Embezzle in the process...

Ada MC

dillon is nowhere near as bad as logan, personally i think that last dig should come at the actual creator of multiple scams, aka logan.

Arjun Yogan

I heard cornette talk about this and to hear you mention him, man this sucks for all the people involved

Rich LeClaire III

Let me make a coffee and hit play.

Adam Stenning

He's back!! Can't wait for this one ..

Spc

Damn you were QUICK

Joshua Duarte