Popular music podcast Song Exploder has shared some unfortunate news today, with host Hrishikesh Hirway revealing that episodes may have to be removed due to licensing fees.
In a series of now deleted tweets, Hirway said it was getting too expensive to keep paying these fees.
“This is a bummer, but I’m starting to take episodes of Song Exploder down,” Hirway wrote.
“I’ve always hoped they’d all be available forever, but the reality of music licensing makes that impossible. As the podcast approaches 200 episodes, it’s just too expensive to keep all of them afloat.”
“Some labels and publishers have allowed me to feature songs on the show at no cost, which is awesome, and those episodes will be up forever,” he continued.
“But with others, as licensing periods start to expire, some episodes are going to go away…Sorry for the very inside baseball / industry update, but I wanted to let people know in case they notice in the future that their favorite episode is no longer in the feed.”
He also went on to say that he isn’t trying to blame anyone for the fees.
“This is important—I’m not trying to blame anyone else or cast aspersions,” he said.
“Making money in music is HARD. This is just the way licensing works. The cost of maintaining renewals for old episodes on an on-going basis, along with new episodes, is just more than I can manage.”
Recent episodes of the podcast include interviews with Khruangbin, The 1975, 100 gecs, Mobb Deep, Waxahatchee, Black Pumas and more.
