I’m Pretty Sure I Owe Someone Money

I walk a lot, usually about four miles a day. And when I walk, by and large, I listen to podcasts, which I download onto my computer via iTunes and then play on my iPod. I’ve paid for iTunes and I’ve paid for the iPod. The podcasts, though, are free. In fact, iTunes actually tells me that they’re free when I subscribe to them. And some of the podcasts begin by telling me that they’re a free service for “listeners like me.” But those podcasts typically also tell me that I ought to be paying for listening — or at least they strongly imply it. Of course, these same podcasts also have sponsors and I have to listen to little commercials from those sponsors throughout the program.

When I listen to Sound Opinions, for example, I know I’m going to hear about a particular speaker system that will help me enjoy music more critically. The sponsor pays and I have to listen to the commercial. Paying, and thereby becoming a sponsor myself, won’t allow me to avoid listening to these ads, nor will I be allowed to present my own commercial on their show.

Still, when I don’t pay and am reminded that “listeners like me” support the show with their donations, I feel like a heel. In part, that’s by design; the good people at Sound Opinions want me to feel like I’m scamming someone. Apparently it’s not working, though, or else the force exerted on me is insufficient. I don’t end up donating, even though I feel like I probably should. Given my other philosophical commitments, I recognize that I probably ought to pay for a service that plays an important role in my day. If I enjoy something, I should be willing to support it. Or, if no one pays, presumably the service comes to a halt and I’ll end up unhappy. But it seems like this is one of those situations where philosophical commitment runs headlong into inertia.

And yet I wonder whether the podcasts are trying to make me feel badly about myself when, in fact, I really shouldn’t. Maybe a case could be made that I can’t be held accountable for making use of a free service that bills itself as such. What I mean, of course, is that I suspect I’d pay some small amount of money for each episode of these podcasts if iTunes charged my credit card for them, especially if I already knew how much I liked them and if paying turned off the commercials. But since they’re not billing me — since they’re actively telling me that I don’t ever need to pay — I really shouldn’t feel guilty about getting something for nothing. It would be theft if they wanted me to pay for it and I found a way around paying…but what they really want is for me to feel guilty about stealing something that I’m told I can have for free.

ESPN doesn’t ask for my money when I listen to their podcasts and I don’t feel badly about listening for free. This is at least in part because they’ve gotten very good at making sure that their sponsors appear in everything from the podcasts’ cover art to the punishment that Cousin Sal or Bill Simmons will inflict on the loser of their weekly bets on the NFL lines (beating by sandwich from national chain). Maybe what I want, then, is for public radio to either get better at working advertising into their programming or else to start charging users who download their podcasts. I’ll pay attention to the ads if I get something for free (because the sponsors are paying so I don’t have to) and I’ll pay for the service if it stopped marketing itself as free. Right now, I’m listening to a bunch of ads and feeling badly about not paying for an ostensibly free service. Given the sheer number of things I probably ought to feel badly about, I want this one off my list.