Case Study: CAFE Insider Podcast achieves 15,000+ members in first 90 days with Piano

How CAFE Insider Reached More Than 15,000 Members During Its First 90 Days

Some Spider Studios — the media company behind Scary Mommy and The Dad — launched CAFE, a news-and-law brand led by Preet Bharara, and faced the challenge of monetizing a highly engaged podcast audience without paywalling its flagship show. The team wanted to offer premium, ad-free content (a new CAFE Insider podcast, bonus episodes, weekly research emails and calls), integrate smoothly across audio, text and video on their WordPress site, roll out a 14-day free trial and launch quickly while minimizing checkout friction.

They partnered with Piano (Composer, ID and VX) to integrate subscriptions and payments, create digital wallets and run the free-trial conversion flow, bringing the product to market in three months. Pricing was $5.99/month or $49.99/year; in the first 90 days the program attracted more than 15,000 paying members (over twice projections), an overall 14.8% conversion rate, 88% of trials converted to paid and about two-thirds of new members chose annual plans — with Piano providing fast implementation and actionable post-launch data.

CAFE Insider Podcast

Geoff Isenman

Chief Business Development Officer