Chord Progression Podcast: The Gateway to New Rock and Metal Music · Chord Progression Podcast

The LAST Chord Progression Podcast Episode... of 2025: Financial & Year In Review, & What's Next

December 23, 2025·30 min·2 clips

Kevin discloses spending $75,317.08 on his podcast over seven years, questioning its worth.

Kevin opens the final episode of 2025 by acknowledging that his output has slowed—he recorded only 11 episodes between November and December due to competing life priorities. He says the creative side of podcasting remains enjoyable but the production work (editing audio, editing video, creating shorts, uploading, writing show notes) has become increasingly difficult to sustain as a one-man operation. He warns listeners that the podcast has an expiration date and it may come sooner rather than later. Kevin then transitions to a detailed financial review. He has tracked every dollar spent on the podcast since 2018, including equipment, advertising, concert and festival tickets, and subscriptions. Year-by-year totals: $5,000 in 2018, $11,159 in 2019, $8,902 in 2020, $6,540 in 2021, $11,483 in 2022, $15,748 in 2023, $11,256 in 2024, and approximately $5,129 in 2025. The seven-year total is $75,317. Kevin connects the high years of spending (2022-2024) to podcast advertising campaigns and enrollment in the Get More Listeners Academy, which he says taught him a great deal about the industry even if the ROI was questionable. The 2025 reduction reflects better targeting and less speculative spending. Despite the financial outlay, Kevin says the podcast helped him exit manic depression in 2017-2018, gave him a consistent purpose during the pandemic, and built friendships with artists and listeners that he values more than any financial return. He then reviews 2025 platform analytics. On Spotify, follower count grew 11%, overall audience grew 33%, and new listeners (first-time) grew 999%. The best Spotify episode was with What Was Me. Top listener countries were the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Sweden. On YouTube, 2025 delivered 331,860 views and 10,645 watch hours—more views but fewer hours than 2024's 301,709 views and 17,323 hours. Kevin traces the watch-hour drop to stopping reaction videos in 2024, which had inflated 2024's numbers. Pure podcast episode views reached 67,869 in 2025 versus an adjusted 55,236 in 2024, showing underlying growth. The top 10 episodes of 2025 by YouTube views were (from 10 to 1): Rise of the North Star, Via Nova, an unnamed entry at 8, Caskets' Matt, Heavy Hitter, Calva Louise, Volumes' Mikes, Miles Kennedy, Wolves at the Gate's Steven, and Spite at number one. Kevin expresses surprise that Spite took the top spot. He closes by setting goals for 2026: 100,000 YouTube views from podcast episodes only, reaching the number one spot on metalcore and metal lists at millionpodcast.com, and continuing to deliver artist interviews.

As heard by us

A year-end reset that keeps the bookkeeping, the tools, and the 2026 ambitions in plain view.

Kevin closes out the year by taking stock of a creator's working habits, with 11 episodes recorded between November and December and a clear change in how the spending broke down.

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Why you'd press play

For a year-end creator reset that does the math and sets 2026 targets.

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