Drinkin' Bros Podcast

A podcast with nowhere left to be de-platformed from.

We built Drinkin' Bros a custom mobile app: their whole catalogue, their community and their revenue, on a platform their hosts own outright.

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hero still — hosts in studio — 21:9

Client: Drinkin' Bros Podcast
Scope: Custom mobile app, iOS & Android
Work: Product, design, build, backend
Status: Live in both stores

The problem

Their audience was real. The ground under it wasn't.

Every episode, every subscriber and every dollar sat inside platforms that could change the rules overnight — and had. A strike on one channel, a shift in a recommendation feed, and a decade of audience-building could be throttled without appeal or explanation.

They didn't need another distribution channel. They needed a home they held the keys to.

What was at risk

Distribution they did not ownA strike or policy change on one platform could cut off the main way listeners found new episodes.

An audience they could not reachSubscriber lists sat behind platforms. No direct line to the people who showed up every week.

Revenue tied to a feedSponsorship value moved with someone else's recommendation algorithm, not with the show.

A catalogue split across servicesYears of episodes, clips and members-only material scattered across tools that did not talk to each other.

What we built

One app, both stores, everything under their name.

Product definition, design, build, backend and store submission — one senior team, start to shipped.

Their whole catalogue, in one place

Every episode and clip in a native player built for long-form listening — background playback, resume-where-you-left-off, offline downloads for the commute.

Members-only tier

Early releases, bonus episodes and archive access gated behind accounts and subscriptions they own, billed through the stores.

A direct line to the audience

Push notifications the hosts control. A new drop reaches everyone who opted in, without asking a platform for reach.

Community without a comment section

Threads and reactions tied to episodes, moderated by their own team under their own rules.

Backend and admin they can run

Publishing, membership and notifications from one dashboard, so the team ships an episode without a developer in the loop.

The outcome

The platform risk left the business.

Talk through your own build

DistributionThird-party platforms, third-party rulesOwned end to end

Platform riskA ban could throttle the whole showNo longer a variable

Audience relationshipAnonymous listeners behind a feedDirect and first-party

Release cadencePublish, then hope for reachPush straight to members

Members-only revenueSplit across outside servicesInside their own app

The product

Built for the way people already listen.

player screen — 9:19.5

Now playingLong-form playback with speed, skip and resume treated as first-class, not afterthoughts.

library screen — 9:19.5

Episode libraryThe full archive, searchable, with members-only material marked plainly.

membership screen — 9:19.5

MembershipOne screen that explains the tier and closes the subscription in-app.

lifestyle shot — app in hand — 21:9

In their words

“The Ethos Team built us a custom app that gave our audience a home we control. No bans, no limits, just freedom to grow.”

Ross PattersonHost, Drinkin' Bros Podcast

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