A good New Reality Journey has a clear intention. It knows what kind of journey it is taking the listener on, even when the path is subtle. An NRJ might help someone sleep, reflect, imagine, write, breathe, forgive, remember, create, focus, grieve, laugh, learn or begin again. It might be a meditation, course, story, audiobook, spoken-word collection, album, soundscape or another thoughtfully structured audio experience. A good NRJ does not need to be long, expensively produced or sprinkled with celebrity sparkle dust. It simply needs to be listenable, coherent and created with care. A strong NRJ usually has: A clear beginning The listener understands what they are entering and how best to experience it. A held middle The experience develops, deepens or gently moves somewhere. A satisfying completion The listener lands somewhere, even if quietly—or knows that the journey will continue in a later track or instalment. Good audio quality Not necessarily studio-perfect, but clean, clear and consistent enough to make listening pleasant and immersive. A reason to exist The NRJ offers the listener something more than promotion or loosely grouped information. NRJ is building a distinctive and varied library of long-form audio experiences. We welcome applications from authors, teachers, musicians, storytellers, poets, practitioners and other creators with a body of work—or a credible intention to create one. We look for Guides who: You do not need to be famous or possess a huge following. A small, engaged audience and a genuine willingness to share your work can be far more valuable than a large but disengaged following. As NRJ grows, we may prioritise applications that broaden the library by subject, format, language, culture or audience. This means an excellent creator may occasionally be asked to wait if their proposed content substantially duplicates an area already well represented. You retain the copyright in your work and remain free to publish it elsewhere. NRJ does not require exclusivity. The first step is to attend a Guide onboarding webinar, where we explain the model, demonstrate the Guide Studio and help you decide whether NRJ is the right home for your work. No investment other than your time to create your NRJs is required - join us for one of our monthly guide onboarding webinars to find out more https://www.tomevans.co/nrj/ To become an active Guide, we ask you to publish at least three New Reality Journeys - and optionally make on free to attract new listeners and promote your content. Each NRJ should normally contain a minimum of three individual tracks, creating a recognisable beginning, middle and ending. These may be existing recordings, newly created material or thoughtfully adapted versions of work you already offer elsewhere. Once your Guide profile and first three NRJs have been approved, you can appear across the Guide, Pathway and discovery areas of the platform. We then encourage active Guides to add or update at least one NRJ each month. This is an aspiration rather than a production treadmill: quality, coherence and listener value matter more than uploading for the sake of it. NRJs can include transcripts, images, author or Guide notes, downloadable workbooks, related links and external embeds. Authors can also serialise Living Audiobooks by adding chapters over time. The Guide Studio provides guidance on structuring, presenting and describing your work so listeners can understand what each journey offers and find it easily. Guides will not be left to work everything out in a cupboard with a candle and a spreadsheet. Guide onboarding webinars hosted by Tom Evans explain the platform, answer questions and help prospective Guides prepare their profiles and first uploads. Additional marketing and development sessions will be offered as NRJ grows. The Guide Studio also contains advice on: Platform announcements and operational guidance will be shared with Guides as features and opportunities develop. NRTV show-host onboarding is managed separately. NRJ provides Guides with two potential sources of income: listener referrals and a share of the Guide Pool. Listener referrals Each Guide has personal profile and journey links that track the listeners they introduce. For every active monthly listener subscription attributed to a Guide, that Guide currently receives $1 per month for as long as that listener remains subscribed. Referral rewards apply to eligible listener subscriptions. Guides do not receive referral payments for introducing other Guides or Founders. Listened minutes A proportion of NRJ’s available platform income is allocated to the Guide Pool. This is distributed according to the eligible minutes that subscribers spend listening to each Guide’s work. This means Guides can benefit both by bringing listeners to NRJ and by creating audio that people genuinely choose to hear. Earnings are calculated after subscription payments, referral data and eligible listening activity have been confirmed. Payments are made in arrears in accordance with the current payout timetable and any published minimum-payment threshold. Guide earnings can never be guaranteed. They depend on subscriber numbers, referral activity, listening behaviour and the overall income and costs of the platform. NRJ is committed to making the model transparent and refining it using real listener data as the platform grows. Guide referrals will also be tracked, so guides can benefit from bringing aligned listeners into the ecosystem. Each guide profile comes with a tracking link and a ‘badge’ of your profile and each journey also has a tracking ‘badge’ too. Payments will be made at the end of each month, 30 days in arrears, once listener subscriptions and referral data have been confirmed for the previous month. In the early phase, the emphasis is on building the platform, learning from listener behaviour, and creating a fairer model as real data emerges. As the audience grows, we intend to explore more nuanced guide payments based on listening time, engagement and interaction. In other words, the better we understand what listeners genuinely value, the better we can reward creators for the journeys that serve them. This first year is the seed phase. The model is designed to grow roots before it grows branches. Note that the aim is that guides share 50% of net income from the site and initially will be paid a percentage from the income from introduced subscriber's monthly fees, for the lifetime of that subscriber. Listened minutes will be measured from the outset and the aim is that they will be compensated for retrospectively once we are able to establish the metrics of NRJ listener statistics from subscribers. Yes—but promotion is a shared endeavour rather than a guarantee that every Guide or journey will receive identical exposure. Once a Guide has published at least three approved NRJs, their profile and work can appear within the Guide, Pathway and discovery areas of the platform. NRJ may also feature: Once a Guide has published at least six NRJs, they will be contacted for a Guide interview on NRTV. Interviews are subject to suitability, presenter availability and production capacity; they are not automatic or guaranteed. Guides are encouraged to share their profile, journey badges and referral links with their own audiences. NRJ works best when the platform and its Guides amplify one another. That is the point. Yes. We want NRJ to be instrumental in your wider success. You are welcome to include relevant links to your website, books, courses, services, music, events and social channels within your Guide profile and journey materials. An NRJ should nevertheless provide genuine value in its own right. It should not primarily function as an extended advertisement or repeatedly interrupt the listening experience with sales messages. A journey description, final track, downloadable resource or response to a listener’s question can naturally suggest an appropriate next step. The Guide Studio provides guidance on promoting your work in ways that feel relevant, generous and respectful of the listener. Yes, of course. This is one of the best ways to amplify your NRJs and your message. But it is not mandatory. Some NRJ guides may also be a good fit as NRTV show hosts. Others may simply want to contribute audio journeys, be interviewed, and remain focused on their own creative work. Both are welcome. For the first phase, the priority is building a strong and distinctive NRJ library. NRTV hosting opportunities can be explored separately where there is mutual fit and you have the drive, time and energy to take your output to another level. A paid NRJ subscription provides access to the wider library of audio journeys across the website and mobile apps. Subscribers currently pay $4.99 for their first month and $9.99 per month thereafter. They may cancel at any time. Free listeners can explore a selection of complete taster journeys and other content made available without a paid subscription. Guides may also make an opening track available as a preview. Subscribers can explore meditations, stories, audiobooks, courses, spoken word, music, soundscapes and other long-form audio experiences. Depending on the journey and device, they can also create playlists, favourite journeys, receive notifications about new tracks, download or cache content for listening, leave comments and interact with Guides. Authors and other creators can add new tracks over time, allowing listeners to follow serialised Living Audiobooks, developing courses and evolving bodies of work. That is completely fine. You may attend an onboarding webinar and decide that NRJ is not the right platform or that this is not the right moment. You may begin preparing your journeys and realise that the format does not suit your work. You may also become a Guide and later choose to pause or cancel. If you cancel your Guide subscription, any access, publication and payment arrangements will be handled in accordance with the current Guide Terms. You continue to own your original work. NRJ is still evolving, and we would rather work with Guides who genuinely want to participate than make anyone feel trapped or obliged to keep publishing. We are looking for engaged fellow travellers—not trapped passengers.
