Comment on "In Defence of podcasts (even if they don't make money)"

This is a comment I made in the comment thread of this article:

In Defence of podcasts (even if they don't make money) by Kyle Ryan on the A.V. Club

So we’re talking here about comedy podcasts, pop culture podcasts, news podcasts, tech podcasts, educational podcasts, interview podcasts and music podcasts. This shows some of the range of what is out there.

Then you have 3 strands of content:

1. Podcasts made independently by people who are complete unknowns

2. Podcasts made independently by people who have an existing brand to draw audiences in

3. Podcasted versions of existing radio shows

In my view all of the above are great. Together they can form an on demand user created audio world. You get to choose your own radio station. And importantly you get to mix up “amateur” and “professional” content, both can, and should learn from each other, and both offer much to the listener. You have to seek out what you like which is actually one of the barriers not mentioned in this thread. Lots of people talk of not liking what is out there, but really they mean what they can find out there, since podcasts are not all long and not all anything. Sure it is an outlet for long form and free form audio. And I think audiences do desire long things and improvisational things. But that isn’t all that podcasting is.

One thing podcasting needs are filters. The tech stuff is getting better but people will still be overwhelmed by having to go through all the material on their own to find what works for them. Lots of people don’t want to have to search out shows they want them given to them by a reliable filter, such as a TV Channel. That is what is really great about the development of podcasting networks and of shows that review and recommend other podcasts, that stuff is important to mainstream audiences. And niche audiences too come to think of it.

In terms of the tech, app culture is helping to make podcasting more mainstream, now with apps like Stitcher Smart Radio there is less transferring and less hassle for you to programme your own stations. Smart phones are very mainstream and people have learned through them to download and use apps. They don’t consider that hard the way they do searching on iTunes. This means that it doesn’t matter that apple don’t really give a shit about the medium, we basically don’t (or won’t) need them anymore.

The genre that is missing from my list and from the discussion on this thread that will help take podcasting into the mainstream is drama. There are few great audio dramas or narrative serials out there, or at least none that I’ve managed to find yet, none with the same profile as the other genres. Most of podcasting has settled into conversations or documentaries. Even within comedy podcasting this is the case, although the sketch comedies do lead the way on this. Drama and serial narrative stories are genres that capture the public’s imagination. They also require more writing time, more performance development, more editing, and are generally a much harder beast to create to a high standard from an independent or DIY perspective. But they will come eventually I think.

Podcasting does offer new tones that you can’t find in other media. It is more intimate, more interactive, unmediated, due to how it is done and how it is consumed. That’s why free flowing conversation has become its strongest strand. This isn’t available in the same way anywhere, not even on talk radio where the pressures and structure is very different. Two people in a room is very different from two people in front of mics in a studio.

The potential DIY element of podcasting is something that feels fresh and new. It can take us into personal spaces, from the dressing rooms of the famous to the bedrooms of the unfamous, and to so many places in between, catching people in moments that are a world away from what you capture on TV or on most radio. The microphone can go anywhere and because podcasts can be fully independent often there is no one telling the podcaster where to take it and how to do it. They figure out their own rules on their own and so hit on different solutions to the ones we’re used to.

I make a podcast that tries to explore these elements of the form. It’s a series of conversations with people I know, from my closest friends and family, to someone I met once at a party. It’s tagline is “There are lots of shows about famous people this show is about the rest of us.”

You can find it at http://www.gettingbetteracquainted.co.uk

Or search for it on iTunes or Stitcher under its name Getting Better Acquainted.

It’s one of a few independent audio shows that I work on. None of them make any money. I have a day job. They all cost lots of time and quite a bit of money to produce. But I love the form. I love the freedom. I love connecting directly with audiences. Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t be able to do all of them more and better if I could figure out the monetization problem. But I’m happy to keep pondering that problem as I work on making great audio.

Getting rid of the barriers between creator and audience is a wonderful thing and something that both creators and audiences want. Not all the time sure. We still want lots of mystery out there too. But in a world where so much is mediated, where so much is impersonal, where we feel fragmented, having this direct link, cutting out all the middle people, is a powerful and exciting thing. And that is what podcasting has to offer.

On length and access:

An hour long show isn't too long. Not if it's good. Many shows we listen to or watch are around an hour in length. But getting people to listen to an hour show is hard. We are always reluctant to give our time to something unknown. I understand that. I'm the same. But the issue isn't the time. The issue is the unknown.

And also the effort. If you aren't someone who listens to podcasts already it seems like it will take great efforts to do so. It is a new thing to consider, a new system or process to learn. And there are lots of different media that you already know your way around. That you've already integrated into your life.

But just because you love those flavours doesn't mean you won't love a new one. And they aren't as hard to taste (or rather to access and integrate) as you think.

Getting Better Acquainted is worth listening to. It's a flavour worth tasting. It isn't the only longform podcast worth sampling but it's not a bad one to start with. I recommend other longform conversation based podcasts via the GBA twitter stream as well as posting about the show.

This are the ways you can get Getting Better Acquainted:

You can stream it straight on your computer or mobile. You can do this by clicking play on soundcloud or on Facebook. You can download an mp3 of an episode directly by clicking on download if you want to listen to it later or on a different device.

You can subscribe to it on iTunes. Which means (in theory) that iTunes will keep an eye out and download the episodes when they come out. If you have an iPhone it will download them straight to your pocket. You can also transfer the mp3's to other mp3 players with a tiny bit more hassle. iTunes is unreliable but it is comprehensive and relatively hassle free if you are an iTunes user.

The best way I have found of consuming podcasts is through The Stitcher Smart Radio App. It's FREE. You download it onto your smartphone and then tell it which podcasts you want to stream. And it's done. Many radio shows are available as podcasts so with stitcher you can create your own streaming radio station to carry around in your pocket, made from both established radio programmes that are released on BBC or NPR and independent podcasts. The downside is that some podcasts and radio shows aren't on Stitcher yet. The upside is that a lot of them are. And significantly GBA certainly is.

There are many other ways you can get GBA but they are all much more complicated than the ones listed above. If any of them are the best way for you to consume podcasts then you'll already know how to do it.

@WTFpod with @marcmaron : A full on recommendation:

If you don't already listen to WTF with Marc Maron then can I really strongly suggest you start. The latest with Michael Ian Black is a great conversation between two very similar and very different people who share a respect and distrust for each other. Plenty of tension but also some revelation.

But there are so many other amazing conversations. They really get into what being an artist in the modern world really entails, the contradiction and humanity that lies below the face of" Holywood" or "Show Business" and the experiences and instincts that can drive people to dark places but also inspire them to try and share their experience.

Marc Maron talks to people you'll have heard of and people who you don't know at all. Often the people you'd never heard of turn out to have some of the most amazing conversations the show offers.

Here's some people he's had on the show: Stewert Lee, Sandra Bernhard, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Tig Notaro, John Hamm, Bryan Cranzton, Ira Glass, Janeane Garofalo, Anthony Bourdain, Doug Stanhope, Louis CK, Jud Apatow, Gary Shandling, Aubry Plaza blah blah blah...

But the show isn't so good because it has famous people on it. It's good because people really talk. And they try and understand each other and they try and work out life and art and all that shit. It has an intimacy to it generally recorded in Mark's garage, and the conversations are between people who often know each other personally and have some history together, or at least who work towards the same sorts of goals and desires.

It's such a great show. And in many ways is both the model and inspiration for Getting Better Acquainted. If you find initially that the intro monologues are a bit too full on give it time, they aren't too long and then the conversations begin, and as you learn to know Mark in an intimate way you are able to "get" him and the intros stop being abrasive and start being moving, funny, annoying (in a satisfying way) and sometimes incredibly profound.

I love this show.