Telling great stories in sound.
When Fred Jacobs writes about radio, we podcasters ought to sit up and pay attention. Much of what he has to say about radio transfers directly to the challenges we face in podcasting every day. And many of the solutions, like this, that he recommends to broadcasters are ones we can either adopt or adapt to our own situations.
As 2015 wound down, a phrase kept popping up that has me somewhat mystified. “Podcasting,” it declared, “is the new radio.” I’m in the dark as to what backs up this statement. Maybe it’s nothing more benign than pride and optimism. The trouble is, going off in this direction is hazardous to podcasting’s development.
Regular readers of this blog will know there’s no love lost between me and the current way of distributing podcasts. Podcast distributing? There’s a phrase begging to be redefined. Podcasts aren’t distributed. They’re discovered. And the process resembles a Keystone Kops chase, with people scrambling around iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker, Libsyn and SoundCloud until they find themselves running in circles. That’s hardly befitting a medium that wants to be taken seriously. Wouldn’t you rather be where your audience is (surely your audience would like that)? If so, this is a great time to be alive.
If Thomas Edison, John Gabel and the principals of Automated Musical Instruments Inc. were alive today they’d be rolling over in their graves for what podcasting has done to their invention. As podcasters, we should be more embarrassed than amused. And, we ought to seriously consider this fix.
How much is your podcast worth? Not to an investor but to your listeners? You might get the chance to find out, and sooner than you think.
