This is a personal blog. All opinions expressed are my own personal opinions, not those of my employer.
Podcast Heresy
Thu, 20/04/2006 - 00:23 — zhasper
I've committed podcast heresy.
Again.
I unsubbed from Adam Currey's Daily Source Code months ago, when I could no longer stand listening to Adam prattling about how magnificent he was and how his show was fantastic, and hearing all his grandiose plans for making millions off other peoples music and other people's podcasts.
I've now unsubbed from Dawn and Drew as well. They used to be funny, they used to be interesting.. but now they suck. Instead of the rambling ADD-fests they used to be, each of their shows is now cauterized at a nice neat 30 minutes, perfect for a slot on Sirius. I thought podcasting was all about getting away from those time limits, wasn't it?
D&D used to talk about their daily lives, and the insight into someone elses life - and the insight into how the two of them interact - was fascinating. Now that they've turned professional podcasters, their daily life is the show, so the spend their neat hygenic 30 minutes talking about the show.... and that's all. Nothing else happens to them any more, so there's nothing else to talk about.
Things went even further downhill when the minion army started up - there's nothing more annoying than hearing Dawn telling all her minions to check their mailboxes for secret shiznatches. I'm not a minion, I wanted to be, and knowing I'm missing things... well, let's just say it doesn't contribute to a pleasurable podcast-listening experience.
It's even *worse* now that they've accepted sponsorship from a casino. Actually, the fact that they've got sponsorship from a casino in itself isn't so bad - I have no objection to gambling, provided the games are played (by the house) fairly and the odds are a matter of public knowledge. What was *intolerable* was putting up with 20 minutes of prattle about how much fun gambling is, and even worse, how much money you could win from the casino!
Not fun.
Keith and the Girl, by contrast, continues to be funny and entertaining. A large part of the show is still KatG talking about the show (and about Keith's comedy career, which the podcast is just a small part of) - but I somehow find it more tolerable, probably because it's so openly acknowledged as what it is. Even better, KatG have regular guests - Patrice in particular is fantastic.
So... yeah, that's it. I know D&D are/were the most popular podcast on the net.. but sorry guys, no matter how much you claim you haven't changed and haven't sold out, it only takes a look at the length of your episodes to prove that you have.
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Comments
Why is this "heresy", exactly?
Choosing not to bother with a podcast that doesn't interest you is hardly "heresy". There's thousands of podcasts -- as well as other things to occupy your time. Just because Mr I'm So Important Curry doesn't interest you any more is nothing to worry about.
Once the novelty of being able to produce in this new medium wears off, then crapping on about the medium itself isn't interesting any more. Adam Curry has reached this point. Geeks talking to other geeks about the tools that geeks use to make media for geeks is... b o r i n g.
On the other hand, being disciplined about your media production and sticking to a planned program length is hardly "selling out".
I was a radio producer for over a decade. And I saw the "desktop publishing" revolution of the 80s first hand. An the same thing happened then...
When the tools for media production become available to everyone, people think the tools are all you need. Producing good material in any medium is an art and a craft. Just because it's digital, that doesn't mean you can forget the lessons about producing media that fits into the timeslots available in people's lifestyles.
So even though a podcast is liberated from real-time networking concerns -- it doesn't have to be a 27-minute program to fit in between the news bulletins -- it still has to fit into some timeslot. Perhaps that's something like "the time I spend on the train to work", or it might be more nebulous, like "the time I can sustain listening to one person before I get bored".
If Adam Curry has started sticking to a program length, maybe he's just noticed that crapping on at length is just a self-indulgent wank, and he needs to think about what the listener might want.
Brainwashing == successful
Good question...
Back when I started listening to podcasts, Dawn and Drew were *the* podcast; if you listened to any podcasts, DNDS was top of your must-listen list...
At least, that was the impression I got - but I think I got that from DSC. Hrmf. I really think I was just successfully brainwashed (or do I mean - marketed to successfully?)
There's really no rational reason why it's heresy, it just feels wrong to not be listening any more. On the other hand, I'm enjoying my listening time a lot more :)
Although I'm a bit too young, I remember the tail-end of the desktop rubbishing revolution. Despite the hype, I've never thought that the podcast "revolution" is quite as novel or revolutionary as some people think - as you said, it's very similar to the desktop publishing 'revolution'; and even more parallels with the later 'revolution' as bandwidth and servers got cheap and personal webpages and blogs became possible.
Going back even further, I think there are a lot of similarities to the invention of the printing press - both suddenly made a wider variety of content available to a wider variety of people by reducing the marginal cost of production and distribution. It took a while, but after the printing press was invented it became possible to have professional authors who'd live solely off the proceeds of selling mass copies of their books - prior to that, any professional writers had needed a patron in order to be able to live.
I'm not going to get into the way every "new medium" is always hyped as destroying the "old media", but never does... Podcasting isn't going to replace commercial radio - some of my favorite podcasts are repackaged commercial radio programs. It's a new distribution mechanism, and it's definitely going to change the radio landscape - but that's very different to destroying commercial radio. Then again, given that he's now *on* commercial radio, I think even Adam realises this :)
Lastly, I have to agree that listener wants are important; early on, Adam (and others) seemed to think that because this was a "new medium", all the lessons learned in old mediums could be thrown out - thus, long rambly shows, no post-production editing, and so on. The reality is that many of those things have become so common simply because, in many cases, they add to the listener experience. One reason I've now heard a lot of podcasters mention for trying to stick to a 30-minute timeslot is that that's the average commute length - people like to be able to listen to a complete show on the way to work.
But, hey. Podcasting is great. I don't feel like listening to DNDS any more *twiddle* gone. I don't have time to listen to much during the week, but have a lot of free time on the weekend - that's fine, all my regular programming is there and waiting for me. Who could want more?
--
There is nothing as despicable as a man who quotes himself. -- Zhasper, 2005
Furious agreement!
When you talk about "the way every 'new medium' is always hyped as destroying the 'old media', but never does", then there's plenty of examples of course.
I find it bizarre that
I find it bizarre that anyone would think that TV (or movies) could replace live theatre - even an amateur production has an energy that TV just can't replicate.
TV does make all sorts of things that wouldn't work as live theatre possible though - can you imagine a live theatre version of Big Brother?
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