I was asked recently if I thought that we have reached the point where there are too many podcasts. Too many was an interesting angle to take but I had to concur that my answer was yes. By yes I was agreeing that we have too many podcasts for one person, not too many podcasts in general. Now I feel as if I should explain my answer.
Of course there are too many podcasts, nobody will ever listen to every one ever made and neither would anybody want to. You have to filter it down. The question was put to me in a negative way by someone who doesn't really bother listening to podcasts and as such doesn't really know what all the fuss is about, presumably he is waiting for talkies to blow over.
A few years ago I gave a talk about the future of podcasting as an entertainment and information medium and I compared it to the magazine market. Have a look at the below photographs that I took in my local supermarket.
Even in this computerised, supposedly paper free day and age, we still have shit loads of magazines devoted to specialist interests, even computers bizarrely. However nobody reads them all so you don't buy them, if you're interested in railways, cross-stitch, fishing or home interiors there's magazines for you, but if these subjects are not for you then you don't buy them and that is the same for podcasts. By the same argument you could say that there are too many songs, movies, radio stations or breakfast cereals. I listen to about ten regular podcasts, all comedic, and am always interested to find more but I don't like finding them too late because this gives me too much catching up to do.
During the run up to Christmas I threw out some tweets advertising my Christmas audio books with my usual line about it being a nice thing to do if you are buying someone an MP3 player to fill it up with some of my wares. A friend of mine pointed out that MP3 players are no longer bought or used. When did this happen? I tend to listen to podcasts on my laptop while I am working, so I was unaware of the change regarding the portable listening market. What makes this revelation especially weird is the use of the word 'Podcast', a portmanteau of 'iPod' and 'broadcast' and was presumably a futuristic word when it was first thought up in 2004. Nowadays podcasts are massive news, possibly bigger than radio in terms of regular listening, yet it has an apparently archaic name. This means that as the future generations consume podcasts more and more until eventually radio becomes a thing of the past, and not before time, they won't understand what the word means or where it came from.
I predicted in 2006 that in the future we would rely more on online content over mainstream methods, and that television and radio would have to up their game. Although podcasts have been around for a long time now, and YouTube has been around since 2005, it is only in the last ten years that these have been seen as serious contenders in the viewing and listening marketplace. When I tried to pitch the idea of an online 'television' show in 2007 I was met with blank expressions but nowadays it is a real thing with YouTube being as important as any television channel since they removed the ten minute time limit. This was in evidence last year when I spent the week at my nineteen year old daughter's house; not only did she change stations on her car radio to avoid all the talking, she watched YouTube videos on her phone and doesn't have access to what us oldies call 'proper' television opting instead for a stick containing Netflix, iPlayer and the like.
In the interests of podcast sharing I recommend the following in no particular order, (click on the red type for links).
Looks Unfamiliar An alternative take on the 'do you remember' nostalgia podcasts presented by Tim Worthington.
Stalking Time for the Moon Boys A podcast about David Bowie presented by David Baddiel and Tim Hincks.
Rule of Three In which comedians and comedy writers talk about influential comedy, presented by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley.
Betamax Video Club Guests talk about movies from the 80s, presnted by Rich Nelson.
Round the Archives Lisa and Andrew discuss old television with guests. I'm new to this one so am currently bingeing my way up to date.
NG Meets & NottinghamLIVE NG Meets is my former radio co-presenter Darren Patterson interviewing prominent Nottingham people from the world of entertainment (COUGH - AHEM), and NottinghamLIVE is Tanya's weekly round up of what's happening in Nottingham.
Number One Rerun A nostalgic look back at number one singles and pop culture. I must confess I have only listened to the first episode but intend to binge up to date.
Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast Chat show presented by Richard Herring, who is probably best known for playing one of the police officers in Ant and Dec Unzipped.
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