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pauljeremiah's avatar

The whole podcasting thing has always been somewhat funny to me. When I first started listening to podcasts in early 2006 or maybe late 2005 (Anyone have any idea when Jane Pinckard started "This Week AT 1UP"?), mostly video game-based podcasts like 1UPYours, GFW Radio (or CGW as it was first known) and Retronauts (a podcast I still listen to every week). People would ask me at work what I was listening to and I would say a podcast and then spend about ten minutes trying to explain to them what a podcast was, how the word is a portmanteau of iPod and Broadcast, you listen to it online.

I first came across your podcast David when I was searching for film-related podcasts and I found The Watchers, and the first review I listened to was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and have continued to listen ever since.

But in the last five years, podcasting has exploded and everyone and their mother either listens to one or even has one. I think the podcasting market is just over-flooded by mediocre podcasts. Even a decent podcast with the potential to be great can get lost in the flood and never reach an audience it deserves.

I think most people see podcasting as a platform to make themselves famous, a digital stepping stone, and for some reason, podcasting is seen as an easy way to do it. Until they start to do it and realise how much work actually goes into making a podcast. They don’t need to be well-read or be articulate about any topic, it’s all personality-driven, just turn on the mics and they're on their way to fame and they’ll be rich beyond the dreams of avarice in a matter of weeks.

I have friends who have started podcasts and within six weeks they’ve stopped because they weren’t willing to put in the work. I have one who even went on local and national radio to promote her podcast, which was just her chatting with different one of her friends in each episode, and it was dead after two episodes because she didn’t realise how much work there was involved.

I think the whole podcasting bubble will burst soon, like the dot com bubble burst in 1999. Those who have nurtured an audience over years of hard work will survive, but thankfully a lot of the filler podcasts will just vanish into the digital ether.

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Jeff Hansen's avatar

Well thought-out analysis and conclusion. Thanks David.

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