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Podcasting For The Brass Ring [S3E127]
Episode 12717th May 2021 • Podcast Pontifications • Evo Terra
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Evo Terra:

Award ceremonies serve a few different audiences.

Evo Terra:

The industry itself, the audience of that industry, and also

Evo Terra:

those on the outside looking in.

Evo Terra:

Are podcasting awards serving all three audiences equally?

Evo Terra:

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

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Here's the thing about the big award ceremonies - you know what I'm

Evo Terra:

talking about, big award ceremonies.

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And the thing is about the big award ceremonies is that most people who are

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interested in that medium, whatever that medium celebrates for that

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award, most of the people who are interested in that medium are familiar

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with the award nominees and winners.

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Let me give you an example.

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Take the Oscars, take the Emmys, take the Grammys.

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If you're interested in movies, television, or music, and you care about

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that event and you care about these things, you probably have experienced

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approximately all of the nominees, certainly all of the winners or most

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of them, at least, on a high level.

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But I don't think we've actually done that in podcasting.

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Yet.

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You see, last night, the Ambies were handed out.

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That's the award ceremony that's brought to us by The Podcast Academy of which

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I am a paying dues member and a voter.

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Just like anybody can be who has paid their membership

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dues for The Podcast Academy.

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Big award ceremony was last night and I watched that large award ceremony.

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Had a real good time.

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If you want a list of the winners, there'll be a link in the show notes.

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I put together a Podchaser list of all of the shows that won because

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weirdly enough, The Podcast Academy's website, while it lists all of them, it

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doesn't link to any of the show pages.

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So, okay.

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Anyhow, I'm digressing already.

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Award ceremony, the Ambies, were last night, and I think most people in the

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podcasting industry, like me and maybe like you, I think most people that are

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in the industry and really working in the industry are familiar with most of the

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podcasts that were nominated and won also.

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But I'm not sure, even amongst the eighty million Americans who listen

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to podcasts on a weekly basis, I'd wager that most of the nominees

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wouldn't even be recognized by a small portion of the listening audience.

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Heck, I don't even think most of the winners would be recognized.

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That's not because these are obscure shows, not at all.

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The ones that won, not surprisingly, are some of the biggest shows out there.

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Again, we in the industry know about these shows and production houses,

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but I don't think most listeners do.

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I think that's partly due to the fractured and decentralized chaotic

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structure, if you will, that's been baked into podcasting since day one.

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That's who we are.

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It's in our DNA.

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So we should be listening to lots of different things because there are

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lots of different things to listen to.

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But on the other side of that, I don't, I'm not terribly surprised

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that we saw some production houses take home several different awards

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because they, in that production house, in that network, are a lot less

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fractured and a lot more centralized.

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I think the reason most podcast listeners are not aware of most of the Ambie

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winners last night can partly be blamed on the perceived easiness of podcasting,

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coupled with the encouragement that anyone can start a podcast in their

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closet and win the top award show ever.

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And okay.

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Is that possible?

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Yes.

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Probable?

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Not so much.

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Once again, if you look at the winners - who won the awards last night?

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The shows that won the awards didn't take the easy road.

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And even if they were, and probably some of them were, recorded in their closets,

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here's the key it didn't sound like it.

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I love that podcasting is an approachable medium that just about

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anyone can do with relative ease and a lower expense than other forms of

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medium, or other mediums themselves.

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And I think some of the people can do well with that.

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However, I can't help but wondering

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- I'm going to change the direction of

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like where I was spiraling down to.

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So let me pull back out and say this.

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I can't help but wonder if we're failing to give attention to the

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best-sounding shows that will bring new people into the fold.

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I wonder if we, if I, and you are doing our part to elevate the shows

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that we probably don't think need elevating because we're in the industry.

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But I wonder about those on the outside, looking in.

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What are the best ones?

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Are we giving them the opportunity to experience truly the best

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that podcasting has to offer?

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I think award shows can help do that, can help expose the myriad listeners who are

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occasional listeners or never listeners.

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I think we can expose them with a good award show to podcasting, which is

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what the Ambies really wanted to do and it was kind of stymied by COVID.

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Couldn't do the big red carpet thing they wanted.

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But they did a nice job with the show.

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I think that awards shows like that can work to bring more people into the fold

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of podcasting, but only when they make sure to elevate the best-sounding shows.

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And the unfortunate reality of that is it's a zero-sum game.

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Most shows aren't going to win even if you think they should, or the

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producers think they should, or the listening audience thinks they

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should, they may not be worthy of it.

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That's a reality.

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And we think we'd spend a lot of time talking and bolstering up new people's

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space and we totally should do that.

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And bringing in additional voices, and we totally should do all of those things.

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Yes.

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We need to encourage it.

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More people.

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We've got plenty of room in the podcasting space for that.

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But I also think we need to do our part in talking up the winners.

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At least as much as we talk up the up-and-coming.

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Maybe we don't need to do the same things.

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I mean, the people who won the awards, we don't need to go

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be patting QCODE on the back.

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Although, I have congratulated them for that.

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We certainly should be sharing that sort of content at least as much as we are

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sharing and encouraging for other people.

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It's all about perception and perception is reality.

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So.

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Anyhow, a rambling episode.

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My apologies for having not a clear delineation.

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But hey, that's also part of the Podcast Pontifications.

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Some things I pontificate about without a clear answer.

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It's all about helping you figure out your own answer to all of these questions.

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One thing I would encourage you to do is if this sparked a thought around

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you, for something you should do, share this idea with your podcasting peers.

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Whatever you're going to do about it.

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Are you going to go listen to more of the award-winning podcasts?

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Share that around your podcasting friends.

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Why not?

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These are things we can actually do.

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And if you like the idea, as rambling and as chaotic as it was, embracing

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the real nature of podcasting, please go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra and

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do just that, buy me a virtual coffee.

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Cause I might've had more than two drinks during the award ceremony last night.

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Coffee is definitely required today.

Evo Terra:

All right, that's it.

Evo Terra:

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.