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.
Evo Terra:Here's the thing about the big award ceremonies - you know what I'm
Evo Terra:talking about, big award ceremonies.
Evo Terra:And the thing is about the big award ceremonies is that most people who are
Evo Terra:interested in that medium, whatever that medium celebrates for that
Evo Terra:award, most of the people who are interested in that medium are familiar
Evo Terra:with the award nominees and winners.
Evo Terra:Let me give you an example.
Evo Terra:Take the Oscars, take the Emmys, take the Grammys.
Evo Terra:If you're interested in movies, television, or music, and you care about
Evo Terra:that event and you care about these things, you probably have experienced
Evo Terra:approximately all of the nominees, certainly all of the winners or most
Evo Terra:of them, at least, on a high level.
Evo Terra:But I don't think we've actually done that in podcasting.
Evo Terra:Yet.
Evo Terra:You see, last night, the Ambies were handed out.
Evo Terra:That's the award ceremony that's brought to us by The Podcast Academy of which
Evo Terra:I am a paying dues member and a voter.
Evo Terra:Just like anybody can be who has paid their membership
Evo Terra:dues for The Podcast Academy.
Evo Terra:Big award ceremony was last night and I watched that large award ceremony.
Evo Terra:Had a real good time.
Evo Terra:If you want a list of the winners, there'll be a link in the show notes.
Evo Terra:I put together a Podchaser list of all of the shows that won because
Evo Terra:weirdly enough, The Podcast Academy's website, while it lists all of them, it
Evo Terra:doesn't link to any of the show pages.
Evo Terra:So, okay.
Evo Terra:Anyhow, I'm digressing already.
Evo Terra:Award ceremony, the Ambies, were last night, and I think most people in the
Evo Terra:podcasting industry, like me and maybe like you, I think most people that are
Evo Terra:in the industry and really working in the industry are familiar with most of the
Evo Terra:podcasts that were nominated and won also.
Evo Terra:But I'm not sure, even amongst the eighty million Americans who listen
Evo Terra:to podcasts on a weekly basis, I'd wager that most of the nominees
Evo Terra:wouldn't even be recognized by a small portion of the listening audience.
Evo Terra:Heck, I don't even think most of the winners would be recognized.
Evo Terra:That's not because these are obscure shows, not at all.
Evo Terra:The ones that won, not surprisingly, are some of the biggest shows out there.
Evo Terra:Again, we in the industry know about these shows and production houses,
Evo Terra:but I don't think most listeners do.
Evo Terra:I think that's partly due to the fractured and decentralized chaotic
Evo Terra:structure, if you will, that's been baked into podcasting since day one.
Evo Terra:That's who we are.
Evo Terra:It's in our DNA.
Evo Terra:So we should be listening to lots of different things because there are
Evo Terra:lots of different things to listen to.
Evo Terra:But on the other side of that, I don't, I'm not terribly surprised
Evo Terra:that we saw some production houses take home several different awards
Evo Terra:because they, in that production house, in that network, are a lot less
Evo Terra:fractured and a lot more centralized.
Evo Terra:I think the reason most podcast listeners are not aware of most of the Ambie
Evo Terra:winners last night can partly be blamed on the perceived easiness of podcasting,
Evo Terra:coupled with the encouragement that anyone can start a podcast in their
Evo Terra:closet and win the top award show ever.
Evo Terra:And okay.
Evo Terra:Is that possible?
Evo Terra:Yes.
Evo Terra:Probable?
Evo Terra:Not so much.
Evo Terra:Once again, if you look at the winners - who won the awards last night?
Evo Terra:The shows that won the awards didn't take the easy road.
Evo Terra:And even if they were, and probably some of them were, recorded in their closets,
Evo Terra:here's the key it didn't sound like it.
Evo Terra:I love that podcasting is an approachable medium that just about
Evo Terra:anyone can do with relative ease and a lower expense than other forms of
Evo Terra:medium, or other mediums themselves.
Evo Terra:And I think some of the people can do well with that.
Evo Terra:However, I can't help but wondering
Evo Terra:- I'm going to change the direction of
Evo Terra:like where I was spiraling down to.
Evo Terra:So let me pull back out and say this.
Evo Terra:I can't help but wonder if we're failing to give attention to the
Evo Terra:best-sounding shows that will bring new people into the fold.
Evo Terra:I wonder if we, if I, and you are doing our part to elevate the shows
Evo Terra:that we probably don't think need elevating because we're in the industry.
Evo Terra:But I wonder about those on the outside, looking in.
Evo Terra:What are the best ones?
Evo Terra:Are we giving them the opportunity to experience truly the best
Evo Terra:that podcasting has to offer?
Evo Terra:I think award shows can help do that, can help expose the myriad listeners who are
Evo Terra:occasional listeners or never listeners.
Evo Terra:I think we can expose them with a good award show to podcasting, which is
Evo Terra:what the Ambies really wanted to do and it was kind of stymied by COVID.
Evo Terra:Couldn't do the big red carpet thing they wanted.
Evo Terra:But they did a nice job with the show.
Evo Terra:I think that awards shows like that can work to bring more people into the fold
Evo Terra:of podcasting, but only when they make sure to elevate the best-sounding shows.
Evo Terra:And the unfortunate reality of that is it's a zero-sum game.
Evo Terra:Most shows aren't going to win even if you think they should, or the
Evo Terra:producers think they should, or the listening audience thinks they
Evo Terra:should, they may not be worthy of it.
Evo Terra:That's a reality.
Evo Terra:And we think we'd spend a lot of time talking and bolstering up new people's
Evo Terra:space and we totally should do that.
Evo Terra:And bringing in additional voices, and we totally should do all of those things.
Evo Terra:Yes.
Evo Terra:We need to encourage it.
Evo Terra:More people.
Evo Terra:We've got plenty of room in the podcasting space for that.
Evo Terra:But I also think we need to do our part in talking up the winners.
Evo Terra:At least as much as we talk up the up-and-coming.
Evo Terra:Maybe we don't need to do the same things.
Evo Terra:I mean, the people who won the awards, we don't need to go
Evo Terra:be patting QCODE on the back.
Evo Terra:Although, I have congratulated them for that.
Evo Terra:We certainly should be sharing that sort of content at least as much as we are
Evo Terra:sharing and encouraging for other people.
Evo Terra:It's all about perception and perception is reality.
Evo Terra:So.
Evo Terra:Anyhow, a rambling episode.
Evo Terra:My apologies for having not a clear delineation.
Evo Terra:But hey, that's also part of the Podcast Pontifications.
Evo Terra:Some things I pontificate about without a clear answer.
Evo Terra:It's all about helping you figure out your own answer to all of these questions.
Evo Terra:One thing I would encourage you to do is if this sparked a thought around
Evo Terra:you, for something you should do, share this idea with your podcasting peers.
Evo Terra:Whatever you're going to do about it.
Evo Terra:Are you going to go listen to more of the award-winning podcasts?
Evo Terra:Share that around your podcasting friends.
Evo Terra:Why not?
Evo Terra:These are things we can actually do.
Evo Terra:And if you like the idea, as rambling and as chaotic as it was, embracing
Evo Terra:the real nature of podcasting, please go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra and
Evo Terra:do just that, buy me a virtual coffee.
Evo Terra:Cause I might've had more than two drinks during the award ceremony last night.
Evo Terra:Coffee is definitely required today.
Evo Terra:All right, that's it.
Evo Terra:I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.