Diary of a Podcaster Part 19
I regularly receive random emails addressed to such august bodies as “the Contains Moderate Peril team”. They always raise a wry smile. Like there’s a team. That implies an organisation, structure and even a budget. As opposed to just me, screaming into the void and pouring money into a financial black hole. I don’t resent such emails. People are just trying to earn a crust, I guess. The only thing about them that frustrates me, is they never address me by name. A cursory glance at the “about” page of the website would provide them with my personal details. So I just delete them and think no more about them. Today I received one that did more than make me smile. In fact I laughed out loud and heartily. The email started with “Dear Burton”. Someone had found a few old episodes of the Burton and Scrooge podcast and had assumed this was indeed my real identity.
The email itself was about outsourcing podcast post production. I broke protocol and actually replied to this one, as they had unknowingly amused me. I politely declined their services, pointing out that the Burton and Scrooge podcast had ceased production over 8 years ago. But it certainly got me thinking about how the nature of podcast production has changed over the years. When I started producing podcasts in 2010, it was very much a case of flying by the seat of your pants. I had a cheap, desktop microphone which sounded terrible. Everyone recorded their own audio which was then sent to me and I tried to cobble it together using Audacity. It was very rough around the edges but it was that lack of formality and quality which made it exciting and different. Now even a small podcast can outsource its post production, if it sees fit. The cost is that low.
That “wild west” period of small, amateur podcasts seems pretty much over. Everything is slick once again. Podcasts for a while supplanted traditional media but the corporations and professional companies simply moved into the podcast market and slowly formalised everything once again. Like the media version of the Borg. It’s a shame but unsurprising. Capitalism hates anything that it can’t control and monetise. But enough of this melancholic, introspection. It was nice to have been reminded of the Burton and Scrooge podcast. It was a fun time and both I and my co-host Brian really enjoyed having a weekly show where we could literally talk about anything. That is a rare opportunity these days, where everything is quantified and optimised to appeal to a predetermined market. As for being addressed as Burton, it just makes me want to podcast again.
