Listening to 35 podcasts in 10 days: is that enough? Too many?
Earlier this summer I kept track of my podcast listening habits over a 10 day stretch. 35 episodes flowed by during that time, which seems about right for my listening habits. A high proportion of the new information that reaches me comes via podcast these days, and has done for quite a while. There’s a practical dimension to this, making walks seem more productive and overnight child soothing more interesting. I’d also like to say that podcasts introduce me to a range of new perspectives on the world, but we all know that the internet exists to reconfirm our own opinions and worst fears, so actually there’s probably little of that going on. I certainly take comfort from podcasts, and this alone is often worth the price of admission.
The familiar voices of the hosts are reassuring. The repetition of topics helps the listener slip into step with what’s being said: I feel at home on these topics. The structure of a podcast episode matters too, signposting the listener through another passage of time. There’s an intimacy to a podcast, reflecting the idea that it’s a person in front of a microphone talking to me through my single earpiece.
A single earpiece, yes. I have a pair of cheap bluetooth earphones, and they suit me fine. To give some semblance of paying attention to my son, and the world around us, I just use the right side. This is coupled with playing just about all my podcasts at double speed. I guess that means I’m getting a quarter of the intended experience. No matter: quantity of quality content, over quality of listening experience.
Once upon a time, I gave fiction a place in my listening roster. Not any more, it’s all factual and discussion and theoretical. That’s not to say there aren’t stories in what I listen to. Just as I try to deliver a narrative to my lectures when I’m doing my day job, so I appreciate an episode that draws me in, provides a structure, fills in the gaps, joins up the dots, and rounds things off.
We’re enjoying a golden period in podcasting, from what I can see. But it might not last. Big players are moving in and buying up content in ways that wouldn’t have made sense a few years ago. Audiences have grown, tie-ins with other media (TV, films) are common, and there are superstars out there now who need to pay their bills. Exclusive deals, walled gardens and the rest of it. There’s still a healthy place for the independent podcaster of course, and ways for them to get their work out there to an audience. That opportunity will always be there. Will the audience diminish though, through those walled gardens? What if you’re not available through Spotify? Or don’t manage to get much traction through Apple? Like I say, a golden period of audiences and sponsors (coronavirus cutbacks permitting), but a landscape on the cusp of change.
