Alpha Mind Blog

As I prepare to launch my podcast, I’ve been listening to a lot of other folks’ podcasts by way of learning and preparation. Based on many weeks of listening, here are some notes-to-self that might also be of benefit to other podcasters. (Note that I am interested not in music or “entertainment” podcasts, but in newsy podcasts related to business, technology, and leadership. If my notes are a help to anyone, it will likely be someone intending to create the same types of podcasts I listen to and plan to make.)

Today’s notes:

• Don’t talk about the time. A podcast isn’t radio, in which you’re given a precise number of minutes to fill. Even some of my favorite podcasters, like Hobson and Holtz, spend a few too many of my brain cycles talking about how long or short the podcast is running. Forget it. Such talk is cruft; listeners come for content.
• Do be aware of the time. Keep it as short as your content will permit, and waste not a scrap of your listeners’ time. (I love Lee Hopkins because his short casts never give me the sense that he’s filling minutes.) I’ve heard business podcasters say that if so-and-so can get people to listen to a whole hour a day of MTV-like audio, they should be able to find an audience who’ll listen to them for a whole hour once or twice a week. It doesn’t work that way. First, an audience of business people is a lot different from an audience of music-lovers. Second… well, see next note.
• Understand how people listen. Yes, it’s long, but this article by Walter Murch is excellent. Murch is one of the finest sound editors in the film industry, and is highly articulate as well. Here’s how I simplify his wisdom and apply it to podcasting: There are kinds of sounds that people can take in and appreciate while their minds are engaged in other tasks. Music is the extreme of this. There are other sounds that require the hearer to be fully engaged with the sound. Speech is of this type, and some kinds of speech more than others. The banter of DJs requires far less engagement than an analysis of news or a dissection of business strategy. That’s why, if you’re doing the latter in your podcast, you need to understand that anyone who’s working has far fewer minutes in the day for your audio than for a music podcast.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Blogs & Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments Feed . Both comments and pings are currently closed.