You can't democratise podcasts
Low barriers to entry can't prevent an uneven distribution of clout
Earlier this week I received a press release that promised to “democratise” podcasts. This was accompanied by phrases like “level playing field” and good “content” going “unnoticed”.
All worthy stuff, I suppose, but having been a hack for a while I've read too much of it. Like an alcoholic unaffected by even the heartiest slug of the hip flask, it all washes over me. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Yet there is something interesting here. Not so much in the big sales promise, but the assumption that people will want more “democratic” podcasts. And that the statement is meaningful.
I doubt that the company in question would tell their clients that every podcast can garner a big audience. (If they did they'd be wrong.) What they are instead promising is a fair shot, maybe even an equal opportunity. Now you can bypass the gatekeeping radio commissioners, you too can host a hit show.
Given that billions is spent on grabbing people's attention every year, this modest goal is unattainable on its own terms. But even if the government came up with some insane regulation to equalise advertising spending, would this amount to a democracy of podcasting?
Not all podcasts are created equal. Some podcasts are better made. Some hosts have more time to dedicate to it, better gear and a more agreeable voice. Some have better ideas, which is the kind of inequality most people don't object to, probably because ideas are free and it feels like anyone can have them.
It is true that indie podcasts which would never have been commissioned as radio shows have enjoyed great success. Several examples occur: Shagged, Married, Annoyed, Untold, and The Rest Is History.
But this is still some distance from universal suffrage, where one adult equals one vote, and all are weighed equally. Podcasting may be democratic from the listeners' view, but from creators' view it's a market. Markets have many virtues, but they are not straightforwardly democratic. They are about competition, with winners and losers.
All of which is fine, but ends up with a hierarchy. Some podcasters are a big deal. Ones like mine are a little deal. And many more go largely unlistened to.
That means some of us have big voices, some smaller, and some inaudible. Whatever you call that, it isn't democracy.
PS. Sorry for the lateness. Life intervened, and I'm now filing this from a field between Wiltshire and Dorset. Normal service will resume next week.