Conference Blues

Perhaps it’s my own ignorance, but last week I checked out the National Association of Broadcasters NAB New York Show, and, having only been admitted to the exhibit hall, even as a media representative, found it a bit lackluster.

I guess I was expecting a lot more broadcasting content to be showcased in the exhibit hall, rather than aisles and aisles full of displays for audio and video hardware and equipment, such as sound mixing and recording, video cameras and editing, and other broadcasting hardware. I was also expecting some podcasting content to be showcased, since there were sessions on the conference agenda concerning podcasting.

The most prominent presence of podcasting on the exhibit hall floor was one small table crowded with business cards for something like 50 to 100 different small, lesser known podcasts. None of the big podcasting names such as Slate, NPR, Earwolf, Midroll or The Ringer were represented. Only one podcast distribution company of any consequence, VoxNest, had its own booth on the floor, and this company is focused mostly on hosting services, for small podcasts, although it does also provide such services on a larger enterprise level for companies, possibly from industries other than podcasting.

Again, possibly another aspect of ignorance, but it’s surprising that podcasting doesn’t have a better conference or exhibition in the New York market on a regular basis. There’s Podcast Movement, but that goes to different cities each year. This could be a prime opportunity for the right conference production company.

Acquisition Opens A Box Full Of Questions

Sirius satellite radio’s plans to acquire streaming music service Pandora, announced last week, raise a lot of questions. 

First, what should Sirius do with Pandora? Fold it into its own service? Remove Pandora’s free ad-supported option? Cannibalize the useful parts of its “music genome” technology?

Sirius had developed its own version of customization using certain songs or artists as seeds, called My SXM, but that appears to have been phased out with its redesign of its mobile phone app. So if Sirius already thought customization of music was on its way out, what is it doing with Pandora? Or does Sirius plan to replace My SXM with Pandora?

Some analysts have suggested that the purpose of the acquisition is for Sirius to use Pandora as a funnel to try to convert free listeners into paid subscribers, as Spotify does all by itself with free and paid tiers. Another idea about the reason for the acquisition is that it’s a bet on, or reaction to the likelihood that the market can support multiple streaming music and talk services. However, the Sirius-Pandora deal may also be pushing the streaming space toward just having two or three behemoths – them, Spotify and perhaps Apple Music.

Secondly, in the space this blog is more concerned with – podcasts and talk shows – there are still more questions about the impact of this acquisition.

Should the podcasts being distributed through Pandora be walled off from Sirius? Would podcasters who agreed to distribute their shows through Pandora agree to distribute them to Sirius? Would Sirius pay for their content? Had podcasters given their shows to Pandora with an understanding that they were only for that service, not any new master that relies on subscriptions?

It's a rarity that a broadcaster or podcaster operates on both outlets. Kelly Carlin, with her SiriusXM show focusing on guest interviews, and her more free-form “Waking From The American Dream” podcast, is a rare example. Will more hosts emulate that model of doing a more commercial and focused show on paid “airwaves”? 

Something similar does also occur with podcasts such as “Slow Burn,” which offers bonus episodes to those who subscribe to its parent, Slate’s, Slate Plus program offering subscriber-only content. So, if, as always, the medium is the message, will many more outlets operate on this two-tiered basis, and does it mean the free content is less worthy or less valuable? It’s more complicated than that, if the bonus content is a further deep dive for obsessives, rather than just a better produced and tighter program.

With the absolute flood of programming available, both musical and talk, the number of decisions concerning programming distribution, especially with this merger added to the mix, just rose exponentially.

Podcast of the moment

99.9% Invisible, “The Laff Box,” May 1, 2018. I’ve cited other episodes of this podcast here before, but this one was particularly good in the way it explored an interesting aspect of sound design, complete with a more recent example. The episode covers how laugh tracks for TV sitcoms were invented and used, and then how they fell out of favor, with a turning point being the early 2000s sitcom “Sports Night,” whose creators were forced to use a laugh track against their better judgment, and eventually phased it out slowly, without ABC’s permission, in a manner that was hard to spot until it was gone. That part of the story is told through an interview with Joshua Malina, a member of that show’s cast.