Open question...

[tarkrai]

I've been thinking for a couple years as to whether or not I have the technical chops (not to mention TIME) to put together a series of podcasts highlighting the Pegasus finalists.

So, we have a handy-dandy poll. :)

Poll Should there be a podcast for Pegasus finalists?

What do you think?

EDIT: Yeah, I know I'm rather binary here- there is no Maybe. In this poll, however, I'm really interested

Comments

[madfilkentist]

A podcast wouldn't be a bad thing as such, but I don't see it offering an advantage over more straightforward alternatives. People are more interested in side-by-side comparisons, which isn't what a podcast is about.

[tarkrai]

Which more straightforward alternatives? Posting a minute or so sample and lyrics on the OVFF website is not changing. Our apparent access to broadcast and internet radio, sadly, has been dwindling.

Ergo, I'm looking for ideas to possibly somewhat replace the venues that are slowly losing ground.

[madfilkentist]

A podcast is just a matter of distributing content over time, rather than making it statically available. If you can, for instance, get the permissions to put up whole songs, that can be done by putting it up statically just as well as by putting it up as a podcast.

I suspect there's some assumption we're not sharing. Is streaming the content what you're actually trying to do, whether or not it's in a newsfeed?

[tarkrai]

True. And if podcasts were done, they would (ideally) be available through the both the normal distribution channels: static download from a web page, and RSS feed.

[bardling]

Before saying yes or no, I'd want to know what content you want to put into a podcast... I see no point in doing a podcast just for the podcast's sake or "cool factor". If it would actually add something useful to the whole process, then not a bad idea, but just "podcast yes/no?" doesn't tell me that.
Therefor I abstain.

(Can't deny my initial reaction is wondering if you have the time/nothing more important to do... ;)

[echoweaver]

Heh. Hard to argue with the time bit :). One thing that would be enormously beneficial to me is a podcast or a few highlighting the nominated performers. I never vote in this category b/c I am invariably only familiar with half of the ballot.

[bardling]

How would a podcast help you, unless it was essentially a recording of bits of performances by all nominees? I doubt it's within tarkrai's ability (time/money...) to witness and record such for all nominees. Ok, perhaps such a thing could be delegated and recordings collected to form a podcast - but that puts a lot of workload on both the recording folks and tarkrai for coordinating everything and editing the lot together. Can you see other content that would be useful? What are you thinking of, when you say "highlighting"?

[echoweaver]

Hmmm. You're right, I wasn't imagining him actually doing any of the recording, just assembling recordings of performers submitted to him into a downloadable format. And I don't necessarily mean studio recordings. Recordings of con performances might be better. I know there are often permissions issues with these that I am not enough of an insider to fully understand, but it seems that quite a few cons have recording soundboards.

That does mean there's administrative overhead in tracking down and assembling recordings, and there might not be something to podcast for everyone.

When I mean "highlighting," I mean a selection of recordings (not necessarily lots) by the artist or songwriter so that I have something to use as a basis for voting.

[echoweaver]

I LOVE music podcasts. I will listen eagerly. And if you do features on the nominated performers, etc., I might actually be informed enough to vote in those categories.

[tarkrai]

Alas, it likely wouldn't be a full feature of nominated composers and performers at this stage- that really *is* more than I could possibly manage at this time.

[archiver_tim]

While an hour long review was good to have at ConClave, I think it would be good to have these presented with more narrative, available to many more listeners.
It would give me a chance to evaluate some newer songs I just have not been able to keep up with.

[occams_pyramid]

I'm not clear how this would differ from / be better than the existing recordings.

[tarkrai]

The difference is that it is a format that would play the songs in entirety; if given permission by the artists/composers. What is on the website will always be ~1 - 1.5 minute samples.

[bardling]

Hrm. Do you really want the permissions hassle for additional, full-song samples?

On the whole I think it sounds kinda neat, but IMO probably not worth the hassle, time and effort, for what it adds over the existing format.

[tarkrai]

Well, that's actually the not-very-well-stated point of this post. I don't know what the permissions hassle is; nor do I know how much of a time-sink this might be. Ergo, before even thinking of starting too much- my thought was to ask about and see if people were interested. :)

Depending upon the number and types of responses; that would help dictate whether or not it's worth the time/effort of what is really a private venture, and not directly associated with OVFF at all. I'm not convinced that it's worth it, either... but this is a medium that more and more people are using. *shrug*