Open question...

[gallamor]

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 #1440983]

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 only in the absolutes at this time. Shaded areas of grey come when there's actually data for a podcast... :)

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Well, if we're after judging the performance, it'd pretty much have to be live performance recordings, not studio recordings anyway. ;)

Hm, it occurs to me that as someone inexperienced in these things I should probably ask: are we talking video or audion only, for podcasts? I'm imagining something short & youTube-ish, but I have a feeling I might be barking up the wrong tree...

[echoweaver.livejournal.com]

Er, I think that's a video podcast. I think of the generic term "podcast" as referring to audio-only.

I pipe my MP3 player through my car audio system and listen to music podcast in place of radio these days, so I have often lamented the lack of a regular filk podcast. I even thought about doing one myself except, um, I don't have the time....

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Just replying to the whole thread. :)

The format thought is much of what was done at ConClave (a con in Michigan generally 2 weeks before OVFF).

Format was as follows:
1. Introduce the composer. Mostly where they're from, without a lot of other information about them.

2. Play the nominated song in full.

3. lather, rinse, repeat for the whole category.

So, there would be six podcasts; focusing on each category of the award. :)

Currently you have to submit a full recording to be able to accept Nomination. OVFF helps with their catalog of recordings from the con where necessary, as well as doing everything possible to get a recording for the online balloting process. So, gathering copies of the songs is generally not a problem.

So, differences from the standard format- Performer and Composer Nominees:

I'm considering asking Composer and nominees to submit a live recording to me of a song they're proudest of, not necessarily the one that is used as a representative work. (Within the Official Online Category right now, if you are a Performer Nominee and you have a song in Best, Classic, or one of the Floats- that's your representative piece. If you're a Composer Nominee, the same applies.)

With the podcast, I'd be able to expand the Performer and Composer categories- preferably with only live recordings.

The other reason to do this thing is that the online official representative is a *sample* of the piece- not the complete song.

These would all be audio podcasts- no video. :)

There... all answered?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

This sounds almost exactly like the process I imagined you'd be using, so have an extra thumbs-up from here.

[katyhh.livejournal.com]

(Can't deny my initial reaction is wondering if you have the time/nothing more important to do... ;)
Oh man :) I could not agree more.
I am really NOT happy about this thought. But that's my personal problem, here, with hubby wanting to spend nonexistant time.
On the "filk fan" side, for me I do not think it is necessary or useful. For me, the sound snippets on the Peggie website/nominating ballot are just fine. And I don't really need more Pegasus hype, personally.

[echoweaver.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

See, and I would rather have that than the individual songs. You can just post an mp3 and some lyrics for that. But getting a sense of a person's body of work is much harder.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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*

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Having recently done permissions for convention related performance materials, it's predominately about sending lots of e-mails, being really detail oriented with regard to what people say about specific performances (No! No! Don't use that one!), and having a multi-column spreadsheet to keep it all organized. I can send you the template I used if you're curious.

The permissions that akawil and I did for the Contata 1994 CD, Take Out (distributed as a bonus at Contata 2008) were naturally a little harder to track down than most current convention recordings would be, but it's pertinent in that you'll probably be using at least some legacy recordings in the case of deceased performers or people who have GAFIAted.

Permissions are a job in and of themselves, in addition to listening to archives to find the good-quality tracks, as well as making sure that the artist has a chance to listen through them (a major time delay factor in cases where the person is having life), you also have to figure out whether there are musicians on the track who need to be asked for their permission. Because there's no such thing as retroactive blanket permission, this becomes problematic.

On the whole, I would say this is an enormous project, albeit one heavily tied into some of the archive work people are doing around the country. You may want to talk to hms42 and to orawnzva who've had some ideas about ways to organize an effort of this type.

You're also welcome to pick my brain about it. I didn't vote in the poll, because my opinion is very long, and doesn't boil down to yes or no (as you can see from the little sliver I posted here) and while I'd love to talk to you about it, I'm not sure you'll have the time if you take this on.

*hugs*
LMG

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The other difference is potential distribution through Podsafe Music Network, iTunes, etc., etc.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Yep. And on the gripping hand, I would like to focus more on live performance rather than studio recording.

If all this is even feasible given a normal 50 hour work week...

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

With something like this, the more exposure it gets, the better. Podcasts are a clear step in the right direction.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

If I'm fortunate enough to be nominated, I authorize you to use whatever songs of mine you need in the podcasts.

[maedbh7.livejournal.com]

More filk is best! I'd love a -Video- cast of a performance of each song, personally. But then, I've only ever heard 10 minutes of one podcast once. They're just not my thing. Best wishes, tho! -H...

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

That would be a godsend to those of us out here in flyover country.

Second best would be DETAILED instructions on getting linked to Filk Radio and some sort of schedule of when Eric is going to run the nominees-playlist.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Hm- Filk Radio is hosted (I believe) at Live365.com; but Eric had links and instructions on www.filk.com.

I do believe that he also had time blocked indicating when he was doing Pegasus broadcasting (also on www.filk.com).

Beyond that, there isn't a lot I can tell you... sorry!

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried to hook up to Filk Radio in several years.
I've got a much faster connection now, though, so I'm printing out your response and will try again later in the weekend.

[poltr1]

I would think creating a podcast would involve an awful lot of work on your part. Also, I'm not much into podcasts, since I still have dialup at home. I'm perfectly happy with the 1-minute song samples, especially if I can download them in one fell swoop via the laptop and the local library with wi-fi access.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) This isn't an either-or idea- the 1-minute song samples are there *exactly* to make it as accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and that part will not change.

The biggest tricky part of this is actually permissions: getting the permission to produce and send this 'cast; which could be sticky allllllll by itself. :)

Making the podcasts themselves? Not as bad. :)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Having read all the other responses, it occurs to me to wonder if you were planning this in addition to (best), or instead of (less good) the current short samples that can be downloaded individually and at leisure. Clearly I believe that side-by-side processes would be great, but I don't know how much additional work that would impose on you (individually or plural). If it were possible to add podcasts to the voters' options, rather than supplant the existing samples, it would be awesome.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

In addition.

I'm the one who currently makes most of those snips. Which means that I usually already have the whole songs in hand. Adding a small amount of interstitial commentary; add website (for static download) and RSS feed; and off you go.

Permissions. Ahhhhhhh, THERE'S the problem. :)

[billroper]

Like anything else involving permissions, it depends on what gets nominated. :)

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Yep. I managed to dodge a lot of this with the way it's handled officially: short samples does not an entire permissions kerfluffle make. :)

Podcasting is different than streaming radio, even- you really *are* giving away a song effectively for free. Some people consider that community service. Some consider it marketing.

And some consider it stealing.

ooooooyeah I gotta be careful. :)