In a recent Tweet seeking expert commentary on Nice White Parents, a high-profile reporter said, “I wish podcast criticism was a thing.” Galen Beebe corrects the record in the Bello Collective: “I have been writing, editing, and publishing podcast criticism for four years, and I am tired of hearing that my work doesn’t exist.”
As an editor of Bello, Beebe details the wealth of ongoing podcast criticism and why it’s regularly overlooked. “We believe that podcasting is not a trend or a bubble, and that thoughtful critique is essential to the medium’s development,” she writes. Context within a larger landscape builds legitimacy, and that's nothing new for podcasts.
Within the industry, the ‘boom narrative’ (that podcasting is the next big thing) is tired and out of touch. “The myth that there is no podcast criticism is just another version of the same story,” Beebe says. “It basically says “In order for podcasts to really make it, we need criticism […] The criticism is here. We’ve made it.”
Apple earlier this year bought the startup Scout FM, which created personalized, radio-style podcast ‘stations.’ As reported by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, “The app determined a person’s interests based on listening history, inputs of their preferences and suggestions form artificial-intelligence based software.”
Apple shut down the app after the quiet purchase. John Koetsier of Forbes speculates that we've already seen the game plan. “This is oddly analogous to what Apple is currently delivering with music,” he observes. “iOS 14’s Apple Music app offers a completely custom ‘radio station’ that has become my perfect DJ.”
If Apple Music can do it with 60 million songs, this could be a discovery solution for 30 million podcast episodes: “An Apple Podcasts powered by Scout FM’s AI technology for surfacing relevant and interesting podcasts and auto-playing them continuously would help you find new voices on topics you care about.”
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