Music

If you love music, then depending on your age, you either grew up admiring your local DJ or you grew up despising the program director who was forcing your DJ to play the same old Top-40 crap over and over again. The dividing line here seems to be those born before 1970 and those born after. Either way, you always yearned to be the person choosing and playing the coolest and hippest new tunes. With podcasting, you finally have a chance to live that dream. But it is not just about playing someone else's music. If you are in a band, then the one thing you want more than anything elsewell, next to partying all night, women (or men), and sleeping lateis exposure for your music. With podcasting, you can create your own "radio station" that not only plays your music, it plays nothing but your music. For all these reasons, it is no wonder that music podcasts are one of the most popular types of podcasts. Even Senator John Edwards has played some music on his podcast. The Association of Music Podcasting (AMP) located at www.musicpodcasting.org is arguably the best place to find good podsafe (no copyright restrictions) music podcasts (see Figure 3.4). Table 3.8 lists some great music podcasts. Each of them has a slightly different niche they are focused on.

Figure 3.4. AMP podcasts.

Table 3.8. Popular Music Podcasts

Host(s)	Podcast	Website URL
C.C. Chapman	Accident Hash	accidenthash.podshow.com
Phil Coyne	Bit Jobs for the Masses	www.bitjobs.net
Brian Ibbott	Coverville	www.coverville.com
Dave	Dave's Lounge	www.daveslounge.com
Aaron	Celtic Music News	www.celticmusicnews.com

Accident Hash

C.C. Chapman podcasts out of the Boston area. There are not enough nice things you can say about C.C. He cares deeply about both the independent musician and the independent podcaster. Music.podshow.com comes from this caring (with kudos thrown in for Chris Rockwell and others at Podshow). He releases about 10 shows a month, and they average about 30 minutes per episode. The show is PG-rated.

"Accident Hash I gear towards trying to play the best mix in podsafe music. My music tastes run the gambit. I'll listen to pretty much anything, and I try to do that on Accident Hash. I'll just play a little bit of everything. I definitely lean more towards the alternative rock, and I also really like the mellow acoustic stuff. I have been trying to play more and more. The only rules I have, other than being podsafe, is that I usually don't talk about timely information, I never put a date on the show, and I try to focus more on the music. The goal was that you could listen to it at any time and it would not be tied to a date."

C.C. Chapman, Accident Hash

Bit Jobs for the Masses

Phil Coyne podcasts out of Birmingham in the U.K. and is a member of AMP. He plays some of the very best unsigned bands from the U.K. and beyond, but in addition to playing independent music he has some selective interviews with these musicians. A new show is released every four to five days, with an average length of 30 to 35 minutes per episode. The show is PG-rated.

"It started off really as an experiment. I just wanted to see if I could do it and how it would sound. Initially I had two Top-40 tracks randomly chosen, but then I did some research and found out that was not a good idea to play licensed stuff on your podcast, so that first show was taken down. But then I did some more research and found a site called UKbands.net, which basically has a really big archive of decent unsigned U.K. bands."

Phil Coyne, Bit Jobs for the Masses

Coverville

Brian Ibbott podcasts out of Arvada, Colorado. His show is focused on playing covers of other songs. The show is released about three times a week and averages about 35 minutes per episode. The show is G-rated.

"Coverville is usually a three-times-a-week show that features cover songs. Rare and unusual, sometimes comical cover songs.... I am definitely a music geek. I collect CDs, I collect rare music. I really like the way a cover song can transform a song that you are totally familiar with into a whole new meaning or give it a whole new veneer. I especially like the cover songs where the covering artist does it in their style to the point where you cannot even recognize it."

Brian Ibbott, Coverville

Dave's Lounge

Dave podcasts out of Durham, North Carolina and is a proud member of AMP. His show is one of the best-produced music podcasts, offers incredible podsafe music, and is one where you can listen to the same episode over and over. He releases a new show about once a week, and the typical length is 25 minutes per episode. This show is G-rated.

"Dave's Lounge showcases the best in chill out, trip-hop and down-tempo music. Music that you can relax to and chill out to and sometimes nod your head to if a nice groove is going."

Dave, Dave's Lounge

Celtic Music News

Aaron podcasts out of Georgia. Celtic music is not all about drinking, and this podcast showcases the very best Celtic music. He releases one show a week, and they average about 20 to 25 minutes per episode. The show is PG-rated.

"You will hear all kinds of different Celtic music. Mainly I do tend to focus on the Celtic rock mix, but you will hear pretty much everything, from things you will hear in Titanic or just almost straight-ahead rock and roll with a fiddle mixed in."

Aaron, Celtic Music News

Picking a Musical Style

Music podcasts come in all shapes and sizes. Some have the DJ being the central figure; others are nothing but music with a brief introduction of the date and name of the show. Still others are podcasts for bands where a piece of each song is played and then the story about the song is revealed. That is the beauty of podcastingthere is no magical formula created by a computer back at the corporate office in New York or Atlanta. Music podcasts, at least the ones done right, are all about the experience of the listener, and listener number one is the person creating it. If you are doing a music podcast or thinking of doing one, you need to read Chapter 8, "MusicIssues and Sources."