Earlier this year, two men launched a podcast made up of meandering conversations about their friendship and the state of the world. Nothing unusual there. Of the two million or so podcast series in existence (that’s 48m episodes and counting), a large proportion is made up of groups of men talking about themselves and laughing at their own jokes. The difference in this instance was that the friends were Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. In launching the Spotify series Renegades, they brought together two distinctive audio trends: the old-friends-chew-the-fat series, and the now-ubiquitous celebrity podcast.
The celebrity series has been a growth area for some time, but the last 12 months have brought a surge in projects from famouses who have found themselves at a loose end over lockdown. While much of the entertainment industry has been devastated by the pandemic, podcasting has proved largely virus-proof, making it an attractive proposition to those who, a year earlier, might not have given it a second look. As a result, the celebrity podcast has become the bindweed of the audio industry, hoovering up budgets, threatening to smother the competition and, in some cases, heralding a dispiriting drop in quality.
Right now, it is almost easier to count the actors, comedians, influencers, musicians, reality TV stars and retired politicians who do not have a podcast than those who do. Along with Barack and Bruce, recent converts to the audio cause include Louis Theroux, Jeremy Paxman, Bill Clinton, Katherine Ryan, Julie Andrews, Minnie Driver, Gary Kemp, Rob Brydon, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Joss Stone, Paris Hilton, Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Their all-new adventures in audio join more longstanding projects from the likes of David Tennant, Oprah, Jessie Ware, Chelsea Peretti, Kate Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Dunham and many, many more.
For podcasting networks looking to turn a profit, this all makes perfect sense. Big names equal big audiences, and advertisers are more likely to throw cash at a podcast with an A-lister attached, as opposed to a niche series on the delights of pens or chameleon ownership (yes, both of those exist). Renay Richardson, the founder of Broccoli Productions, a London-based podcast production company, observes a “laziness” in terms of commissioning.
Seguir leyendo: The Guardian
