The Dan Biddle Social Scene

Comment and musings upon the web, mobile and social media

Podcast schedules - do you have to stick to a regular release date?

I love podcasts. So much I decided to make one myself (of which more shameless self-promotion later). I love the form; I love the nicheness; I love the short bursts, the weekly fix; I love the irrevence; I love the remarkably professional standards many amateurs hold themselves to in this narrowcasting cottage industry. And maybe it's that quality that lulls me into thinking it's like radio and so brings this complaint to the fore: podcasts can be horribly irregular.

The Word Magazine podcast was a case in point. I love The Word podcast. David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and guests provide a regular hit of audio brilliance to my ears.

But back in the early days of their free service (you have to subscribe to the magazine to get the full episode now), their weekly podcast was anything but regular. It was all over the shop. Just when you figured it was released every Wednesday... it would be released Thursday. Or later. Or seemingly not at all. The damn thing seemed to have no schedule, no rules, nothing I could count on. It frustrated me. I wanted a regular, reliable service. For free.

What a wanker.

These guys were creating extra content, sharing their wit and wisdom with me while busy producing a magazine - the actual day job - the thing WITH the print deadline. If something was going to give, of course it had to be the podcast.

So now I produce a social media podcast called Off The Wall Post with two of the smartest funniest people in the digital / social space - Barry Pilling and Kat Sommers. We record it once a fortnight and I publish it late Sunday nights every two weeks through the usual channels.

Media_httpa0twimgcomp_hkqgt

We set ourselves this schedule. We knew a weekly podcast would be unsustainable given our busy day jobs and family commitments, but we deliver a podcast every two weeks. It seems reasonable.

Media_httpcheapmovers_ftfkk

But sometimes even that feels like an unachievable goal. Shit gets in the way. You know - life shit, career shit, fun shit and not having fun shit... Shit, as they say, happens.

And you know what - this ain't radio, it ain't TV. There's no print deadline missed and machine schedules upset; there's no dead air, no nihilistic, end of days static in Off The Wall Post's absence on Sunday night / Monday morning. And on the rare occasions I have missed the Sunday night release deadline, there's not been a monstrous backlash from a furious, disappointed audience.

But it bugs me when I miss that self-imposed deadline. It really bugs me.


The question is - does it bother you? Does anyone, except the podcast producer, set their clock by a podcast release date? And - given podcasts are largely free - have they any right to?