NaNaPooPoo, or whatever.

So, I signed up the other day for National Podcast Post Month, or NaPodPoMo. The name threw me, at first -- wondered what "NaPooPooMo" might be. (Need new glasses.)

NaPodPoMo is an idea inspired by NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, I think that is. Writers pledge to write X thousand words every day for an entire month. Arguably, one could complete a novel in a month that way. And writers support each other in meeting their goals every day, which is rather hard, like anything else you have to decide to do on your own.

National Podcast Post Month requires a podcaster (like me) to produce at least one podcast every day, for all 31 days in November. On the face of it, this seems like a Good Thing. Podcasting is somewhat related to writing, depending on what you're podcasting. Some of it IS writing, of course.

Now I'm having second thoughts, at least on how to do this right.

Do I do much shorter shows, so I can manage to come up with 31 days of worthwhile (cough, cough) content? The case could be made that my shows are too long anyway, so it'd be an improvement, nu?

Would it count if I did 31 episodes of "Stories from the Hiber-Nation?" That would only require recording and editing; I wouldn't need to actually write that many shows. But that's not doing 31 days of my original "Grizzly's Growls" podcast. That would -definitely- require shorter shows, and at least one IDSL tune for each show.

And do I get to count both "Grizzly's Growls" and "Stories from the Hiber-Nation" shows? I'd think so, but I want to abide by the spirit of NaNaPooPoo, or whatever. (I think NaNoWriMo sounds much better and is easier to say. Am I wrong? I think it should be called NaPodWriMo, because podcasting requires writing, too, I think.)

And considering my next Grizzly's Growls will be show 70, I'd be producing Episode 100 some time during NaPodPoMo. Is that a Good Thing, or a Bad Thing?

Given I normally have no idea what I'm going to talk about on GG, doesn't that necessarily reduce the quality of the shows? Is producing 31 days of Mindless Drivel sufficient to the spirit of the event?

Don't ask me, I ave no idea. Anybody have any thoughts?

Audio Content and the Major Labels

I've taken a few minutes to think about presenting audio content on the
Web (as compared to the Internet, but that's another thread), and I've
come to some profound conclusions. I could, naturally, have spent years
on this -- I've had plenty of years -- but Moore's Law requires I spend an
ever diminishing time on ever-more-important questions. And if that's not
true, I can still blame him.

Presenting music on the web has some advantages. But it only has
advantages as long as the number of offerings on the Web is a whole lot
smaller than the number of offerings overall.

If you have a music file on the web, you're in a small pond. There have
been relatively few artists presenting content on the web. Those few have
snagged onto audiences who were looking for unique content -- and if it
was on the web, rare as it was, it was by definition unique content.

But after X time, a whole pisspot full of artists post content to the web.
A whole lot of those post crap. So once again, even having posted on the
web, you're floating once again in a sea of crap. Some of them are known
names on the web, and they'll still have their followers. But newer folks
are just more floaters in the septic tank that is the music industry, web-
based notwithstanding.

There are a great many things the studios do really badly, or really in an
evil way. But they're really pretty good at (and really forceful about)
promoting their content in whatever venue. If you want someone big and
scary making sure somebody hears your content, you want one of the big,
scary media companies.

On the web, they hear your content if they're caught by your filename, or
by your text content next to your link, or by your picture next to your
link. They don't necessarily judge your content by hearing your content.

If folks don't hear your content, the rest is just smoke and mirrors.
There is no reason whatsoever your existing content can't be backed up by
a promotional presence in other venues, and a big MEGARECORDING INC logo
on your webpage, too.

So I suspect that, just maybe, we're past the point where just being on
the web with content beats being with a Major Label. With the background
noise rising on the web, having an 800-pound gorilla behind you couldn't
hurt.