So you turn on the radio and you’re greeted with Chris Moyles raving about the new James Blunt single. Whatcha gonna do? Sit there and listen? Or flick a V to The Man and start your own radio show? Exactly. And right now, it’s easier than ever. You don’t need ultra hi-tech gear to get started. Take Mike Smith - he never dreamt his broken overdrive pedal would get him into NME. Yet it was this piece of standard rock kit that enabled the 19-year old Sheffield University student to start Take Your Medicine , his indie-rock podcast.”It’s done in my bedroom, using the pedal as my mixer, and a mic bought for a now-defunct band,” he explains. Mike simply picked some tunes he liked, blabbed about them in-between, and posted the results on his weblog. Six months later, his regularly recorded radio-style MP3s are gaining a sizeable audience. They might be a bit crackly in places, but podcasts are swiftly replacing webzines and blogs at the cutting edge of fanboy media.
“I get free records and on guestlists,” says Mike “plus I’ve got to know a few bands and been to single launches in London.”
Another podcaster, Stuart Traynor, began his MuseCast to let fans of the band get their opinions heard. He started by emailing some of the most active profiles on the Muse official messageboard - Muse.mu - and before long his regular fan discussion podcasts had taken off.
“We all make a confrence call,” he explains, “record our bits seperatley, then I put it all together.” Stuart admits it’s “a lot more technical than I expected”. Yet the response has been fantastic and the band’s management are hugely appreciative. Alse, entries for MuseCast’s covers competition, in which listeners record their own versions of the band’s songs, are pouring in.
Free from the mainstream media clatter, Mike and Stuart are reaching an audience by talking about their bands in their words. It’s time to get involved.
Get Mike’s show at takeyourmedicinemp3.blogspot.com / Listen to the MuseCast at www.musecast.co.uk
Writer: Alex Rayner
Photographer: Tom Oxley