Revolutionizing Music?

Few things are more corrupt than the music industry: it's hedonistic, yes, but also big and manipulative of public taste. The whole American Idol phenomenon testifies to this: Network TV locates a talented singer and then the record company guarantees her/her massive success. How do they know the person will be massively successful? They assure it through marketing (starting with his/her appearance on Idol).

But like blogs assaulting the world of print, podcasts are assaulting the world of music. Link. Excerpts from a story about a guy named "Mark" and his Tartanpodcast (a podcast of Scottish rock talent):

Podcasts are home-grown radio programs put up on the web. Listeners subscribe to shows for free, the latest of which is sent automatically to digital music players. . .

Mark says the response to Tartanpodcast's all-Scottish line-up was impressive. Within weeks of launching the podcast, he was getting e-mails from the US, Croatia, Belgium, New Zealand and Japan.

"It's really caught the imagination of people around the world," says Mark. "Maybe they picture Scotland as being this little backwards country. In reality, cities like Glasgow have a thriving music scene.

"The feedback I've received, and the bands have received, have been enormous. People around the world have caught on to the Scottish music scene."

The Scottish podcaster also believes that podcasting will revolutionise how new artists promote their music.

"They won't try to plug them on radio stations like they would in the past," says Mark.

"They'll turn to the podcasting community and say 'guys, will you play my music?' Even if it's only 200 or 300 people around the world listening, that's an audience you wouldn't have the vehicle to get outside podcasting."

Mark spends five or six hours a week preparing, recording, editing and uploading Tartanpodcast. His wife, he likes to joke, says he spends twice that amount of time. He says he would podcast full-time if he could.

"Everybody's dream job is to do something that they love and get paid for it. So if there was a way to be paid that would be ideal. At the moment, even if it was a part-time thing, it would be something I would consider doing."

A few big-name podcasters are getting advertisers and sponsorship deals. But for now, Mark, like most podcasters, will have to be content with his show being a labour of love, not money.

And he obviously loves doing it. He has already expanded from one show a week to three.