Podcast festivals? Please do not!
Not made for neon lights: the podcast
Quelle: Getty Images/Isabel Pavia
Podcasts are to adults what audio tapes were to kids in the 90s. They entertain, comfort and help you fall asleep. The cuddly concept is now being dragged more and more often onto live stages. This is a betrayal of the genre.
Dhe cinema film is the evening dress in the closet of the entertainment industry. The podcast is the terrycloth bathrobe. He wraps himself around the listener softly and warmly and whispers a promise of absolute intimacy in his ear. “Just you and me, both of us. No matter what you’re wearing, no matter what you’re doing. It’s just our mutual concern.” A promise that gave the audio format a boom long after linear radio had been declared dead. The new podcasts not only lulled to sleep introverts who would rather stay at home than go to a reading or the theater, but also appealed to the German love of efficiency. Finally we can use the dishes and the jogging route sensibly, not only listening to music, but also learning about the background of the political situation in Afghanistan. We decide for ourselves where, when, how and for how long. The podcast is the medium for a performance and information society that always wants to be flexible – and yet feels increasingly lonely. So never wants to be completely alone, prefers to always have the button in your ear.
The concept is so successful that now the big stages want to benefit from it. In Los Angeles, comedian Conan O’Brien performed his show “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” at the Wiltern Theater, complete with a live band for the podcast intro song. The hall can accommodate up to 4000 people. The individual shows have long been expanded into major events. In Germany, for example, the interview podcast “Hotel Matze” moved to the Elbphilharmonie for the episode with moderator Linda Zervakis, in front of around 1800 people. Tommi Schmitt and Felix Lobrecht entertained around 500 people in Cologne’s Gloria Theater with their entertainment podcast “Gemischtes Hack”. At podcast festivals, fans can listen and watch their favorite podcasts live on stage – and catch them at home.
But what do we still call what we experience on stage – and listen to? Does the term “podcast” still fit at all? And how is the product changing for the listener at home? A live concert recording is not always the same as a good album. The essence of the podcast is destroyed if you have to listen to it while sitting upright and endure the crowdwork. Because the live podcast production sometimes takes on absurd features: For example, the warm-up of the audience by the presenter, which usually begins with the question “And where are you from?”. Here, the answers from Bielefeld or Hanover live always promise a laugh. In addition, the interviewer has to comment on every meaningful look from the guest or conspicuous sip of water in order to “pick up” the listeners at home.
The reflex to chase a concept directly through every media aggregate state as soon as it works has created a strange hybrid being. The promise of intimacy and chummy closeness to the voice in the ear whispered at home cannot be kept. The podcast, recorded live, sounds over the top in the ear – and adorns itself with stimuli that don’t fit at all. It’s the fur coat of entertainment.