Length of Podcast

So, on this weekend's podcast, Paeter asked if we had any opinions on how long the podcast should be. Here's an easy way to voice your opinions!

I'm voting for "30 Minutes". A year ago when I commuted through LA for four hours, twice a week, my answer probably would have been different, but now I would prefer a shorter length.

What I like about shorter length podcasts, in general, is quality. They are tight, well-produced, and very focused. Most of the podcasts I listen to clock in somewhere around 30 minutes. This isn't because I like shorter content, but I've found that longer podcasts tend to either go way off-topic, or feature rambling on a topic that is uninteresting and down-right boring. Imposing a rough time frame forces the podcaster to focus on quality. Bad material is never considered, good material is often dropped and only great material is ever heard by the audience.

Art is about subtraction.

In my sermons, I often find that my better sermons are the shorter ones, because they are tight, focus only on the topic at hand, and only include great material, rather than just good or okay material.

As I look over my list of podcasts that I listen to, I don't have a single one that goes over 45 minutes. There are a number of podcasts that I've dropped, though, that often go to an hour and beyond. Some of those have great content . . . but in order to get to that great content I have to sit through some okay content, and suffer through some poor content in the process. And frankly, I'd rather spend my time doing other things than having to find entertainment in content that's not entertaining.

I love the SBU Podcast! I love how tight the content is! I love the level of excellence (except when this bloke phones in)! And I think a general time frame of 30 minutes works the best.

Those are my thoughts! I'm sure there's some disagreement (which is always okay)!

I voted for 30 minutes also I don't listen to that many podcast but they seem to be around 30-60 minutes and those seem like a good lengths (like TV shows)

Nathan James Norman wrote:So, on this weekend's podcast, Paeter asked if we had any opinions on how long the podcast should be. Here's an easy way to voice your opinions!

I'm voting for no limit. While I enjoy the 30 minute format, I know that sometimes there's things that need to be said and God leads us to say what He needs said, and that doesn't always fit into our human time limits.

On an average, 30-45 minutes is good for me to listen to the cast in the car, but I say let the length go where the Spirit leads.

While I basicly agree with everything Nathan James Norman said, I voted no limits. I think Paeter is good at staying on topic and keeping the material interesting, and if thinks there is something else that is worthy to say on the podcast then "have at it" I say. 30-40 minuets is a nice time but if there is more to say that is worthy of note, I will gladly listen to an hour long episode. For example, the review of Prometheus was huge, but I found it very interesting, and in the super-sized Green Lantern episode it was fun to hear Paeter get excited about something he loves.

30 minutes is a good goal, but you shouldn't feel trapped by it by any means.

I voted for no limit. While I do agree with Nathan's points, I also enjoy the occasional going over. I think how Paeter said it in the podcast was a good goal: Shoot for Paeter's own content being 30 mins, but if others contribute freely allow it to go over however much is contributed. Some of my favorite episodes have been over 30 minutes.

I went for 45 minutes. That puts it squarely in the realm of "Between 30 and 60 minutes." I like the shorter episodes for many of the reasons above, but don't have a problem when there's a special guest interview or other feature that pushes it over the top.

I listen to a TON of podcasts, and like the episodes to be as long or short as they need to be to cover the material appropriately. Some of the podcasts I listen to run under 10 minutes, many run right around an hour or so, and some will clock in regularly over 2+ hours. I actually like having a variety of lengths on my iPod at any time.

Podcasts are not radio/TV, which are forced to fit into specific "clocks," with commercial breaks at pre-determined spots, and a very specific time frame (42 minutes for an hour of TV, for example). Podcasts do not have to fit thoaw limits.

No average or limit please.
Take the time you need for the stuff you want to cover each week. Sometimes it may be shorter, sometimes longer.

Like ProfessorAlan I listen to tons of podcasts each week. And as long as they are about what I find interesting, I don't mind at all if they take 1 hour or more, in fact I enjoy that since I like the themes of the podcasts I've chosen. Some of the longest individual episodes of a certain comics podcast sometimes even take like 3 hours, and I've subscribed to an alternative news one that does 2,5 hours on average twice a week.

Besides, listeners can pause the podcast whenever they like if they feel it's too long. And not everyone has 30 minute commutes. Or, like I do, play it at 150% of the speed, so 3 hours will in fact only take a little over 2 hours.

So.... since I love love love the Spirit Blade podcast, can we decide on a minimum length please, so I can at least get my fix?
Or maybe I should start playing SB podcast at half the speed, just to stretch out the fun times!

I just enjoy having a variety of episode-lengths on my iPod, so I can pick one that fits the length of time I have to listen, whether that is 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes, or 100 minutes! Or more!

ComiKate wrote:
Some of the longest individual episodes of a certain comics podcast sometimes even take like 3 hours,

Yes, the From Crisis to Crisis coverage of the Death of Superman had some very long episodes.
Just today, I istened to an episdoe of Hey Kids!Comics that ran just over 2 hours.
Two True Freaks! have also put out some marathon-length episodes.

ComiKate wrote:
and I've subscribed to an alternative news one that does 2,5 hours on average twice a week.

No Agenda? If so, a hearty "in the morning" to you, Kate.
If not, just ignore that part.

ComiKate wrote:Or, like I do, play it at 150% of the speed

Yes, that is the secret of listening to so many podcasts.

ComiKate wrote:

, play it at 150% of the speed, so 3 hours will in fact only take a little over 2 hours.

I think that would drive me crazy. I go through podcasts quickly because I have a job where I can basicly listen to podcasts all day long if I want. (I also listen to a bunch of music and audiobooks and stuff aswell.)

ComiKate wrote:Or, like I do, play it at 150% of the speed, so 3 hours will in fact only take a little over 2 hours.

Wow! I didn't even know people could DO that! Cool feature! Maybe I should start talking faster to see if you can still keep up! Or maybe I should have time-compressed my old episodes when I was at libsyn to make the episodes shorter, faster and with a smaller file size! Then let people slow it down with their players. Of course when you stretch audio like that you end up with some weird artifacts. Still might've been funny, though!

ProfessorAlan wrote:

ComiKate wrote:
and I've subscribed to an alternative news one that does 2,5 hours on average twice a week.

No Agenda? If so, a hearty "in the morning" to you, Kate.
If not, just ignore that part.

WAAAAAH!!!
ITM to you too! I'm going crazy here

DNArington wrote:

ComiKate wrote: play it at 150% of the speed, so 3 hours will in fact only take a little over 2 hours.

I think that would drive me crazy.

It's actually quite doable. It's not twice the speed, see, just 1,5 times. And you'll find that most people turn out to talk slower than you might think. 1,5x in most cases is still a quite normal speed for speech.

My iPod Nano only does 1,5x, but my iPhone adds 2x and even 3x to the mix! I can't imagine listening to anything at 3x normal speed though....

Paeter wrote: Wow! I didn't even know people could DO that! Cool feature! Maybe I should start talking faster to see if you can still keep up!

You could try.... I could then play it at normal (or even half!) speed, and you could cram more content into the same length of episode!

Although, not to brown-nose or anything, I already play the ones I like the most at normal speed, just to enjoy the experience as long as I can. Yours is among those.