My favorite podcast is NPR’s “All Songs Considered,” hosted by Bob Boilen. Boilen directed NPR’s “All Songs Considered” for 18 years but in 2000, he launched “All Songs Considered” because, “It was obvious to me that listeners of NPR were also lovers of music, but what also became obvious by 1999 was that the web was going to be the place to discover new music and that we wanted to be the premiere site for music discovery.”
“All Songs Considered” focuses on music in all aspects — Boilen spins new and yet-to-be-released tracks, talks about musical events, and occasionally has guests. In this particular episode, Boilen talked about his trip to Nashville’s Americana Music Festival, and spun tracks from folk singers Damien Rice and Leonard Cohen, shoegaze band Medicine, and rockabilly musicians Carolina Rose (and more!).
It’s an engaging podcast, but “All Songs Considered” can be a bit cumbersome — it usually clocks in at around 30 minutes (this particular episode was 39 minutes). Most of the time is due to the fact that Boilen always plays full songs. Boilen has a pleasant radio voice, and it’s interesting to hear commentary about the music from a knowledgable person. I especially like how he tries so hard to maintain variation in music styles. Being an NPR podcast, it’s beautifully and expertly produced- very clean.
I listened to this particular episode on my laptop, but I occasionally listen to it on my iPhone before bed.
I would listen to other podcasts by NPR anytime — I love the organization. The only problem is finding the time…because everything they have is a bit lengthy.
I listened to this episode while doing homework. It made for good background music.
In general, I think podcasts have a lot of potential. I love radio and am interested in working in the industry, so I think podcasts are great way to preserve the medium. They’re kind of like radio’s Netflix — listen when you what to listen.