Ongoing History of New MusicPodcast

The Great Ongoing History Podcast Experiment Continues. [NEW UPDATES! IT’S WORKING!]

[A new series of updates on the new Ongoing History of New Music podcast. We’ve been listening to your suggestions and incorporating them into this grand experiment. Keep the feedback coming! – AC]

The weekend of February 4-5, 2017, featured the 776th episode of The Ongoing History of New Music, the radio documentary that began in February 1993. Since podcasting really started becoming a theme in the middle 00’s, people have been asking “Why don’t you podcast the show?” The answer was always the same: We can’t. There are too many issues and costs involved when it comes to including the music in the show.

“Well, then,” came the response, “what if you were to podcast the show without the music? Okay, so that wouldn’t work with all episodes and topics, but at least we’d still get all the stories. Better than nothing, right?”

When I floated the idea to other people, virtually everyone agreed that it would be a good idea to at least try this approach. So we are.

I’ll spare you the details of the preparation and execution required on the back end, but suffice it to say that we’ve cracked this in a way that will allow us to scale the release of OH podcasts indefinitely. We’re going to experiment with a variety of podcast ideas, some that will be obvious and others that will be invisible. We’ll make mistakes and we’re hoping that you will let us know what they are. And if you enjoy what you hear, please tell your friends. The more input we get, the better we can make this project.

The first-ever official Ongoing History of New Music podcast is part one of the three-parter called “The Rise and Fall and Rise of blink-182.” Links and playlists will be posted on the show summary pages on my website (here’s an example) and will come in the days after the original radio broadcast. If enough people subscribe to the podcasts, we’ll throw more resources at the project to convert as many archive shows to podcasts as makes sense.

UPDATE 1: More than 1,200 people signed up over the first weekend and we’re somewhere around 2,000 right now. weekend. Thank you!

UPDATE 2: The second podcast–part two of the blink-182 series–is now up. And based on your suggestions, we’ve added a little music to make the transitions cleaner.

UPDATE 3: Listener Eric has volunteered to make Spotify playlists featuring all the music in each episode. The playlists will appear in the blog posts for individual shows.

UPDATE 4: Yes, we’ll expand the offerings–if the demand is there. With almost 800 episode in the can, this could take a while…

UPDATE 5: Downloads have surpassed 4,000. Can we get to 5,000 by the end of the weekend?

UPDATE 6: Yes. The third podcast–part three of the blink-182 series–put us over the top! Thank you!

UPDATE 7: We’re well over 8,000 downloads. The three-part series on Billy Talent (the shows with interviews with all four members of the band) is really performing well!

UPDATE 8: 10,000 and counting!

Subscribe to the new Ongoing History of New Music podcast at iTunes. If you have an Android phone, here’s how to subscribe.

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39684 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

18 thoughts on “The Great Ongoing History Podcast Experiment Continues. [NEW UPDATES! IT’S WORKING!]

  • I don’t know how rankings/feedback work for people subscribing through other players, but I just subscribed through Overcast (it was available).

    This is awesome.

    Reply
  • Very Excited to see this. Already subscribed. I really sincerly hope that we can here some of the older shows,

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  • Count me in! Since the unfortunate demise of the Geeks & Beats podcast, I’ve been hoping for a podcast to add to my playlist. Couldn’t be happier that it’s OH!

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  • Very excited about this as well. I like the idea of a playlist included, as for the first blink one for example, you could cue up the playlist in Apple Music and have it ready to go for the breaks where the music would be in the show. Not perfect as a lot of the early works of bands probably won’t be on there, but it’s a good start. Keep them coming Alan, these are so interesting and I can’t wait to delve back into some of my fav archived shows when they get up.

    Reply
  • Awesome to finally see this. Signed up and listened in the truck on the way home from work yesterday.

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  • Excellent Alan, this is good to hear. I would love to hear the back catalogue. The fade in and fade if of the music tracks on the second Blink episode is much better than skipping all together. I found myself stopping the podcast a few times to add tracks to Spotify for later listening. Keep it up and I look forward to more!

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  • This podcast kicks so much ass.

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  • Wondering how and when older episodes will be released? Will you start at the beginning and drop a few Here and there? I can’t tell you how awesome this is. Please let me wake up tomorrow with 800+ episodes in my feed .lol.

    Reply
  • I would consider changing the podcast avatar back to the OG with the original plus symbol and text as well as Alan’s face . It’s tried and true and when people are scrolling through all categories and rankings it will be sure to pop out and get noticed.

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  • Hey there! I’m eagerly awaiting part 2 of Billy Talent in their own words. Has the podcast been published yet? It hasn’t shown up in my itunes so far…

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  • I don’t normally do podcasts. Ever. But for this I went out and got a Bluetooth adapter for my car, and I’ll listen at every chance I get. Please please please add archive shows soon. Long time fan, been listening since I was a young teenager and you’ve helped to fill my head with wonderful musical knowledge! Thank you for all that you do, and to all those behind the scenes as well.

    Reply
  • I have been listening to this program (albeit not religiously) for years. Mr. Cross I could not possibly love your program more. Desperately seeking every single episode from day one.

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  • Thank you.
    I have a question; did you do a show or two called ‘Great moments in rock history ‘?

    Reply

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