"Bumper Music" in Podcasts

In My Humble Opinion
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Several of the podcasts I listen to break rather arbitrarily at one or more points during the show and have a musical interlude. (I’m specifically thinking of The Word Nerds and the Thomas Jefferson Hour. TPN’s Biography Show plays an entire three minute song at the end of each episode, apparently just because Cameron likes it, but that’s easy enough to skip.) So far as I can tell, the tunes don’t serve any purpose–these shows don’t do ads, so it’s not a commercial break. It’s just a break in the show, either brief or long. (The Word Nerds inserts an entire song in the middle of the show.)

If it’s not clear yet, I’m no fan of this practice, and I don’t understand why it’s necessary. There’s no need to provide breaks in a podcast–you can go back to where you left off at any time, even if you listen to something else in the interim. (At least, this is the case on iTunes/iPod–is it not the same on other platforms?) Even if you did need to provide breaks, you can break podcasts into chapters–the Bowery Boys do this with their archived NYC history shows. I’m not tuning in to these shows for music–I wanna hear some guy pretending to be Thomas Jefferson, or people talking about language, or whatever. It’s difficult to skip the musical interludes, since I don’t know how long they are and the iPhone doesn’t really offer much in the way of precision fast-forwarding anyway. I do my best, but I inevitably wind up skipping some of the show as well.

So! Two questions for you folks. First, why use ‘bumper music’ in podcasts, where there’s no need to take a break in the first place? Second, do you like it, or do you wish podcasters would give it a rest?

(Mods: I figured this was an opinion-asking post, so I put it here in IMHO; feel free to move to CS if it would be more appropriate there.)

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The only good reason I’ve heard for this practice is that some podcasts either currently are, or are hoping for radio broadcast. The bumpers provide space for broadcasters to insert commercials.

You can also argue that they’re a decent method of seguing from one segment to another, but as you point out, this isn’t strictly necessary.

I look forward to more informed opinions, as this annoys me as well.

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The Word Nerds: Back when I listened to a lot of podcasts, I followed this one…I think I remember this correctly. People often complain about their bumpers. I don’t like them, myself–they are all different musical styles, so every now and then we get a genre of music I can’t stand, and many other songs are just duds. They have explained a couple of times that they feel it’s necessary to provide noticeable breaks to transition from one “segment” to the next. Each show follows pretty much the exact same recipe, and keeping the structure is important to them. Also, they like the songs. Each featured song gives exposure to someone putting their songs out as Podsafe Music. The hosts want to support that network and make connections in the podcasting world.

Hope that answers your question, at least somewhat!