Feel our breath, Izzard
I was excited enough when I saw this on Sunday.
Imagine my puerile glee when I saw this today:
This is the all-round, general, all-inclusive, non-denominational, non-specialist Tunes podcast chart. Not the comedy chart. Not the audio comedy chart - the one we usually refer to for evidence that we are not just talking to ourselves once a week. The actual iTunes podcast chart, featuring all the podcasts on iTunes in order of popularity ... and our podcast is NUMBER SIX in it. As continually mentioned, we have no idea how these charts are formulated, but it certainly has something to do with new subscribers. Richard Herring thinks his Twittering has won us this surge of new subscribers. I think it was my plug on the national BBC radio station 5 Live on Friday afternoon. Either way, I hope you will allow me to crow, briefly. Don't forget: we have been recording this podcast, for free, for something like 61 weeks, without a break. To make it so high is a moral victory. We are the only podcast in the chart that's not compiled and edited from an existing radio show, or a podcast built around the idea of a person being paid to record a podcast for a media company whose revenue is mostly based on advertising and sponsorship, or a podcast recorded by someone who's already rich enough to do one for the fun of it and actually runs a paid-for website. We are, I think, entitled to a certain patina of self-satisfaction for reaching this lofty peak.
For the record, in case we climb no higher: Eddie Izzard: Live From London is an interview he did with Simon Amstell for Apple, in the Apple Store, as an Apple promotion, split up into mini chunks, one of them being 36 seconds long; it is an iTunes podcast on iTunes, advertising iTunes. Friday Night Comedy is what it says on the tin, two weekly comedy shows from Radio 4: professionally written and recorded comedy for the BBC, released in podcast form. The Ricky Gervais Podcast, recorded by one of the most famous comedians in the world and his also very famous partner and their moderately less famous friend, is effectively a free advert for an audiobook, which you have to pay for, via iTunes, thus not a podcast in the pure sense, rather an advert. David Mitchell's Soapbox is a weekly, three-minute video of the very famous TV comedian, produced by a professional production company called Channel Flip (a "Video Channel For Switched On Men") and sponsored by a shower gel, I think. And Jonathan Ross is, clearly, a 44-minute, music-free compilation of the best links from his hugely popular Radio 2 programme, with big star guest interview. And then it's us. These are all very good podcasts - as of course, is Adam And Joe, one of our firm favourites, which is, unusually, six places below us on this crazy occasion.
Take that, The Man! Not only is ours the longest weekly podcast in the Top 10, it's more regular than Stephen Fry's, longer than David Mitchell's and less profitable than all of them! We are indie! We are unsponsored! We are our own men! We are shit! We are unstoppable! (I'm actually in quite a bad mood, but this glimmer of hope has lifted my spirits.) The only way is down.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 10:21 AM
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29 Comments:
If you look at the "Audio Only" charts then you go all the way up to 5!
I'm a wooly linux user but I installed Microshaft Wibbles on an old laptop so that I could subscribe to you on iTunes. I also subscribed my friends and any other PC I'm left with for any length of time.
I'm sure the rough, inexpert, and merciless bumming you will undoubtedly receive will be well worth all the effort.
Well done Andrew (and Richard)
you deserve it, been with you from the begining and your still sounding great!
here comes the tipping point!
Steve
I'm so proud of you two! I've been listening right from day one and have encouraged many of my friends to listen as well; this is such a great reward for all those weeks of work! Here's to another 61 weeks :)
Ahead of Chris Moyles... unreal. Maybe you two will get the call to replace him?
I should think that just appearing in that top 10 list, visible to anyone that clicks on the podcast page straight away will have an effect as well. Maybe those that didn't ever delve deep into the comedy listings before will have seen you now and clicked.
All very refreshing to see anyway.
That's brilliant news Andrew (and Richard, of course).
Proud to say I've been with you since the beginning and continue to find your weekly ramblings highly entertaining and the highlight of my commute to work.
Will have the good fortune of witnessing your child-like laugh (don't ever change it, I love it, so cute) in person at Brighton next month, can't wait :)
Helen
Don't forget that some of us don't use iTunes to get the podcast- so our "vote" doesn't get counted. So you could be conceivably more popular than you think you are.
I realise this is a mesmerisingly boring comment.
I'm really pleased for you both. Been listening every week since #24 and I have just caught up with all the previous ones I missed.
When podcast 60 is released we'll all have spent 2 and a half days listening to you both! I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing ;)
A well deserved chart place.
AC - sorry to haer that you feel in a bad mood - but we all get like that every now and again! A said little (almost) post script to an otherwise celebratory post! I am rapidly working my way through your C+H "ouevre" and the joy of each one heard is tempered by there being one less to hear. The same feeling I had when I devoured "The Wire" in massive chunks knowing I would never have the same sensation of seeing it for the first time. Rejoice in your success and pleasure disseminated!
Great news on the iTunes chart. Many before have tried (Jon Richardson) but no one succeeded .... til now.
And on a different note, I just heard the Adam&Joe podcast. I am looking forward to next week's retro text the nation where they'll read out an email from a certain A Collins about his "secret dancing".
ooops - I meant "sad" not "said"!
Congratulations from me too. As said above, the high chart position can only lead to more downloads surely? Anyway I hope you will be sending the screenshot to BBC 6 Music ;-)
I'm guessing the bad mood might be something related to (but not caused by, presumably) a Ms Debra Craine? I really feel for you :-(
Not quite sure what you mean, Tina. Because she reviewed the Star Trek movie in the Times? Hey, don't worry, my piece is a monster history/think-piece with interviews, not a review! (If that's what you meant . . . )
Congratulations, well deserved and a long time coming.
Sorry to hear of your bad mood, I though this might help...
I work for a well known finincial institution and on our internal forum there was a thread inviting people to list their 'Top 5 comedies of all time'. To my shock and surprise what should be rubbing shoulders with the myriad of 'Monty Pythons' and 'The Offices' but 'Not Going Out', listed by atleast 2 people in a thread of about 50. Its not my cup of tea but I thought you might like to know.
'patina of self-satisfaction'? Oh yes, you are entitled. x
It gets quite interesting now because the very fact you're in the top ten of the iTunes chart gives the podcast a certain momentum of its own. iTunes are running a big rectangular advert you at the top of the page (in rotation with half or so other well-known podcasts) and there are countless numbers of people who, like me, regularly browse the top 10 or 20 shows to see if there's anything they've missed.
I cannot (and I listen to quite a few things) think of any other show that's generated 60+ hours of content, almost entirely unedited, and 100% recorded on a Macbook internal mic, with the length of each show being dictated purely by the metronome setting in Garageband...
The other thing to remember is that surely a jump from 7th to 6th place is a far greater achievement than from 27th to 26th - if we assume that the chart follows a typical 'long tail' curve.
Have Libsyn (via the British Sitcom Guide) given you any actual download figures yet? I find it difficult to believe the podcast Richard Herring wouldn't be crowing about them if you knew..
Well done! Shouldn't you be THE shit though, rather than generic shit? Clearly you're not shit if you're up in the charts? Unless you mean shit floats? But that would be wrong and not true. I say up the 'the'. Because you're not shit.
Anna
excellent work collins, BBC 6 MUSIC is a poorer place now you and Vic Mcglinn have departed. Tell Herring he looks like Charlie Boormans ugly brother.
Nice stuff. It should be said that 'Answer Me This' is often on the charts and is funny and totally independent (despite famous brothers), so it's not just you guys out in the wilderness.
I believe I speak for both of us when I say that we love Answer Me This, and you're right: it's us and them versus Them. Or something. (And Answer Me This are nominated for a digital Sony Award this year, so they are officially better than us.)
You can track the Podcasts on Last.fm with all the music that people listen to on their iPods.
http://www.last.fm/music/Andrew+Collins+and+Richard+Herring
Once you get into the iTunes pod cast Top 5 you will be on the front page of iTunes, although I did see a little advert picture for the podcast on there yesterday anyway!
Keep up the good casts (and hiding Richard's mugs when he's had visitors round).
Nice chart-raiding there. As a listener since day one (and another who downlods through the comedy guide site) it is alwasy nice to know that other people actually like something that I do.
I used to work in the Customer 'Care' team for a Telecoms Company - ie listening to people phone up and whine about how their internet or phone was broken - and then write and email in with formal complaints about how it was still broken and they wanted money back. So that was a nice way to spend a day.
However (my point is arriving gradually), when the customer database thingy (CRM) was re-designed the manager insisted that on the drop down menu for 'nature of customer call' that 'compliment' was included with all the negatives. Needless to say, we didn't get many.
So this is your chance to record the compliments, Sir. You are hereby given permission to blow on your knuckles ostentatiously and rub them on the lapel of your jacket whilst saying, "I am skill."
Only for one day, mind. If you are to be Trokskyite interlopers in the capitalist hell of the iTunes chart then the revolutionary spirit must be invoked at all times. Until, of course, a well known manufacturer of Oat Milk decides to sponsor you. then you can sell out.
A monster think-piece sounds wonderful. I will buy the Times on Saturday especially. Despite my natural inclination to veer once more back to my Harry Met Sally comfort zone, I feel I need to know what all the fuss is about.
PS yes it is what I meant!
Well deserved! My PCs been dead for a couple of weeks, so I've been playing catch-up on my cycle ride to work this week. The last few have been hugely funny - to the point where I've been annoying people by laughing while riding and I actually nearly crashed today because of one comment.
Keep up the good work :D
Incidentally, my word verification for this post is "Porke". Portents of things a celebratory Herrin might be doing to you?
Good job Collins!
I've tried to pimp the podcast at the bleeding edge of Web 3.0- Prezi.
Heres my public presentation about the Collins and Herring podcast. Please forgive the well intentioned abuse!
http://prezi.com/39677/
Well done to both of you. I just had a very pleasant hour long stroll through the countryside accompanied by you both and enjoyed your banter very much.
Here's hoping you climb even higher.
There is a lot to be said for this achievement, it does symbolise a victory of independence over corporate/formula laziness, so it is just two blokes in an attic, gabbling, but there is something else going on to... bladdy well done!
Jim
PS - I am waiting for the book/DVD/tour... how I became a podcast phenomenon!
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