First of all, don’t let the headline of this post freak you out. “All Good Things Must Come to an End” refers specifically to the self-imposed hiatus that the beloved SCOREcast podcast has been on for close to a year.

Gotcha!

In addition to the recent issues we’ve had with the RSS feed of the older podcast episodes (issues that are now fixed, by the way!), I’m sure you’ve noticed that we haven’t posted a new podcast episode since me and Randy Knaub’s wrap-up of the 2010 NAMM Show back in January of this year. Many of you have written in from all over the world to ask the obvious questions: “Is it over?” “Is there ever going to be another SCOREcast podcast episode?” “Why did you stop doing the podcast?”

Well… I’m thrilled to report that we will be posting SCOREcast Episode 27 in the next few weeks, and that the podcast will resume its regular episodic schedule throughout 2011.

I know it’s been awhile, but yes… we are back, and I’m more excited than ever about what is in store for the podcast during the coming year. We’ll be shaking up the format quite a bit by adding some cool new segments including new roundtables with some of film music’s most respected composers, music editors, and directors, as well as more interviews, listener mail, and current film music industry news and commentary.

On top of all that, we also have a giant glaring question to answer: Who won our “SCOREcast Theme Contest”?

All of these things—and MORE!—will be answered and dealt with in SCOREcast Episode 27. Look for the new episode in the coming weeks!

Where Have We Been?
First of all—it’s all my fault. I made the call to put the podcast on ice back in February for a few reasons:

Reason #1: We were crispy.
It takes a lot to produce an episode of SCOREcast. When I started SCOREcast in 2006, I made it a personal rule to never allow the SCOREcast podcast or the SCOREcastOnline.com website (SCO) to eclipse any of our contributors’ careers, or mine. By January 2010, three solid years of producing the podcast had caught up with me and the rest of the team and we needed a break. Now granted, that “break” was never intended to be quite so long… but stuff happens, work takes over, people get busy, and things get put on the back burner. Bottom line is—we are back and it’s going to be a great new year with fresh energy, new features, and a few new personalities that I’m excited for you to meet and get to know.

Reason #2: We needed more help.
As a circumstance of SCOREcastOnline.com’s growing audience (we are now read by over 90,000 people every week), we needed to expand the SCO contributor team and concentrate on making sure that our infrastructure was able to withstand a continued run of the podcast show. One thing we have learned for sure is that the SCOREcast podcast remains the biggest viral gateway to SCOREcastOnline.com, therefore drilling into the website to improve some areas that we found lacking was a necessary focus over the summer. The production of the podcast would need to be temporarily suspended if we were going find the time to do that effectively.

Reason #3: We needed to find out a little more about YOU.
Podcast technology is pretty damned amazing. The fact that anyone can produce a radio show, put it online, syndicate it worldwide, and build a constituency that they wouldn’t normally have access to is downright amazing. However, the technology is still in its infancy and one of the things that is yet to be perfected is the ability to keep track of exactly who is downloading and listening to your content. Syndication is a both a blessing and a curse. Yes, your content gets dispersed all over the Internet and rebroadcast from multiple outlets, giving you access to a huge potential audience. However, that process also makes it virtually impossible for you to track your audience via any hard data.

But that’s not even the big problem. It’s even harder to track whether or not your content is even useful to your audience once they have access to it. Because of that limitation, I needed convincing that we were providing the very best content that we could for all of you. In an effort to get a grip on what you guys are after from SCOREcast, we sent out a survey to a random selection of our SCO readership last month. Based on the data we received back from the survey, I think we’ve come up with a format and feature-set that will better serve our community overall. We’re going to run with it, and it’s full steam ahead from here on!

Onward and Upward
In hindsight, I’m pleased with the results that our hiatus produced, and I think you’ll agree that whatever annoyance our absence may have caused you has well been worth it. That being said, the responsibility of producing a successful podcast show is something I definitely do not take lightly, and I have learned a ton in the four years that I’ve been doing it. As with everything here at SCOREcast, the podcast is something that we all give to in our spare time. We may occasionally go AWOL, but we will always return.

And I promise… it will never again be as long a vacation as this one was!

My sincerest thanks to each and every one of you in the SCO Army who have hung in there with us.
YOU are the true heroes of this community.

My very best,
Deane Ogden
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, SCOREcastOnline.com