The Gatekeepers. Revered and hated, they decide what books you find at Barnes and Noble near Sunset Point.

And some people do not like this one bit.

Because not all books and creations released through the gates are a good idea. Not even close. Twilight came through a publisher while The Martian had to start on its own.

Is this fair? No. And what did people do about it? They got rid of the wall. Amazon just lets anyone publish a novel. So do Lulu and other self-publishing platforms.

But, but, did the quality suffer? Yes. It did in a way. Everyone can get their work out now, which means all the people who did not earn it also get a spot.

The downsides of free are also the benefits of free. Everybody gets in, and Google+ and Twitter both fill with advertisements promoting various self-published author’s books.

We overflowed it, is what I’m saying.

I don’t want to stifle anyone’s creativity—and I don’t believe something as subjective as art should have only a few people allowed to do it for money.

But what it boils down to is we need to be smarter consumers as well as supportive of the arts. The pieces you feel are good you should give something—if only attention. And if they are bad, then we need simply to ignore--but not put down, or insult.

It’s the only way this is going to work. We need to advertise the walls disappearing as not a bad thing. That the gates cracking did not flood the world.

Because otherwise the Gatekeepers will hold the gate again, and so many new artistic explorations will fall and die. And even though I like authors such as James Paterson and Stephen King, I’d like to see advertisements for more than just their books.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

There’s more media being produced than you could ever consume, even if you spent every waking hour listening or viewing it. You could walk to Nature’s Food Patch, and around the Pierce Street Market, and all your errands, and spend every second listening, viewing or experiencing media at a fervent rate, with no breaks, and you will still not make a dent.

Not even a tiny little sliver.

And is that okay? We can’t change it. But is it okay?

It’s gotten to be such a pit, a hole, that advertisements are not only going for getting you to like their products but showing you the endless options they have.

All media offering companies want you to fall into their hole and stay there. Because they can keep you entertained.

We can all be entertained.

And how did this happen? Well, demand grew and grew, until no interest remained un-satiated. A supply glut. And I think it was the same mindset that wants all the media that gave us all the media.

People tend to find inspiration with what they experience, and when media is leaking out of the pores of society, then people want to make their own.

And companies supplied the want. The advertisements for the ways to do art for yourself bore new businesses and still do at a frankly ridiculous rate.

SoundCloud for sound. YouTube for video. Amazon and Wattpad for the written word. Podcasts for radio. All free. All endless.

All hail.

But is the quality suffering? Were there always only a few good things at the top of the sewage? I think so. But just in case it comes to an explosion eventually, we best enjoy it.

This is a golden era, so let’s use it to the best we can. Let’s preserve it to the best we can. So it doesn’t turn to fool’s gold.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

Let’s do an experiment, shall we? Turn on your radio, Clearwater citizen. Any radio near you. Now tune into a standard Top 40 music station.

Now tell me, how long can you listen to that station before you want to shut it off, or bang your head into a wall? How long can you actually enjoy it, even when driving along the causeway, or aside the beach?

Maybe like an hour, right? That’s about how long it will take for the songs to repeat themselves, or for the advertisement-to-music ratio to drive you up the wall. Ever had that experience where you just wanted to listen to a song, any song, it didn’t matter what it was, so you flipped from station to station in a mad dash? And there were only ads? Or the news?

Yeah, is it any wonder the podcasts are upon us? That cars now come rigged to play your phone?

Cable is dying to Netflix, and radio might soon be dying to the same sort of product. People want what they want, when they want it, and will not wait, and will not deal with too many interruptions.

Is this a healthy mindset? Maybe not? Is it the present and future of products? Definitely.

Let’s compare the two, shall we? Let’s look at the difference in kind when it comes to radio, versus the humble podcast.

Radio has a long history, but plays few new songs; has a lot of ads, and does not have much in the way of creative experimentation. It’s free, and readily available, and always on for the consumer—but that same consumer has no control over it beyond what station they listen to. They are at the whim of the owners.

Now, to podcasts.

Podcasts are also free, have usually one to two advertisements, and are allowed to be any kind of creative endeavor they want. From open discussions to answering questions, to telling stories. Nothing is off the table. Not much music, but you have ITunes for that. They are also more personal since a lot of podcasts only have one host.

And then the all-important bonus of the podcast: you can fast-forward, and you get a nigh endless option of choice. I don’t care what you like, podcasts have something for you.

And if you think news radio has anything on podcasts, in terms of presenting the world as it is, and discussing the topics at hand, then you haven’t listened to “This American Life”, “Us and Them”, or “Stuff You Should Know”.

Despite my title, it’s not really a war. Because podcasts secretly won a long time ago. And the world is catching up to the win.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

A little podcast that became one of the most popular. A series of strange stories about a small town. An exploration of dark comedy and Lovecraftian horror. A place where the dog park is dangerous, and the Sheriff’s Secret Police are always around—and watching, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home flips tables for the fun of it. Or possibly to send a message.

A place where Cecil tells you the news.

Welcome...to Night Vale.

The first podcast I ever got into, it’s clever and funny, and sometimes even disturbing—and is a perfect model of how entertainers can make money.

Because while Night Vale itself is free to listen to, the group behind it is smart and set up a nice little arrangement for themselves in the form of selling merchandise.

As far as I know, Night Vale makes all of its money through only a couple of avenues: live shows, merchandise products, donations, sponsorships, and book sales.

You’ll notice none of these things are enforced on the audience. They are all supplementary to the main, free product.  

And Night Vale is not the only one using this model now. This seems to be a trend. Youtubers and Podcasters and perhaps even authors are able to make a lot of supplementary money through not the product itself, but the love of the product.

And it works. Because what’s a better method of advertising than free and high quality? And what is a more fun way to be a fan—what’s a more rewarding way to be a fan—than to help support the creators and get some sweet stuff out of it?

So now, if you see someone walking around Clearwater wearing an odd purple shirt with an eye logo on it: you know why.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

I walk a lot. I walk around Clearwater, up Cleveland Street, through downtown, and around the suburbs. I like walking. But it gets boring. And I can only listen to music for so long before I tire of my playlist.

So, enter podcasts. The strange resurging radio show style audio creation that in the world of streaming and Netflix and Hulu manages to still be a popular form of media with only sound to support it.

And well I could go into all the various reasons you should listen to podcasts, I’d instead thought I’d go into a strange by-product of the podcast world.

And that is sponsorships. Podcasts by themselves do not seem to make money, but with the new rise of companies that want to use many sorts of avenues for advertising: they have a financial life. In fact, these advertising companies may be the reason that this odd surge manages to hold and spread.

Take, for instance, the case of Audible.com. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s an audiobook provider, and if you like podcasts, well, you’ve probably heard of it many times by now.

Because along with Squarespace, a website hosting and design company—and a few others including, oddly enough, a mattress sales website—the podcast advertising market seems flooded with companies successful off of this model.

And like most new odd ways the world has found to pair art with marketing, I am fascinated by this new development. Sponsorships and patrons are now throwing money at the next new wave, and as long as there is an audience, there appears to be a company willing to lend money to its creation.

Between Patreon and Kickstarter making the fans able to make the things they love exist by their own wallets, and company’s willingness to lend support to popular things regardless of how strange it might be: we could be looking at new additions to the usual way we think about the entertainment industry.

And by God, isn’t that just as exciting as a new episode of Alice Isn’t Dead coming out on ITunes? If not more?

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com