It was so popular last year that we decided to do it again! Join us this holiday season as we introduce you to twelve of our favourite podcasts in the 12 Days of Podmas.
At some point in a music fan’s life the word “list” is mentioned. Your favourite artists. Your favourite albums. Your favourite gigs. Your favourite songs. As a result of that, the music debate was born. In depth discussions take place where fans of bands and artists fight for their favourite songs and albums. People could make their own sequencing of songs. Historically the era of the analogue would call these mixtapes.
In the modern era, these are playlists. Playlists are potentially one of the most important things in terms of music discovery in the age of streaming. Spotify and Apple Music employ people specifically to curate songs on their most popular playlists. Services also have The Algorithm (capitalised for impact) that will automatically generate playlists based on your listening history. But the art of curating lists has always been fun.
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Incorporating the fun of playlist creation, music listening and a tiny bit of competitiveness, Playlist Wars sees hosts Brian Colburn and Alex Gomez compete alongside a guest to craft the perfect ten track playlist consisting of an artist and/or theme. Taking it in turns, they go through their tracks and make their cases for why the listeners should vote for their playlist. There can often be crossovers between playlists so sometimes the hosts can jump around their playlists. If there’s a song on all three, this is known as a trifecta. If there’s a trifecta on and they’re at the same position, this is a “bingo.” This has yet to happen on the show at the time of writing.
As mentioned earlier, there’s a huge push for listener interaction in voting for their favourite playlist, but also nominating their own choices and selections for bands/themes. It’s generating a strong community on social media (especially Twitter) where fans (who are referred to as “Playlisters”) can contribute as well. It has led to an open, welcoming community being formed.
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At the time of writing, Playlist Wars is been the number one music podcast on the Goodpods podcast app based on listens and shares. This community that has grown from Twitter has also bred from the podcast’s performance on that app, and it has since become one of the apps’ flagship shows – used as an example of what can happen with indie podcasts through it.
There’s a genuine love of music, and a friendly level of competition across the podcast and the Playlister community around it. There’s never any malice on the podcast, and whilst there are disagreements, there’s a level of understanding of other people’s tastes that’s always there. It maintains a positive vibe, it’s uplifting and fun to listen to. Playlist Wars is very deserving of the praise it has been getting across the board and it is looking to have a very good 2022.
You can listen to Playlist Wars on various platforms.