For Most Podcast Awards, You Must Pay $$$ to be Considered

A great friend of the show was letting me know about some podcast awards coming up that he thought I'd have a shot at. Great! It would be nice to be recognized for excellence in the field of podcasting! But then he told me how you register for consideration.

In addition to the typical information, they want money. It turns out the overwhelming majority of podcast awards go to shows that have forked over cash money to be considered. A show like Toronto Mike'd, for example, that has never paid one red cent to enter an awards show, cannot win.

I tweeted about this, because  I had never thought about it, and was blissfully ignorant that this was how awards were allocated. That's when I learned it's the same deal for journalism awards.

A little digging reveals there's an entry fee to be considered for a Juno, Grammy, Emmy...

At some point, it was normalized that if you wanted to be considered for an industry award, you paid a fee. I personally have no desire to spend a dime to be considered for a podcast award.

So if you're wondering why I never win....