Frederick Wells and Gabe McDonough weren’t the first to get in on the action when podcasting went aboveground, but despite their late start they’ve carved out a niche of their own in the young medium. Music podcasts–streaming or downloadable audio files that can be automatically distributed to subscribers–often follow the form of a radio show, and Wells and McDonough’s popular weekly podcast, Market Frenzy, is no exception. But unlike most amateur podcasters, they include complete tracks, not just excerpts–technically illegal because they don’t get clearances, but so far no artists or labels have made a stink. Market Frenzy is lovingly curated, each hour-long installment covering music both well-known and obscure from a wide range of genres: the show has included hip-hop from up-and-coming Somalian sensation K’naan and old-school Philly legend MC Breeze, for example, and 60s rock from hit makers like the Moody Blues as well as forgotten psych pioneers the Misunderstood.
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Since debuting in April 2005, Market Frenzy (market-frenzy.com) has developed a healthy audience–about 1,000 downloads a week–thanks to a network of music-obsessed MP3 bloggers and Internet message-board geeks, with some help from old-fashioned word of mouth. Within months it had fans in South America, South Africa, and Europe, and in December it appeared in Spin as an “essential” podcast. In February McDonough and Wells started a second podcast, this one for the Empty Bottle, that focuses on music and interviews from artists playing at the club; it’s available once a month both at the Bottle’s Web site and, because the venue gets written permission to use the songs, free through the iTunes online store.
Within a few days they’d come up with a name, registered a Web site, and picked DJ handles–for the show’s first year, Wells podcast as Particle Ranger, McDonough as Pharmaceutical Executive. They recorded their debut episode the following week at Wells’s home, which they dubbed SoFu Studios (for “south of Fullerton”). “It was kind of a way to exercise our little college-radio fantasies, except people around the world could hear it,” says Wells.
“Ultimately, we’re just complete music nerds,” says Wells. “So the chance to have access to all the people who play the Bottle was too good to pass up–because practically everyone comes through there at such a key stage of their career.”
Correction
