Alongside scholarly articles and ethnographic films, podcasts have recently become an attractive method for disseminating ethnomusicological research. Examples with episodes devoted to folklore and ethnomusicology include SoundLore (Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University Bloomington; https://folklore.indiana.edu/research/soundlore/index.html), SOAS Podcasts (SOAS University London; https://www.soas.ac.uk/music/videos/), and BFE Podcast Project (British Forum for Ethnomusicology; https://bfe.org.uk/bfe-podcast-project-0). Podcasts are easy to produce, more affordable than printed books or films, and released in a format that can be easily and rapidly accessed by consumers around the world. In addition, podcasts can be more inclusive than written texts by communicating musical knowledge cross educational, social, and economic boundaries. As ethnomusicologists primarily engage with sonic events, podcasts also offer the possibility of sharing musical cultures and soundscapes directly, without having to translate those cultures into lengthy, complicated textual descriptions or restrictive musical transcriptions. Through this sound-based format, sonic knowledge can maintain its complexity, emotionality, and acoustic essence.

These advantages were recognised by the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), which launched the podcast series, Ethnomusicology Today, in September 2015. As their website states: “Ethnomusicology Today is a podcast series that features stories and interviews aimed at engaging a broad audience of educators, scholars, musicians, and a listening public interested in contemporary issues in global music studies” (Ethnomusicology Today can be assessed at https://www.ethnomusicology.org/members/group_content_view.asp?group=156353&id=534562). Since its launch, the series has published eleven episodes and one pre-conference interview. These episodes can be accessed via the SEM website or on third-party streaming platforms such as iTunes and Spotify. The episodes vary in length from 13 minutes (Episode 2) to 42 minutes (Episode 11). They also cover a diverse range of musical styles including tribute bands (Episode 1), Japanese chindon-ya (Episode 7), and air guitar playing (Episode 8).

Episodes typically begin with either a musical piece or an atmospheric field recording, which is then followed by a general introduction to the topic by the series editor, Trevor S. Harvey. Then one or two scholars who have recently published an article in the journal Ethnomusicology are interviewed by Harvey on their research topics, either in-person or over the Internet. Though being a pragmatic decision, the online interviews can sometimes be a little unsettling, especially when the interviewee’s voice becomes distorted by disruption to the electronic transmission (e.g., Episode 6) and stands in contrast to the interviewer’s clear voice. This can evoke the impression of inequality between the speakers and could, of course, easily be avoided, if speakers recorded themselves wherever they are and then transmitted this better-quality version to the editor. The interviews are either a series of questions and answers (e.g., Episode 1), the expert’s statements embedded in the producer’s story-telling (e.g., Episode 2), or a mixture of both forms. Of the published episodes so far, ten interviewees are male, four are female and four would probably self-identify as BIPOC, one as B/black.

Ethnomusicology Today covers many different aspects of contemporary ethnomusicology, though no episode so far deals with soundscapes, voice studies, or sociocultural contexts connected to Western art music. Particularly interesting to me is the series of three episodes (Episodes 3–5) that examines various aspects of musicking in India. In Episode 3, Gregory Booth discusses copyright issues concerning Indian popular music. He convincingly demonstrates how different concepts of intellectual property are being dealt with in the Indian music industry in contrast with how they would be understood in the West. This applies especially to film songs, where “version songs” (songs where a professional playback singer copies the original film star’s singing style) emerged in the 1940s to circumvent copyright restrictions imposed by major labels. Although legal in process, to the people this procedure felt inappropriate because a song in Indian film culture is always irrevocably tied to the original singer’s voice and identity. In Episode 4, Anna Morcom discusses Indian dance culture from the 1990s onwards. She compares the Bollywood dance craze of the middle classes with lower-class dance bar culture, where dancers were paid money to dance seductively. In Episode 5, Allen Roda explores the complex ecosystem of the global tabla industry, thereby foregrounding another fascinating aspect of Indian music culture as it has been studied by contemporary ethnomusicologists. In addition to this trio of episodes on Indian music, my favourite episode of Ethnomusicology Today is probably Episode 8, where Sidney Hutchinson and Byrd McDaniel introduce listeners to the curious art of playing the air guitar. They explain what lies behind this rather unique pastime in which amateur musicians attend world championships for imitating guitar playing while holding nothing in their hands.

From a technical perspective, the 11 episodes of the series have developed considerably over time. While I was initially struck that there was almost no music present in earlier episodes, I was taken positively by surprise when in Episode 6 Juan Diego Diaz uses several sound examples of Brazilian candomblé to illustrate his analyses. Likewise in Episode 8, the voice of a spokesperson at the Air Guitar World Championship was allowed a full quote, so that the researched interlocutor was given his own voice and agency. The inclusion of these field recordings alongside the voices of the host and guest was a welcome addition.

For future podcasts, I hope the producers can take even greater advantage of the medium. They could embed more sound examples not only to illustrate musical analyses, create a bit of atmosphere, or frame the discussions, but to play longer examples and let them speak for themselves. Ethnomusicology Today is a fantastic platform and features a wonderful array of fascinating research topics presented by excellent speakers. This series demonstrates the potential of podcasts to serve as an attractive and serious publishing platform.