At the beginning of June, Cristina Miter was packing two suitcases. One with the outfits that she would wear on stage and another full of cables and microphones. The creator of ‘Cristina Miter’s podcast‘, specialized in health and beauty, began the ‘Nena, no te complicas’ tour before the summer, a live version of its sound format in which he gets on stage with the psychologist Patricia Ramírez.
“I have a lot of contact with listeners through my voice and social networks, but sharing the same physical space, and also doing so after a pandemic, is a great pleasure,” the journalist acknowledges.
Miter created his podcast in 2018, without the support of any producer, and already has more than 260 episodes behind him. Every week it usually sneaks in among the most listened to. “From the beginning it was clear to me that I was looking to make a self-produced, independent, free and multiplatform podcast.”
The journalist explains that this jump to direct, where what happens in the theater stays in the theater (“that’s the magic”), was born because he wanted to have the participation of the public, an increasingly common objective among the creators of Audio.
At a time when the consumption of the sound format continues to increase, the economic sustainability of some of these proposals is still up in the air and live shows have appeared as a new way of financing and a very effective way of creating the precious ‘ community’.
It happens with ‘Cristina Miter’s podcast”, but also with ‘misshapen weekly‘, by Lucía Lijtmaer and Isabel Calderón, or more recently, ‘Philip’s daughters‘, that is, Carmen Urbita and Ana Garriga. But if we talk about live ‘shows’ we must mention the milestone that Carolina Iglesias and Victoria Martín achieved when in 2022 they brought together 12,000 people at the Wizink Center in Madrid to enjoy ‘stretching the gum‘.
That showed that there was business there and also an audience eager to witness their favorite podcast, whether with a whole show around them or with a simple table and two chairs on the stage. Buying a ticket has become an act of commitment to those projects that began as minorities and with little visibility in the media.
Ignasi Taltavull, co-creator of ‘The ruin‘, shares this feeling. «Think that we are independent and we are not on any payment platform. The program survives thanks to the support of the people who come to see us live », she explains.
The trajectory of ‘La Ruina’ began on February 12, 2019. That day, he and Tomás Fuentes, two Catalan comedians, premiered this format in which members of the public stand in front of the microphone to share the most pathetic, ridiculous experience. or embarrassing in which they have been involved.
«I remember that first very funny recording, but it was a test. We didn’t know if we were going to do a second one.” There was, of course, and a third and a fourth… So up to 137 episodes, which can also be seen as a ‘videopodcast’ on platforms such as Spotify or YouTube, a format that is increasingly in demand by Generation Z. For their new tour, already They have scheduled almost 40 performances that will take them to tour all of Spain between 2023 and 2024.
But not only that. In addition to the success of listeners, television knocked on their doors. Last spring, TVE Catalunya broadcast ‘La Ruïna’, the television version, and thus, what began cooking in the back room of a bookstore is now also being orchestrated on a set. That is to say, ‘La Ruina’ live, in audio, on video and on television. The premise puts up with it, partly because it is infinite, or is it that we will ever stop screwing up?
Recognition and synergies
Last June, the Government announced the ‘Audio Space’, a plan of 160 million euros in loans to promote sound content and, in this way, the podcast was recognized as a cultural industry. Its ramifications into neighboring sectors, such as the stage and television, show that audio is bringing ideas and talent.
The editorial is another of those related fields and several ‘podcasters’ have already been signed up for first-person publications. One of the most interesting cases is ‘Can I talk about my mental health!’, by Snorkel and Perra de Satan, hosts of the podcast ‘I can talk!‘. In the book they tell of their experience in therapy to deal with issues such as eating disorders or sexual identity.
Another example is that of Manuel Bartual, who in autumn will publish the comic ‘Erwin, the quantum cat’, inspired by his sound fiction ‘biotopia‘. The script for ‘God’s Signature‘, Podium Podcast fiction created by José Antonio Pérez Ledo.
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