Re-Broadcast of Awards Cost Money

Re-Broadcast of Awards Cost Money

From Songs for the Struggling Artist by Songs for the StrugglingArtist

May 4, 2026 · 20 min

About this episode

In this re-broadcast episode, the host discusses the financial implications of applying for podcast awards and reflects on the value of such investments.

I'm in Los Angeles for LA WebFest so this is a re-broadcast of Episode 347. I'm posting this now so I don't say any of this out loud this week! Well – I paid $175 to be considered for an Ambie award for The Dragoning (in the DIY category for low budget productions). The Ambies are the podcast awards that the entertainment business seem to take seriously. They’re discussed in publications like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Was it a smart investment to spend $175 to try and get nominated? If we’d gotten selected for the finals, it definitely would have been. But for a return of absolutely bupkiss, it feels like it’s not. It feels like a lot of money to lose just to lose. But then ⁠there’s the Oscars⁠ . This is why I decided to apply and spend the $175, because of how the Oscars work. The average person imagines that the Oscars are chosen by groups of people getting together, evaluating all the movies and then nominating the best ones. I used to imagine that they watched all the movies that came out that year and awarded the ones the group liked best. It doesn’t work like that, come to find out. To read more of ⁠Awards Cost Money⁠ visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist…

People in this episode

Host: Emily Rainbow Davis

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: LA WebFest, Ambie, Variety, Hollywood Reporter

Books & works: The Dragoning

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