Southern Gospel in Podcast

Most Southern Gospel Music listeners do not listen to podcasts. By and large they listen to their music via physical albums but are rapidly transitioning to streaming platforms. I myself have a few playlists on Pandora and Spotify but am often disappointed by the choice of music those platforms play. More often than not, because I say, “Play Southern Gospel Music”, the algorithm determines that I want to hear Alan Jackson sing The Old Rugged Cross, or Carrie Underwood sing How Great Thou Art.

Don’t let that discourage you however, Southern Gospel needs to move into the light of the 21st century. So, as you explore more music in the digital world, I invite you to also explore podcasts. Over the last several years I’ve search in my podcast player “Southern Gospel”, and have found a few, only a few choices. In 2017 there were two, both have abruptly stopped recording and/or updating content. 

I began podcasting myself along with Reggie Taylor in 2017 and had marginal success, and because of our content, decided to stop. You see, we were playing music, essentially, we put our radio show on the podcast platform. Folks loved it, we had subscribers and great communication from those folks. The reason we stopped was of one word, Copyright. We found out that there was and still is so much gray area in copyright laws that we could be sued for playing copyrighted material. I say could, because we also heard, that we might be sued, would definitely be sued, and also, there’s no one that would sue you for playing their music. 

Fast forward a few months and enter Darien Southerland and Jeff Steele. They began a podcast entitled “Southern Gospel News Podcast”; it was a hit! I mean the show was received better than anything I’ve ever seen in the digital world of Southern Gospel Music. Within a few months they have thousands of subscribers. After a while Jeff had to step away and Arthur Rice stopped into the role of Co-host. They’ve recorded 134 episodes with SGM’s biggest names from the stage, behind the singers, and in the recording studios. 

Back in 2020 I started our podcast again, you can search Southern Gospel Point of View, and you’ll find us, we’ve only produced 7 episodes but have many more in the works. I no longer play music on our show, we do however get to talk to some the genre’s biggest stars as well as the upcoming artists. In each of our shows we share the hearts of those we are speaking with, we do our best to think as a listeners and fan, not just an interviewer. So, there will be questions asked and answered that seem too personal but will be absolutely enjoyed.

Now if you were to search Southern Gospel in your podcast app you will find quite a few irrelevant shows, but the first seven will be the ones to look into, but there are on three of those that have up-to-date content. Do yourself a favor, break out of the album only prison and step into the waters of podcasting. Visit Darien and Arthurs SGNP, and my
SoGoPoV, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you’ve been missing, but that’s just my Southern Gospel Point of View. 

For more Southern Gospel news, visit www.southerngospelpov.com.