Audiences are looking for curation. We have content out the wazoo. There’s plenty of it. We are actively trying to ignore all the content that doesn’t suit us. It’s a relief when someone helps us ignore and feeds us a simplified content stream. When someone steps up and says, “This is all you need. This is what you want.”
In making Scot Nery’s Boobietrap, that was the goal. We didn’t want it to be about the parts of the show. Instead it was about the show being a safe space to come and get the good stuff… like a trusted doctor or news source. We were a trusted place for entertainment.
There are two ways we, as entertainment creators, can serve as a curator.
1. Audience Tastes Based
We can respond to audience taste. This is why people love the algorithms. Algorithms track what we like already and try to bring us more stuff. A live entertainer can change what they’re doing to adjust to their audience in the moment.
2. Curator Tastes Based
If I can find a creator or publisher who I like and trust, I only have to pick them once and they pick all my stuff for me. This is what people got at Boobietrap, or thru a radio host they like, or a small book store.
Focus
Whichever way we do this curation, it will take us focusing on an audience… Not necessarily a demographic or archetype, but a narrow band of people who will align with what we are serving so we can continue to be their trusted source.
Algorithms can focus down on individuals, and will eventually be able to focus down on times of the day and location of those individuals. AI will destroy us all, but until then, humans are better at certain parts of curation…
- dependability
- assumed benevolence
- coolness
- organic interfacing
Going solo
If we want to produce something and not just dish out content, this applies the same way. We are sorting thru the muck to bring our audience the right stuff. A magician can be the trusted source for the best magic tricks, or the best way to do a magic trick, or the funniest a person can be.