It’s 2025: Let’s All Stop Gatekeeping in Audio

Feb 07th

In the traditional sense, gatekeeping refers to individuals with the institutional power to decide who gets access to resources, money or opportunities – and of course, who does not. But Francesca Turauskis is asking us all to consider what we might be unknowingly gatekeeping in audio…

Back in 2023, we shared an interview with Content is Queen Founder, Imriel Morgan, as part of our International Women’s Day content. One of the things that we asked her was what equity in podcasting looks like to her, and part of her (on-point) answer was the idea that we need “a massive reduction in gatekeeping…”.

Gatekeeping is so prominent in our society that it was even named Vogue’s word of the year in 2022, and one of the reasons it gained that honorific was that it isn’t just budget-holders and boardrooms that can be gatekeepers: to some extent, we are all capable of it. Gatekeeping is fairly innocent when it’s keeping quiet about where you bought a cute dress, but if you are an organisation publicly pledging $100M to create equity and don’t tell grassroots how to access it – that’s a very different matter.

Very few of us in audio have control of multi-million dollar budgets, but I still think that in 2025, it’s about time for everyone in audio to take a moment and ask themselves, “what am I gatekeeping?”

Here are five ways I think we can all open the gates in audio.

Share grant opportunities

Grants are something of a holy grail in all creative industries. Being given money to create work without having to answer to external stakeholders? It’s the dream! The Content is Queen Micro-Grant has been running for four years now, and every year we get many hundreds of people telling us their idea for a podcast.

All grants are highly competitive like this, and I know people who are otherwise generous that have kept grant opportunities to themselves to be in with a ‘better chance’. I understand the desire to be secretive when you find something that would be perfect for you – but in my book, if I apply for a grant and don’t get it, I’d love to see someone I know get it instead. That person might later share something with you, but even if they don’t it helps us all to be generous.

Explain hidden processes

I think there is a lot of assumed knowledge in the audio industry, and I am constantly finding idiosyncrasies and processes that no-one has explained to me. One of the biggest hidden processes is that of pitching, particularly when it comes to pitching the BBC. Like many people, having a BBC show on my CV is an aspiration, but it took me years to learn that individual freelancers could pitch ideas via a production company who was a BBC supplier. What’s more, I only found out by speaking to someone I knew at an in-person event – a testament to how important it still is to know the ‘right’ people. I could very much have done with this guide to pitching the BBC that Talia Augustadis wrote last year, and it’s been nice to see more production companies making it known that they are suppliers and can help individuals pitch.

It’s not just pathways to pitching that are difficult to find. When I wrote about actions to make audio a more accessible career last year, I suggested that companies should explain career progression more clearly. There are many different roles within audio, and knowing how your path could progress can help you develop the skills that could lead to a top job.

Post job opportunities widely

It’s not enough for someone to know the job in audio they want when companies make it difficult to find their jobs. The big companies might be able to afford an advert on LinkedIn and more informal postings in audio networks like UKAN can be really good for targeting audio-professionals. However, there is no industry standard with where audio jobs are posted or how long they are advertised and this means it’s often only the fortunate or the connected that get a chance to apply.

Some of this comes down to capacity, and smaller companies might not have enough staff to dedicate much time to the recruitment process (this is one of the reasons that the Content is Queen Marketplace aims to streamline the process of recruitment). But being thorough at the application stage and searching widely will make it more likely you find the right employees, and save a lot of headaches at a later date.

Tell us where you find good podcasts

One of the things that we constantly hear about podcasts is that they have a ‘discoverability problem’. There are certainly several reasons it is tricky to know how people find your podcast – host platforms can’t track where people land on your show from, there isn’t very much podcast journalism and podcast apps only have a certain amount of space for recommendations.

This is why I was so excited to see that Lauren Passell from Tink Media has started adding a short “how I discovered it” line for every recommendation she makes in Podcast The Newsletter. I think we should all share our favourite shows more anyway, and if podcast journalists tell us where they find good podcasts, it gives podcasters a chance to get their shows in front of them and other listeners.

But remember – protect the threshold of safe spaces

I wanted to end by saying that it’s worth remembering that there is a positive face of gatekeeping: protection. DE&I practices – such as the International Women’s Podcast Festival – are crucial for a future-proof industry, and we need individuals with institutional power to continue supporting such initiatives. There are some spaces and communities that have been traditionally underserved, and if your job puts you in a position to decide where resources and opportunities are directed, think about how you could use that to help to rebalance the industry standards.