The 12th Annual Podcast Awards nominations open on July 1st.

The 12th annual event is shaping up to be an interesting year with the new site, new rules, and voting process. The changes made by the Podcast Awards committee in response to significant process inequity over the past two or three years are on the surface, appear to prevent virtually handing the win to a group of shows that teamed up for group nominations and group voting. The changes to voting process appear to attempt to level the playing field, and according to the podcast awards rules page restored the spirit of the awards.

With the awards being boycotted by a small number of shows that are part of the Diamond Group due to the rules change, controversy does continue.

“Todd Cochrane the Awards founder said it’s unfortunate what’s happened the last couple of years. He said his reaction following the awards last year was not the best, and to a point, he felt upon review what the Diamond Group did was within the rules, it sure definitely was not in the spirit of the awards. The mocking and off-channel discussions showed a small percentage of the participants were in it for sport.” He goes on to say, “I did not create the awards to have them manipulated, but in hindsight, the committee should have made the changes as soon as I reacquired the awards. He states the Awards Committee worked really hard to bring equity back to the event”

With the Podcast Awards about two weeks away, it will be interesting to see how the process flushes out. As has been often by the founder, the awards process is never perfect. You can register all the way through the end of July but remember nominations open on July 1st.