For the purposes of these awards, a podcast is considered independent if it is produced without the financial support of a large organisation such as a publishing company, or brand, and is not fronted by high profile celebrities for whom this is one of many revenue streams. Podcasts that have featured high profile guests will still be considered.

To be eligible for entry you'd ideally have released at least 10 episodes of your podcast in the last 12 months OR it's a contained mini-series, OR you've been podcasting for a while and have a notable back catalogue but have been a bit sporadic in the last 12 months.

Episodes entered must be from the last 12 months, which for the purposes of these awards runs from 1st June 2023 to 31st May 2024.

Currently only podcasters that are based in the UK or Ireland are eligible to enter the awards. 

As long as your podcast is regularly hosted by at least 50% of people based in the UK/Ireland, your podcast qualifies as a British/Irish podcast.

The closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday 31st May 2024. 

It costs £30 for your first entry, and then £5 for each subsequent entry. We do have two free to enter categories too, Best Podcast Jingle and Best Podcast Artwork but you can only enter these if you have submitted a paid for entry too. 

Check out our helpful hints and tips on what to include in your entry on the How To Enter page. 

Once you've entered at least one of the paid for categories and the transaction has gone through you will be emailed a link to access these categories. If the email doesn't come through, and you can't find it in your junk/spam folder then please get in touch with Emma. 

Yes! If you feel your podcast straddles more than one genre then you are welcome to enter it multiple times. You will have to pay £30 for your first entry, and each one is charged at £5 after that. While entering more than one category is ok, do think carefully about whether a category really is relevant to your podcast. 

Please note that Overall Podcast of the Year is not self entered but will be chosen from the winners of the other categories.

We’ll email all those that entered as soon as the shortlist is available.

We’ll announce the winners at an awards event on Wednesday 23rd October 2024 at Kings Place, Kings Cross, London.

It will be a night to celebrate independent podcasters, and our industry, and encourage as many people to come along as possible, even if you're not shortlisted. Last year's attendees loved meeting other independent podcasters, and celebrating the success of the industry and the people in it. 

Bookings for the event will open in the summer of 2024. Sign up for updates to ensure you know as soon as the bookings go live. 

Everyone that attends will need to purchase a ticket to the event. Sadly we're not able to offer free tickets to nominees. 

Tickets costs will be kept to a minimum. We're hopeful we'll be able to freeze them at the 2023 price of £45 but we will update on this as soon as possible. 

For any queries relating to entering the awards, attending the event, or would like to get involved in judging contact Emma Turner on emma@whynow.co.uk.

For commercial opportunities contact Adam McDonnell on adam@whynow.co.uk.