A method (400) for configuring a distributed microphone system is disclosed. The distributed microphone system comprises a plurality of microphone devices connected via a network. The method (400) comprises: analyzing (402) first historical audio data (112) received from a first microphone device (110) of the plurality of microphone devices, analyzing (404) second historical audio data (122) received from a second microphone device (120) of the plurality of microphone devices, comparing (406) the first historical audio data (112) to the second historical audio data (122) to identify (408) differences between the first historical audio data (112) and the second historical audio data (122), and assigning (410) a priority level to the first and/or second microphone device based on the differences between the first historical audio data (112) and the second historical audio data (122), wherein the priority level is indicative of a priority rule for analyzing future audio data recorded by the first and/or second microphone device, respectively, and/or wherein the priority level is indicative of a communication rule for communicating future audio data from the first and/or second microphone device, respectively, via the network.