Matt May is a Web accessibility specialist, and has written on the interaction of people and technology since 1995. He keeps his own weblog at bestkungfu.com, and produces a podcast called Staccato, which features Creative Commons-licensed music.
Alex Williamsblogs, consults and produces unconference style events, where people immerse in DIY media. These are fun occasions, designed for people who want to get together with authors, artists, technologists and leading thinkers to converse, eat, listen to music, write, shoot photos and post podcasts and videoblogs. Alex also works with companies to establish DIY approaches, where writing, photography, voice and video come together to create new conversations and communities. Alex is currently fascinated with digital photography. His girlfriend calls him a Flickrholic. Send Alex a nice message: alexhwilliams at gmail.com.
Nicole Simon loves blogging and podcasting, dashed with an European view. As consultant she helps to facilitate such tools for business purposes or personal publishing empires. She can be found at cruel to be kind and on her private blog Useful Sounds.
Roland Tanglao is a well known podcasting enthusiast and a passionate advocate of blogs, RSS, and social software as a means of online expression for people, organizations and businesses. He is a prominent participant in the blogosphere and online communities and one of the founders of Bryght and as Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer reads hundreds of blogs daily. He graduated from the University of Waterloo, worked at Nortel Networks where he ran its first internal corporate blog, has has been blogging since 1999, and was the first business blogging consultant in Canada.
There's no Corante podcast this week, but due to a fortuitous turn of events, the podcasting session from SXSW 2005, in which I was a participant, is now available at IT Conversations, in case you were running out of podcasts in which people talk exclusively about podcasting.
Podcasting News reports of a new advertising network for podcasters and videocasters called CastFire.
From the CastiFre web site:
"CastFire is developing inventories of leading content producers and pioneering advertisers who work together to develop this new method of content distribution. The power of audio and portable mp3 players is the ability to listen to content any time, any place, and as many times as desired. As technology progresses (and exists today with the PlayStation® Portable by Sony), videocasting will take lead in enabling consumers the ability to watch what they choose, when they choose."
This one seems to have come out of left field: Infinity, one of the major American radio networks, has reformatted an "underperforming" station in San Francisco... to play podcasts. KYOURADIO will launch on May 16th.
So much to say. I have to give credit to Infinity for experimenting with a format that not only can't be controlled by them, but didn't exist a year ago. The AP article admits they have little to lose by tapping a money-losing station for this, but it's still more newsworthy than the daily story about another local station's conversion to the Jack format ("It's like your iPod, on shuffle"). The article does note that Infinity itself is not in the best of shape, being the source of a nearly $11 billion chargeoff by its parent company, Viacom, so it's probably an auspicious occasion to start shaking things up.
There's been talk about selling satellite radio on the idea of an all-podcast channel, but in my opinion this is actually bigger news: a big, entrenched radio network, the kind most music podcasters started their shows to get away from, just took the bait. Let's just see if we can boat this bass. The implications of podcasts on the open airwaves, with the potential for lots of local flavor, is more empowering for more podcasters than having a handful of folks getting smashed somewhere between the French Chansons and Schnauzer Talk channels on satellite.
I wonder what radio DJs are thinking as they read this news. Is it realistic to lock unpaid podcasters with non-broadcast-quality equipment into regular shows, challenging the paradigm of the live studio jock and/or news room? Are we going to be held up as a bogeyman used to further limit the role of on-air talent at the station? Or are we seeing the beginnings of a hybridization, where the talent is a free agent, and the line between who is a podcaster and who is a DJ is blurred, or obliterated?
Days like this, it's fun to prognosticate. I thought I'd see news like this in two or three years, but not nearly so soon as this.
In their own words, the INA is an international trade organization "dedicated to accelerating the growth of commercial Internet radio and Nanocasting (commercial podcasting) and to promoting the necessary self-regulation required for the industry to stably expand."
What it looks like is a group marketing their own organization to promote a five-city conference tour designed to train people on how to become professional podcasters or what they call nanocasters. The conference series, Moving from Podcasting to Nanocasting," is sponsored by Guerilla Marketing International and Jack Street Media, the same two companies that are founders of the INA.
Further, nanocasting is a trademarked name owned by Errol Smith, founder of Jack Street. In essence, they are forming an organization to promote their trademarked term. And they want members to support this effort.
Dig a bit more and you see the roots of the relationship between these two companies.
Jay Conrad Levinson writes the popular Guerilla Marketing books and works as a consultant. And Erroll Smith is the founder of Jack Street Media and now director of the Guerilla Marketing Radio Network. He is an Emmy award winner. No doubt, two smart marketing guys seeing a huge opportunity with the podboom.
What it looks like is two companies doing some fancy marketing to pull in people looking to make a buck out of podcasting. And in the meantime, using the organization to create a membership that they can market back their products and services. Yes, they are smart marketers. But, how does this strike you?
Two things are certain. Podcasting sure is capturing people's imagination. And marketer's are seeing gold flowing from the wallets of dreamers.
Radio elder statesmen Bob and Tom announced that they will be podcasting as of May 9th. Their comedy show, all four hours of every weekday, will be available to their "VIP" members, who pay $55 a year for outtakes and archives of their show.
Two notes on this announcement: first, being a comedy-based show, they'll get to dodge a lot of the gray areas of podcast licensing, because they'll be dealing mostly in their own original content. That makes it a smart move. Second, they have another advantage most commercial radio shows don't have, which is an existing revenue model and distribution system. With five million listeners, they won't need to convert many to make this a profitable move. And while $50 to $60 a year is a bit hard to swallow for an hour or two a week of this or that, it's pretty reasonable for twenty hours a week of original content. Smart move.
The Star Trek Enterprise podcast is an audio commentary from an April 22 Star Trek Enterprise episode. Episode writer Mike Sussman and Tim Gaskill, the site's ediorial director, recorded the podcast prior to the show, publicizing it on the web site on April 21.
What they are doing looks to take podcasting beyond just doing an audio recording. Instead, they are taking a page from the remix culture. They are using podcasts to comment on Star Trek Enterprise episodes that they ask people to tape or record with TiVo. The idea is for people to listen to commentary (mp3 or stream) from the writer while they are watching the television programming that the viewer has taped.
Now, think of the implications. We can all do recordings of our favorite TV shows, providing our own commentary. We can then ask people to tape the shows and listen to what we have to say about the show. We could do the same thing for films or better yet, presidential press conferences, local television news, etc.
And what if each TV show episode had its own podcast, featuring running commentary of the weekly show?
Here's how they describe it at the Star Trek web site:
How it Works
To get the maximum benefit out of your podcast experience, we suggest you take the following steps:
1. Tape or TiVo the episode on UPN this Friday night (please check your local listings for time). We encourage you to watch the episode first...
2. Then download the commentary in either MP3, QuickTime or Windows Media format. Click here for the audio commentary.
3. Replay the episode and simultaneously listen to the commentary, either on your computer or digital media player. We provide cues for the ad breaks, so you should be able to follow along with the episode.
If you have a podcast application, use the following address to subscribe to our podcast feed:
The third episode of the Corante podcast is now available. In this show (actually recorded twice, so you know it's good), we talk about the birth of a medium, the licensing issues that remain in podcasting (with a possible solution), and start looking for copies of the first podcasts, in our own little digital history project. (For those who are waiting for an RSS feed with enclosures: fear not, gentle reader. We are working on a permanent podcast feed, and we'll close the loop on that very soon.)
"The reason podcasting is so attractive is because it empowers anyone
with the smallest of means to share a passion with the whole world.
In my opinion, the most successful podcasts will be the ones that
provide something not already being offered. So, why would
potential listeners - many already disenchanted with the standard
commercial Radio offerings - want to subscribe to a podcast that
duplicates what's already there.
For the same reason Satellite Radio is finding its audience, so will
podcasts. You love wine? There's a podcast about it. You love
travel? Carpentry? Insect Life? Stamp collecting? Someone is going
to want to share that passion. Talking costs you nothing. Sharing
your own music costs you nothing. Interviews cost you nothing.
Advice costs you nothing. Using any audio in the public domain costs
you nothing.
The real subjects NOT being addressed on Radio, public or otherwise,
that people want to hear and learn more about are most likely not
necessarily music-based or at least don't have to use copyrighted
music to garner an audience.
Yes, it poses a problem for podcasters who want to have a weekly
show highlighting their favorite metal band's music - but - if
that's truly your passion, then you will have to be willing to go
along with the current copyright law when and as it's enforced or
operate as a renegade and hope you don't get sued.
What excites me the most about podcasting is the potential for
variety as never experienced before. This is podcasting's forte and
should be exploited to its fullest.
The second Corante podcast is now available. Alex Williams and I talk in more detail about music licensing, listening to podcasts in the car, and how in the future, we may each have our own broadcast radio station.
This one is posted quite a bit late, so listen quickly, because Corante Podcast #3 is coming Thursday evening.
Podguests.com is a service started by Corey Deitz. The sevice helps podcasters find guests. Experts may use the service to connect with podcasters as guests for their shows.
Looks like part of their business model is to charge people to register.
Word, via Steve Rubel, that there's a book on podcasting by Todd Cochrane on the way. From Amazon: "Written by one of the first and most popular podcasters, Podcasting is the complete do it yourself guide that will have readers not only finding, downloading and listening to podcasts, but creating and broadcasting their own..."
Tod Maffin reports that the BBC will be expanding its podcast offerings from a small handful of weekly shows to as many as 20 more shows, including interviews from its Today show on BBC Radio 4. Combined with the launch yesterday of its Creative Archive site, this is a fair indicator that the Beeb is happily adopting new technology that extends the effective reach and shelf life of the content they control. Good show.
Kurt Hanson reports in his RAIN newsletter that "ASCAP seems to have completely removed any specific references to podcasts from the descriptions of the new (webcasting) licenses." Looks like we're back to square one on the music licensing front.
Marc Eisenstadt, a neighbor here at Corante, tips us off to the latest news from the team that's chronicling, via podcasts, their attempt to climb Everest.
Steve Gillmor on podcasting, the "syndisphere, and more
Steve Gillmor, in commentary on recent trends: "I’ve been constrained by NDA and negotiations from discussing podcasting too much in the months since I shelved the Gillmor Gang. But the notion that podcasting is an inefficient use of time, vulnerable to its inability to be skimmed, and no threat to the broadcast incumbents–feh. Just as the Syndisphere is upending print and online publishing, so is it taking on the rest of the media. No, it’s not destroying MSM. It is the new MSM. The users are in control, have been for months. The incumbents are burning up the emailosphere trying to corral this beast..."
Three former British radio personalities are taking their acts online, according to a Guardian article. The jocks will be podcasting top-40, jazz and classical charts, along with a morning show, to be distributed on PodShows.com (not to be confused with Adam Curry's PodShow.com, mind).
Just don't expect the extended dance remix. In a sop to the record labels, no more than 60% of any given song will be played. Instead, links will be provided to purchase and download complete tracks.
This deal highlights a big question mark when it comes to music podcasts: just who, if anyone, does the customer think is providing value worth spending a dollar or so per show? Being well-known DJs gives them an advantage over the average bedroom podcaster offering shows for free. But is it worth a buck or two every day to listen to your old morning show guy play three-fifths of a few songs? Trailblazers of the broadcast-as-download model will need to do some deep thinking on that one: people are neither used to paying the DJ nor listening to their music in fractions.
From their press release today: "iPressroom... has added podcasting functionality to their application. The expanded capabilities are available to all organizations that currently use iPressroom to power their online media centers."
Eric Rice did a podcast, announcing a real-time Tsunami Alert Service that is launching here in Oregon. I wonder how RSS with audio enclosures could be used to notify people, especially those who are responsible for getting people evacuated. Could there be an automatic, subscription-based service that automatically posts an alert? I'd see this as most important for law enforcement as the alert would probably get lost in the tide of incoming data that people consume through their RSS feeds.
Our first Corante Podcast is now available. Please excuse our dust, as we're in the midst of setting up our host, and experimenting with Skype. We'll have a podcast feed shortly.
Topics:
Licensing
Major League Baseball: is it safe to call balls and strikes?
Reports Denise Howell, next door at Corante's Between Lawyers blog: "Adam Curry is testing beta podcasting software that PodShow eventually will be offering for Windows. Among other things, it sounds like it will encode the ID3 tags without fuss or muss for the user..."
A few weeks ago, David Janes and David McCarthy put out a press release promoting their new all-in-one podcasting / podcatching tool. I was skeptical but took some time to interview the two Davids and found a couple of guys who seem very committed and capable of delivering a podcasting tool that's easy to use. You can try the tool for free, but with $5, a web browser and a microphone you can be podcasting in minutes. (MP3)
There are a few subjects in podcasting that will always invite discussion. Chief among them, at this point in time, is licensing of music for use in a podcast. Usually, that topic is enough to create a lot of heat, but not a lot of light. The first thing that people need to know is that you do need a license (or licenses) to play almost all of the music found in your CD collections in a podcast.
What we don't know, because of the misfit nature of the podcast medium, is how much we owe, and to whom. There are various scenarios under which pretty much everyone involved in creating music has a claim to a royalty payment in connection with a podcast. What follows is an explanation of each of those royalty schemes.
iPodlounge interviews Ev Williams, formerly of Blogger and then Google and now of Odeo. Says Ev: "I don't think audio is necessarily a natural progression for most bloggers... Moreso, I think different people are attracted to different mediums. We're hearing from a lot of people who tried blogging and didn't necessarily take to it who are very excited about podcasting."
Feedburner has raised $7 million. Who is smoking the podcast dope? Heh. It looks like the VC's. Either that or they see podcasting for what it is: a bona fide movement that is turning our conceptions of the media and how we communicate in society as personal media machines.
From a press release that just came across the transom: "WNYC, New York Public Radio today announced its launch of 'Podcasting @ WNYC,' a special web feature dedicated to helping listeners navigate the landscape of this rapidly growing technology... 'Podcasting @ WNYC' will provide visitors with quick access to the podcasts the station offers, as well as a simple "how-to" guide that de-mystifies the process..." More here...
Paris Hilton is podcasting. The world's most overexposed socialite will be talking about the media junket surrounding her new movie, "House of Wax". I know you're thinking what I'm thinking: will she use a breakout box with a condenser mic, or just a USB headset? The podcasting public wants to know.
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
