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.
Neville Hobson illustrates the impact the release of iTunes 4.9 is already having on "For Immediate Release", the podcast he and Shel Holtz produce, by noting its prominence in the stats of their hosting solution.
On Monday, I was presenting at a conference and Shel Holtz of the For Immediate Release podcast came up prior to the session to share some magic words that absolutely thrilled me:
I was simply ecstatic for the rest of the day, and I'm still feeling pretty good. I realize that for many readers of this blog, the idea of getting so jazzed about one fan might be odd, but for me it is terribly exciting. Before Shel introduced himself, I was reasonably certain that only my friends were listening to my podcast. When I told my friends about the encounter, they teased me a bit, but only because they know how much making this connection means to me.
Actually meeting someone who enjoys my podcast but doesn't know me personally is a source of great validation, a real endorsement of the show and what it's about. I love podcasting and I want to spend more time on it, and so I'm trying to incorporate it into my consulting business. Knowing that the show has at least one fan (and perhaps others) creates a new impetus to accelerate that process. Thanks Shel!
So my question to you is this: how did you feel when you first discovered that you and your podcast have fans? As your fan base has grown, has your thinking about your fans changed at all? What responsibility do you feel toward your fans? I look forward to the conversation.
Jake Tapper interviews Steve Jobs on the ABCNews site, with a focus on podcasting and iTunes. One thing is for sure: if you ask Steve a question, there's a high probability that the answer will begin, "Well, you know..."
While everyone was busy checking to see that their podcast is in the iTunes directory (mine's not. All that bribery for nothing. hmph.), Apple had more news that speaks to the pod in podcasting.
All new large-capacity iPods are now iPod Photos. A 20GB iPod Photo is now available for $299, with the 60GB down to $399. (If you follow Apple's RSS instructions properly, you may even get your logo to come up on those cute little displays.) The 1GB iPod Shuffle has also dropped to $129, which leads one to wonder if a price drop on the iPod mini is in the near future.
In addition, college students who buy an iMac, iBook or PowerBook will get an iPod mini for free in the bundle. I am so ignoring this, having bought a new PowerBook yesterday when I could have bought one with my wife's college ID today...
Apple released iTunes 4.9 with podcast capabilities today.
The basics:
* Apple is initially is offering 3,000 podcasts that people can listen to through iTunes
* Shows include those from: ABC News, Adam Curry, BBC, Clear Channel, The Dawn and Drew Show, Disney, Engadget, ESPN, Newsweek and NPR member stations such as KCRW in Los Angeles and WGBH in Boston.
"iTunes enables anyone to quickly and easily find and subscribe to their favorite Podcasts so that every time there's a new episode, it's automatically downloaded to their Mac® or PC and Auto-Synced to their iPod. iTunes also makes it easy to manage multiple Podcast subscriptions with simple organization and display by episode and date. Starting today, iPods will offer an easy to use Podcast menu, including bookmarking within a Podcast and the ability to display color Podcast artwork."
"Online lifestyle community MySpace.com has expanded the kinds of exclusive content it offers its members.
Among the new features unavailable elsewhere are a podcast by Foo Fighters and a personal blog maintained by Smashing Pumpkins founder Billy Corgan.
In the Foo Fighters podcast, founding member Dave Grohl plays clips as he relates the making of the new two-disc set "In Your Honor," which is currently No. 2 on the U.S. pop charts. The downloadable audio is offered with streams of the first single and other items of interest to fans.
"Podcasting is probably more hype than people are using it, particularly since the majority is talk radio or bad talent, but it's a good fit for MySpace because of the personal connection," MySpace.com CEO Chris DeWolfe said."
"In launching the guides at virginatlantic.com/podcast, the firm is also making available a branded, downloadable pice of software called Podcatcher.
The four guides include a look at the "10 coolest restaurants", an insider's guide to shopping, a guide to the quirky side of the city and the 10 best things to do for the first-time visitor.
The Podcatcher and host site have been created by UK-based software firm Loudish with content sourcing, development and editing handled by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and Manning Gottlieb OMD."
"In launching the guides at virginatlantic.com/podcast, the firm is also making available a branded, downloadable pice of software called Podcatcher.
The four guides include a look at the "10 coolest restaurants", an insider's guide to shopping, a guide to the quirky side of the city and the 10 best things to do for the first-time visitor.
The Podcatcher and host site have been created by UK-based software firm Loudish with content sourcing, development and editing handled by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and Manning Gottlieb OMD."
I had the chance to interview Chris Pirillo just after the close of Gnomedex 5. It's a 15-minute chat about the show itself, memorable moments, and how conferences have changed since COMDEX.
"Called FeedStation, the new Podcast receiver will download audio and video files automatically to your favorite portable media player. Both NewsGator and FeedDemon will support the new Podcast audio and video files and let you store the content to your iPod, or any other portable media device that uses Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes."
IE 7.0 is being shown for the first time at Gnomedex right now. RSS is built into the browser. The theme, as explained by Dean Hachamovitch, is making it easy.
Highlights:
* Simple RSS subscription
* Talking about podcasting:
Dean says podcasting is more about "feeds of content": audio, music, photos, videos, calendar events, contacts, documents.
This is interesting. They are consciously moving away from the term podcasting.
"Buoyed by the success of its "Phone Tap" podcast downloads on WHTZ-FM, Clear Channel's Top 40 station in New York, the company announced Thursday it will expand its portfolio of podcast feeds. The accelerated rollout will offer nearly 20 new podcasts of popular on-air content from 12 more stations, with an additional 10 expected to launch later this week. "
After a trial launch which FMQB calls "wildly successful," Clear Channel has announced it is accelerating its jump into podcasting. They'll add twelve more stations to their podcasting roster, in addition to ten which are scheduled to launch within a few days.
The first trial was with Z-100 in New York, and CC reports 20,500 hits on their "Phone Tap" segment from their podcast feed, streaming and one-off downloads in the first two weeks.
Here's the biggest difference in this year's Gnomedex. There are a lot of microphones out there. And video cameras, too. John Hartman is sititng next to me. He's podcasting. He is videoblogging.
In the front row, Steve Garfiled has his camera pointed on Dave Winer who is about to begin his keynote, discussing OPML.
Rob Greenlee of WebTalk Radio is talking into his microphone.
Chris Pirillo announced that everyone is free to cast, podcast, videoblog, etc.
The wi-fi is a bit sketchy. But, hey, there are a lot of podcasters here. Please don't upload/download is the request from Chris.
Dave is talking. I have to go. He's talking about looking out at the crowd and for him, he says, it is like doing a podcast. Instead of looking out at the ocean, he is looking out at the minds of the blogosphere and the podcastosphere.
His quote I like: "Podcasts are like unconferences."
Odeo co-founder Evan Williams is interviewed in Playlist magazine. Included are Odeo screenshots, strategy, and a bit about his talk at Supernova this week.
Who made BadApple? It's a plug in for iTunes 4.9 made by BadFruit that turns the Apple iTunes software into a downloading podcast machine.
The BadApple news comes as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced recently that Apple iTunes 4.9 will support podcasting. Apple is reported to be a few weeks ahead of schedule and are evangelizing their support for podcasting. Jobs even goes as far to call podcasting the hottest thing in radio.
But who is behind BadApple? No one has fessed up. But behind it is some pretty sophisticated programming that is causing some to speculate that this is not some lone hacker making a play.
"At this point, there is no official indication of BadFruit's origin. But a handful of signs seem to link the site to MP3Tunes.com, the online song store opened a few months ago by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson.
Log files created by the software indicate that it talks to a server hosted by MP3Tunes. Code inside the software package, once downloaded, also show links to MP3Tunes.
The privacy policies displayed by MP3Tunes.com and BadFruit are also identical in almost every way, with details such as the name of the company and the name of the service changed. BadFruit's terms of use say that any legal actions concerning the software should be taken in San Diego County, where Robertson's companies are based. "
So, who madeBadApple? What does it mean for Apple? What is the next move? Is it a legal one?
On today's Daily Source Code, Adam Curry hints that iTunes 4.9, with podcast functionality, will arrive "within the next two weeks, probably. Maybe even less than that." He notes that 38 million desktops have iTunes today, and they'll all get nudged to upgrade. (I think that means more listeners. Don't you?)
In addition, Curry adds that Apple is introducing a new XML namespace ("pod:") into the RSS 2.0 mix, allowing some more advanced tagging than what is available now. They will allow podcasters to opt out of the iTunes Music Store, an "explicit" tag, and a few others.
What I would really love is for that namespace to allow bookmarking. It'd be nice to have a music podcast with track markings, all within a single MP3. (And maybe links to purchase the track? Just a thought, Apple.)
Pennyslvania's Senate Republicans are offering a weekly podcast. I wonder about politician's interest in podcasting. Thes podcasts seem more like the well-scripted radio addresses that elected representatives often do. If a Republican caucus is podcasting, whose goal it is to achieve their objectives on state legislation, then questions will surface about their authenticity. How should politcians use podcasting? How do our views change about DIY media when that technology is being used by politicians to achieve some form of power?
A few weeks ago I published an interview with Mike Torres about MSN Spaces over at Feedfest. We talked for a while about MSN Spaces policy about censorship. I thought it might be of interest now that MSN is reported to be censoring Chinese bloggers.
A note: One commenter had a bit of an issue with my interview style. The style had a lot to do with the problems of the recording cutting out. We had thought the service was not hearing me talk and automatically stopped the recording. To ty and solve the problem, I used the interview style of agreeing, saying "mm-hmm," etc. Well, I am still having the issue with the recording dropping out. So, on to other tests to try and make this work.
A question: Do you have a method that works well for recording phone calls? Looks like I am going to have to give Skype a go.
MarketWatch: "BadFruit Inc. has released software that turns iTunes, the online music store run by Apple Computer Corp., into a podcast downloading machine." More here...
AppleInsider reports that iTunes 4.9 is ahead of schedule with plans for a high profile technology launch.
On May 22, Steve Jobs said in his keynote address that iTunes 4.9 would be available in 60 days. Now, it appears that the launch will be sometime in late June or early July, about three weeks ahead of schedule.
There have been reports this week of iTunes forays into the podosphere. It's obvious these guys are going into high gear.
Now, here is what I find most interesting from the article. The company is taking a three-tier approach to simplifying podcasting:
Here's a recap. Check out the article for the full report.
Recap:
* Apple is developing a user-friendly "Podcasts" area in its iTunes Music Store that will closely resemble the existing "Audiobooks" store.
* Apple is tying trying to simplify the process of locating relevant Podcasts.
* Apple is simplifying categories, finding that the iPodder.org directory is too complex for the average user.
Plus...
* Aple is reaching out to all kinds of players to produce podcasts, including television stations, radio stations and motion picture studios.
Here's an Odeo screen shot. Folks are jumping up and down about Odeo. They're in the media stream, so to speak. And they seem to be a lightning rod, too.
Todd Cochrane claimed that Odeo was creating custom RSS feeds, amounting to a podcast hijack.
Showing how sensitive they are to this sort of furor in the podcast world, the folks at Odeo quickly responded.
That shows a lot. They're listening. But Cochrane makes a good point in his follow up post. He says that people should be more concerned about this practice.
Re-directing RSS feeds is a hot issue. Dave Winer has been critical of Feedburner for creating custom feeds from the original feeds people provide when using the Feedburner service.
Recently, Feedburner developed a redirect method. Here is excerpt from their June 10 blog:
"So, beginning today, we're providing a detailed service for publishers who choose to leave FeedBurner. When you delete your FeedBurner feed, we have added an option to redirect your feed. If you select this, we begin a one month process of transitioning your subscribers back to your source feed. This is the interesting part; because of the very different capabilities of the different feed readers, we have to take a few different approaches."
As more business interests get into podcasting, look for this issue to keep showing itself. People will be sensitive about keeping their feed address as it will be a measure of traffic and a factor in brand awareness. And for many folks, that RSS feed is a sign of identity.
This seems to be the big issue that will hit us over the next few months. As the big guns emerge, services like Odeo will be portals for podcasts. Who will get the brand attention?
Will the services essentially swallow up any recognition for the independents? And if they do, what does that mean for the long term vitality of this fresh and vibrant form of radio?
A CNET article explores some of the efforts underway to reach some accord in what music can be played in a podcast.
Brian Ibbott, who does the podcast show Coverville, is quoted extensively in the article. He is currently involved in the negotiating with the Recording Industry Association of America.
From the article:
"If the most important part is to ensure that the songs they broadcast aren't used as substitutes for purchased music, podcasters could agree to use a format that doesn't provide CD-quality music, such as 128-kilobyte-per-second MP3s, Ibbott said. They could also wrap their podcasts in some kind of copy protection as a condition of using music legally."
The Diffusion Group is forecasting that podcasting users will reach 60 million by 2010. The press release does not state how The Diffusion Group come to that figure. Instead, they state that the demand or time-shifted digital audio files or podcasts is expected to grow from less than 15 percent of portable digital music player owners in 2004 to 75 percent by 2010.
The report is definitely designed for a corporate audience, trying to get their heads around podcasting. Check out the link to the report and you'll see why. The price tag for the report is a hefty $1,495.
Here aresome more of their findings:
"Podcasting: Fact, Fiction and Opportunity," suggests that between 2004 and 2010, the use of podcasting among U.S. consumers will enjoy a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 101%."
What is fueling the podcasting growth? According to Marc Freedman, contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group, it is the discovery of time-shifting by consumers. People understand that they can liusten to their programs when they want and how they want.
According to the press release:
"Consumers were already accustomed to downloading music for playback on portable devices – this is a well-engrained activity that precedes online digital music," said Freedman. "However, the downloading of online 'audio blogs' for portable on-demand consumption is certainly new. Yes, the roots of podcasting lie in non-commercial amateur blogging, but podcasting's non-commercial status is changing as more businesses begin to find creative ways to use this new delivery medium to push audio content."
In a few years, perhaps we'll ask a similar question when the podcasts start hitting a volume pace: Where do all the iTunes podcasts come from? If the math shows that very few songs on an iPod are from the iTunes music store, than what chances are there that any tiny percentage of podcasts will be from some iTunes equivalent?
There won't be 60 million podcasts that have been purchased. There may not even be an iTunes service that allows you to charge for a podcast. And even if there is, most podcasts won't cost a dime. So, where will they come from? How many podcasts will people have on their iPods that they have purchased?
Here's an excerpt from the Gear Live web site where the iPod math quetion is discussed:
"While talking with Tiffiniy Cheng of Participatory Culture earlier today for our next Gear Live Podcast, she mentioned the website put out by them called iTunes Per iPod. Essentially, it aims to show that while many people walk around with iPods filled to the brim with their favorite tracks, barely any of them are from the iTunes Music Store. Granted, the data is a bit outdated as it is from April 2004, I think it is safe to say that the data probably hasn’t changed all that much. Based on their calculations, in April 2004, if you divided the number of songs sold on iTunes by the number of iPods out there, you would find an average of 21 iTunes songs per iPod. Now I understand that many people rip CD’s that they have purchased legally to their computers as well, and this accounts for a percentage of the music on iPods - but I will go out on a limb and say that is a small percentage as well. Gotta love Bittorrent."
The smallest iPod holds 1,000 songs. The largers ones hold 10,000 songs. There is plenty of room for podcasts that feature the spoken word.
So, I ask again, where will the podcasts come from? How many of those podcasts will be ones that people have purchased?
Just listened to a podcast at hypecasting, featurng the innermost thoughts of Dakota Fanning.
I wondered what this might be about. Would it be funny? Well, I laughed. Satire and comedy just seem to work in podcasting.
Hypecasting, which sharply describes itself in its tagline: "...Podcasting The Knife Right Into Hollywood's Lazy Heart," is the offspring of MovieJuice, written by Mark Ramsey, a comedian and satirist.
A taste of hypecasting:
'What are the innermost secret thoughts of Dakota Fanning, star of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds?
I don't think even she knows, but listen for yourself and find out!"
When a big new phenomenon comes around, the idea and the implementations naturally diverge. New ideas attach around the core, attempting to extend or in some cases co-opt the original idea's meaning. Some, like "nanocasting," don't stick. But others may, and after a fashion, people need to step back and arrive at the gestalt of the situation: a complete definition of the landscape evoked by a term.
And so, we come to that moment of collective introspection. Podcasting has to mean something. But what?
In addition to being a topic of discussion within several podcasting hangouts, now comes Microsoft ur-blogger Robert Scoble. He and a colleague are debating what, exactly, can be called a podcast. Can it be video? If not, what if the iPod supports video in the future? Would that change the definition down the road?
Here's my attempt at the unified theory: use "podcast" as an adjective.
If you listen to Staccato, my music show, you'll find that I never refer to it as a podcast, full stop. It's always a show. "Podcast" to me refers to a specific mechanism for transferring the data: namely, the RSS 2.0 <enclosure> element. (The Atom <link> element is also acceptable -- and more flexible.) As long as it's pointed to in an RSS or Atom feed, "podcast" is good enough for me.
Well, almost. You still have to know what the payload is. Is it a podcast talk show? A podcast soundseeing tour? A podcast videoblog? All of the nouns here function without "podcast" as a modifier. It's only when podcast is used by itself that confusion results.
To resolve that confusion, here's what I suggest as the minimum criteria for using "podcast" as a noun:
Content is delivered via RSS or Atom feed.
Content is in MP3 format.
In other words, when Rush Limbaugh calls himself "the hottest thing in podcasting," he's wrong. Rush, like the other Premiere Radio hosts, do release MP3s -- but using a proprietary interface. Allowing this kind of thing to be called a "podcast" weakens the brand, because it takes control away from the user. Imagine having to download a different program for each podcast show you subscribe to. It's a nightmare scenario for users. If they get away with co-opting our term of art, we're looking at a vastly different landscape -- one that independent podcasters will easily be shut out of.
What if the document is in another format? That is, what if Microsoft wants to release WMA files rather than MP3s? Well, I would make that clear right on the link: "WMA Podcast". It's a given that MP3 Just Works in all existing podcatching systems. Other formats lead to complexity, and that leads to user confusion, which leads to dissatisfaction, depression, Prozac and death. (Okay, just dissatisfaction. But that's bad enough.) If it's not a given that users will be able to do what they desire with the file, including playing it on the device they have, that should be expressed beforehand.
It seems like a petty thing to be bringing up at this stage, but we have to be clear what we're talking about here, because everyone who learns what a podcast is becomes a potential listener. If they can't trust the term, they'll be turned off before they even turn on. Let's see some consistency in our terms before we lose all control.
Greg Narain, next door at Get Real, discusses the implications of the debut of Del.icio.us' multimedia tagging: "...All we need to do now, really, is start to register our podcasts with del.icio.us and provide tags that are relevant to the conversation had. Now we're getting topical views of the podcasting space..."
The new podcasting services, like the just launched Podblaze, reminds me of all-in-one packages that have emerged with other DIY media.
They offer templates, unique urls, uploading of logos, etc. And they are hosted by the service provider.
The idea is to make DIY media easier for people who want to visit a web site, register and have the everything there for them to podcast, write a blog, whatever the DIY media may be.
Podcasting is now in that stage where a host of DIY platforms are emerging. They'll continue to pop up. Odeo is getting a lot of attention. I often use Audioblog.com. BlogMatrix Sparks offers a service to share videos and podcasts.
They're worth trying. I'd like to hear how people view these platforms. Have you tried any of them? What do you think?
I talked with Eric Rice recently who said that podcasting reminds him of pirate radio back in its day.
I get a picture of what Eric was talking about when listening to Tim read from Carpenter's book. Carpenter sounds like a podcaster at heart. She wants to broadcast the indie music that she loves.
From Publisher's Weekly in a review of the book:
"But her frank, often funny narrative is easily absorbed, and the story's a good one: one woman quitting a humdrum receptionist job to flout the law by filling the airwaves with the indie rock she loves, music she believes the monolithic Clear Channels of the world aren't playing."
Tim does a good job in his read. It's worth the listen.
Heh. Makes me think. Perhaps I should get a parrot, a patch for my eye and call myself a paarrrrrrrdcaster.
Last week on the Yahoo podcasters group, there was an extremely passionate discussion (complete with name calling) of profanity in podcasting and how it can be screened by listeners who prefer to avoid it themselves or want to keep it away from their kids. At the moment, of course, there isn't a way to screen for profanity short of listening to the podcasts. Some group members advocated a voluntary ratings system, while others recoiled at the suggestion. A key question is who gets to decide what is or isn't profane and by what cultural standard, an extremely relevant matter given podcasting's global reach.
The energy and, in some cases, the anger in these postings reveals this issue to be something of a possible fault line in the podcasting world. On one side, are the podcasters and listeners who will not tolerate any encroachment of the right to free speech under any circumstances. On the other side, are the podcasters and listeners who have a range of concerns about our present inability to easily identify explicit or prurient content. From my perspective, both sides have important things to say. I'm convinced, however, there must be a common sense solution somewhere in between the polar positions. If you have thoughts on this topic, please post a comment.
But there is an even more fundamental inquiry I'd like to pose here: what is the role of profanity in podcasting?Do we need to curse to demonstrate our fidelity to free speech?What is the point at which our defiant acts against the FCC will cease to be purposeful, and we will just become garbage mouths in the eyes (and ears) of our listeners? I know I'm probably messing with the bull here, so I'll be prepared!
KCRW, the Southern California public radio outlet which has been podcasting its original programming for a couple months now, has announced that their podcasts will be sponsored by SoCal Lexus dealers starting on October 31st. Reports that KCRW hosts each received an LX450 in the deal could not be confirmed.
Tod Maffin of CBC and I Love Radio reports that music licensing will be based on where you're hosted. That is, if you're Canadian, and you're hosted in the United States, you'll have to license from ASCAP and BMI rather than Canada's SOCAN agency. The coverage will be Web-wide.
What Todd says here is evidence that someone, somewhere is not just thinking about this stuff at the performing rights organizations, but coordinating with others. This is a good thing, to be sure. However, unless I've missed something, nobody from the record labels or Harry Fox has signed off as yet, so we're still looking at around $600 (US or Canadian) per year to license the performances, and what's behind Door Number Three for the master and reproduction rights on each track. And so it goes.
Right now, I'm wondering who will be the first offshore podcaster. That kind of thing has quite a history in the analog world.
In the last few days, I (Jeff) received a copy of Todd Cochrane's new book, Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide, published by Wiley as part of its ExtremeTech series. I requested the book from the publisher so that I could review for readers of this blog from my non-techie POV. I will post my review by the end of the month.
The Podcast Hotel is teaming with MusicFest NW, a music festival here in Portland, featuring 250 bands over three days.
So, it looks like this could work out well. The Podcast Hotel will go Sept. 6-7, running into MusicFest NW, which starts Sept. 8 and runs through the weekend, ending Sept. 10.
Part of my interest in all of this is the music angle. It's where Corante is experimenting a bit so it seems appropriate to be there and teach musicians what podcasting and videoblogging is all about. The idea is to do workshops for the musicians during MusicFest NW. We'll be doing workshops with kids, too, teaching them about podcasting so they can extend the remix that is such a part of their lives. We're talking about podcasting some of the shows. Jam sessions that we podcast would be cool, too. We'll interview musicians and muse about where all of this podcasting talk is taking us.
I have to thank Mark Zusman, editor and publisher of Willamette Week, Portland's Pulitzer prize winning weekly newspaper. MusicFest NW is a Willamette Week event.
I had put a call into Mark earlier this spring. Zusman had orchestrated Willamette Week's winning the Pulitzer this year.
Us Portland folks just beamed when Willamette Week won the big prize. Better yet, it's the first Pulitzer for a story that broke online. The story dealt with a nasty bit of history dealing with former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt. Willamette Week covered the story like no one else and came away with the prize.
Mark listened to what we were doing and asked if we would be interested in changing the date for the Podcast Hotel so it would run around the same dates as MusicFest NW.
It made sense. We had thought about changing the dates. A lot of reasons for making the decision but teaming with MusicFest NW helped make up my mind that this was the way to go.
So, we'll have more to say about all of this in the coming weeks.
A thread at the Yahoo! podcasting group last week posed a question to explore:
What will Microsoft call podcasting?
Blogcasting?
Microcasting?
Will they accept the term podcasting even if it is so associated with Apple? Seems hard to believe that they would.
Podcasting is now pretty much accepted. It caught. It also fit with something cool, the iPod, a minimalist little white box, that people treat as if it is magic.
So, what do you think Microsoft will call podcasting? Why?
Check out the continued growth of podcasting in this chart from Feedburner.
Feedburner reports that they now have 60,000 feeds, of which 6,000 are podcasts.
Other highlights of the Feedburner report:
* Podcasts managed by Feedburner have an average of 33 subscribers, up from an average of 15 in February. Discounting the number of podcasts with less than five subscribers, the average number of subscribers per podcast is in the neighborhbood of 65 listeners.
* Feedburber says that hundreds of podcasts have more than 100 subscribers.
From Feedburner about podcasts and the long-tail effect:
"As we noted in our first podcasting report in February, a typical "long tail" is developing. Granted, these are still very small numbers we are talking about when contrasted with other media, but considering the wealth of additional podcasting tools and services about to come to market, both podcast production and subscription will undoubtedly become easier. So, an order of magnitude leap in attention in just a few months is exciting."
Dennis Kennedy, a nextdoor neighbor here at Corante, in a lengthy post entitled iPods and Time-shifting: Fair Use, Personal Use and the Digital Copyright Morass: "I’ve lately started to feel, as have others, that there is a certain common sense approach to the use of digital copyrighted materials that (1) reflects our normal expectations about what we should be able to do with a copyrighted work just to use it in ordinary ways that do not seem to hurt the author of the work and (2) recognizes that the more we try to stretch the notion of fair use to cover these normal uses, the more we risk fracturing the protections that the fair use doctrine does provide."
In his keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference, Steve Jobs called podcasting the hottest thing in radio.
According to the AP:
"Jobs previewed iTunes version 4.9. The software allows users to click on and subscribe to different podcasts, then automatically delivers the shows to any connected iPod — far less cumbersome than the third-party applications many listeners now need.
The newest iTunes will include a directory of podcasts, and creators will be able to register their shows with Apple's iTunes Music Store.
"We think it's going to take podcasting mainstream, to where anyone can do it," Jobs told the gathering of software developers."
Audio Graphics, a Chagrin Falls, Ohio company that provides advertising services for terrestrial radio stations and their advertisers, apparently doesn't believe that the podcasting phenomenon will last. Here are a couple of paragraphs from a recent posting:
Podcasts, the good ones, will probably be those supported with corporate marketing dollars. Radio shows which can be downloaded at a later time will show up as marketable in very few cases. Maybe the top show in each of the top twenty-five markets will have a shot at putting podcasts up and generating revenue.
As for the remaining ocean of programs, they're drifting around bouyed up with wishes based on a "build it and they will come" philosophy. Most podcasts won't last beyond when their hosts' egos get deflated.
Notwithstanding the company's obvious bias, I'm wondering how this blog's readers would describe the current state of podcasting. Is it still on its upward trajectory or will it soon level off? Is podcasting hype becoming overblown and in danger of compromising the medium's promise? As some podcasts and podcasters move toward and into the mainstream, will the broader universe of podcasters benefit or be left behind?
I know that our reflexive response to criticism from terrestrial radio types is to blast them for not getting it. But, in this case, I think a reflective response is a better choice. It's useful to take stock, especially with new developments coming on almost a daily basis. So, in your view, where does podcasting stand right now?
Infinity and Clear Channel have both announced this week that they are adding to their existing offerings. Infinity, of KYOUradio fame, is planning to offer free news podcasts from its stations in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, and two outlets each in New York and Los Angeles. WINS in New York will be first, in mid-July.
Meanwhile, Clear Channel starts repurposing segments of Phone Tap from its Morning Zoo show in New York, along with 15-second spots. CC's Premiere Radio Networks subsidiary has also added Dr. Laura, Jim Rome, and four other talk shows to the pay-podcast genre, alongside Rush Limbaugh, whose podcast feed went live today.
Note that all of these offerings are the networks' original content. The big guns here, like the little podcasters, seem to be waiting with bated breath for a legal means of playing music on podcasts. The question that follows is: what's taking the various licensing agencies so long to come up with an answer?
Today, my fellow flannel-wearing, soy-latte-sipping Seattleites have published an RSS feed of Sub Pop music, the contents of which are available, at least for now, for podcasting:
While we're unable to give you blanket permission to use any ole song you want from our catalog, you may incorporate any of the songs that are freely available as MP3s in the multimedia section of this website http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/multimedia.php into your podcasts. HOWEVER, we do reserve the right to change our mind about the availability of any song for any reason at any time. Fickle, no?
Cheeky. But this looks like good news to me: a well-known label offering their promotional tracks as podsafe. Dean Hudson, Sub Pop's new media guy, had already gotten the religion when we talked at the SXSW podcasting session. Kudos to him and the label for diving in.
The race to podcast is escalating among broadcasters with both Clear Channel and Infinity announcing new efforts to make their programs available in the increasingly popular podcasting format.
According to Billboard Monitor, Clear Channel will repurpose programs from its morning shows and making it available as podcasts.
Infinity, meanwhile, announced it is planning to podcast nine all news stations.
Clear Channel's efforts are far more gingerly than Infinity. Starting June 6, Clear Channel will offer podcasts of their morning pranks they do on New York's Z100.
According to Billboard:
"Evan Harrison, senior VP of online music & radio (for ClearChannel), says educating listeners and taking small steps are part of the company’s podcasting strategy. “I want to build the knowledge base of what we’re doing first and start with premium content in shorter segments,” he tells Billboard Radio Monitor. “Podcasting has more confusion than any of the latest buzz fads. There’s been exponential amounts of press” but limited available content."
Last I checked, more than 860 podcasts have been submitted to KYOU. That's a pretty fair number of submissions. It looks like Clear Channel will take a different approach, looking more to its programming than that from the podcast community.
Infinity will podcast nine news stations, lead by 1010 WINS in New York City.
According to Billboard Monitor:
Infinity will offer free daily podcasts from its nine news stations, with flagship WINS (1010 Wins) New York set to lead the way in July.
The podcasts, which will vary in length, will include local and national news, sports, business and entertainment headlines, as well as weather and traffic updates, plus content developed exclusively for download.
"Thunderbird already supports RSS feeds as they are commonly utilised by blogs, but a new patch will deal with Podcast-type content by opening a dialog box through which the user can summon a helper application such as a Web browser or audio player."
I saw this post at antimusic.com, talking about The Transfer, a band that is pushing their new independent release "Romantics & Addicts." The press release claims that the first single "Down With Everything" is now getting hundreds of plays on podcast and internet radio stations alike.
I guess podcasters now operate their own stations? Funny how language is used to fit podcasting/blogging into old media terminology.
Are more bands starting to use podcasts to promote their music? Know of any good examples?
Via Dave Winer: Tod Maffin reports that "CBC Radio, Canada's public broadcaster, is in the process of developing a weekly on-air program about the blogosphere and podcast community, using the voices of audio bloggers and podcasters."
I listened to the Gillmor Gang Monday night and heard Adam Curry talk about his conversations with Steve Jobs about podcasting. Striking is how much Apple seems to get it. Podcasting fits into the DIY decade of self-expression, which increasingly seems to be the theme of Apple's product ecosystem.
Now it looks as if Microsoft is getting into the podcasting game. I see (via Steve Rubel and the Seattle PI) that Microsoft is putting together a podcasting team. Scoble made the hint on his blog.
"It was like 15 minutes after it showed up in the Wall Street Journal when Microsoft called, saying, 'Hey, how do we get in this?' I don't know a lot about Microsoft. I do see they're a lot hungrier company than they used to be. But every single time you talk to them about anything that's new, or in this case iPodder functionality inside Windows Media Player, the almost standard answer is, 'Yeah we're going to have a lot of that in Longhorn.' That to me means there is this huge steamboat that is very difficult to steer left or right, and it's just harder to get stuff done at Microsoft."
That was the main point I gleaned from what Curry and the other guests said on the Gillmor Gang. It's not that the work can't be done. It's just that people need to make decisions to get the work done.
In the end, the ultimate difference may be who embraces the DIY culture most. And so far, Apple seems to be winning the race to embrace. Microsoft is talking a lot about Longhorn. But it is still a top-down, horns locked operating system. Let's be clear that Apple does not have an open environment. And in defense of Microsoft, the company has taken to the open nature of blogging. But if you look at the product lines of the two companies, the differences are clear. The iPod and iTunes products are like magic swords, giving people the semblance of freedom to cut through the controls, obstructions and emptiness of sterotypical, top-down media. Their embrace of podcasting is just another magic weapon they are creating for those who seek strength in the freedom to express and absorb themselves with digital technology. Microsoft provides DIY tools, too. But their real strength is in the corporations, where their operating system dominates the enterprise.
Somehow, Apple has turned the iPod and iTunes ino mythic weapons that people see as hip. And in the process, they have aligned themselves with DIY youth culture, who live in the remix world.
No doubt, there are shades of grey. But I leave with a few questions:
Is the future of podcasting really not about the DIY culture that Apple embraces? Is it broader? And if so, how will Microsoft achieve the zeitgeist that Apple so increasingly seems to possess?
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
Here's a sketch that Tod says he received from a "mole," in the group. 
Here's an 
There won't be 60 million podcasts that have been purchased. There may not even be an iTunes service that allows you to charge for a podcast. And even if there is, most podcasts won't cost a dime. So, where will they come from? How many podcasts will people have on their iPods that they have purchased?
