Podcast: Time-shifted radio listening gets a new name
iPodder software is effective tool at completing last few feet to iPod mp3 player and iTunes.

By Rob Greenlee, co-host of WebTalk Radio

Oct 23, 2004 - The recent buzz around Podcasting is a remarkable example of how pent-up demand for easily time-shifted listening or spoken-word audio content can be released by the coining of a long needed catchy name.

The other interesting thing about the newly coined term "Podcast" is its connection to the iPod player which is still dominating the market share of the overall mp3 player market for now, but that could change as many new mp3 players come on the market this fall. The iPodder software is a simple yet effective tool for completing the last few feet of the delivery of media files to a mobile device like an iPod.

We are only seeing the very beginning of this time-shifting of audio movement. The truth is that most of this Podcasting news is new “old news” as many radio shows like WebTalk and KenRadio have been offering mp3 downloads for years.

The content pioneers of downloadable spoken word content are Audible.com and KenRadio.com as they have been offering content for many years. It is interesting that neither of these pioneers offers RSS enclosure feeds at present (except KenRadio.com via DownloadRadio.org). Podcasting is just not that popular yet, but that is changing fast. We still need better software and user interface.

The leading Adam Curry, iPodder.org inspired iPodder software is the best one so far and it can be downloaded for free in version 1.0. It was actually created by a team of developers: Erik de Jonge (dev) Andrew Grumet (dev/gui), Martijn Venrooy (design/gui), Perica Zivkovic (dev) and Garth T Kidd (dev).

While I am a supporter of the Podcasting trend and have an active feed, it is good that we finally have a name for time-shifted radio. I have struggled to come up with a good name to describe time-shifted radio. Some have complained that naming all this as a podcast is too limiting as many millions of smart phones and other music players are on the verge of flooding the world market. I would never have thought of Podcasting for spoken word audio listening as iPods are so focused on music.

Regular mp3 players in many types of devices seems the true market for time-shifting talk radio shows. The concept of delivering these mp3's directly to the mp3 players and Pocket PC's is also being done by AudioFeast.com, Microsoft Sync n' Go and Audible.com.

The question is how content will be differentiated in this new Podcast marketplace? Will it be based on quality? What defines quality? Does quality mean professionally produced or is reality radio going to be embraced as popular. Will successful content in the Podcasting market be entertaining or informational? It may need to be infotainment to be popular. Listen to a discussion on this with Doug Kaye of ITConversations and me.

It also seems like independent music with creative commons licenses will factor in podcasting rise to fame and popularity because it is all so open and developed in an open source software development environment.

I am just not convinced that very many bloggers talking into his or her laptop microphone will gain enough much of an audience. Just like what has happened with weblogs and personal webpages, large numbers of podcasters will publish content and some will gain a strong foothold on audience numbers, but most will not. The ones that gain a significant distribution will also get a big bandwidth bill as most podcasts consume large quantities of bandwidth.

Podcasting is just like old-fashioned broadcast radio and will need online link syndication to develop very quickly as increasing distribution will become very important to podcasters trying to sell advertising.

 Podcasting is still very geeky for end users and will need better software and content guides before it will hit the mainstream. The current iPodder software is currently available in Windows, Mac, Linux and Pocket PC operating systems.

We will see Podcaster aggregation sites like DownloadRadio.org, iPodder.org Directory, Podcast.net Directory will help people discover new Podcasters. Even a Live Top 100 Podcast list is available.

WebTalk is starting to change as a result of Podcasting as it seems like we will need to add more entertainment and independent creative commons licensed music to be competitive and cutting edge. Even creative CD case art work is being made to support podcast content, see this CD cover art for a recent Wil Wheaton's "Just A Geek" book performance presentation that is being delivered via podcasting.

Here are a few others writing about podcasting and some it is hype and others are objective anti-hype about podcast weaknesses. Here they all are: Rory Blyth of the Neopoleon.com's weblog post "Podcasting - Let's chat", Engadget's How-To: Podcasting, Slashdot's discussion on podcasting.

Related WebTalk Article:

Getting to the heart of the podcast vs. webcast
by Rob Greenlee, Host WebTalk Radio (10.26.2004)

AMAZED AT THE LACK OF WEBCAST META DATA

After nearly six years of making webcast radio shows, I have been consistently inserting meta data into all my audio files and have been shocked at how many other audio and even video content creators do not take the time to insert complete meta data.

I have been thinking about wide-spread online distribution for WebTalk. This has meant using every tool in my kit.

I have felt for years that the day will come when search of audio files will become important and those that built archives of content with inserted meta data will benefit when Google decides to index online audio files.

I have been seeing benefits from sites like Seattle’s Singingfish.com that is now owned by AOL. Singingfish is the largest audio and video search engine on the net. WebTalk is extensively indexed today by Singingfish and those search results are currently showing up in Windows Media Player and the RealOne player.

With the growth of webcasting because of the recent podcasting craze many more content providers are coming online. Very good podcasters like Dave Slusher's Evil Genius Chronicles and Adam Curry's Daily Source Code show are not being found yet in the Singingfish audio search engine.

Podcasters have the opportunity to expand distribution by using online syndication techniques like website marketers have been doing for years and getting links from as many places on the net as possible. RSS distribution is great but it is only going to scratch the surface for a year or more.

Meta data is today very important to all webcasters and podcasters as they develop show archives. Now and in the future getting your content found, whether you are using mp3's, wma's or rm's will be important.

The meta data file storage capacity does vary between formats. Native mp3's have the smallest amount of space, but some tools exist to expand this capacity to include even full transcripts and images. All you need to do is download Mp3 Tag Tools v1.2.008.

The other major hurdle is monetization of these podcasts and webcasts. My vision is that commercial free downloads of very high quality content will be via paid subscription in the future. I am seeing trends pointing to this all around me. Now I must admit that this recent upstart called podcasting may push this back a few months. This subscription based downloads was started by Audible.com years ago and now we have seen new audio download service AudioFeast launch with a subscription model.

I think we will see the cream of the webcast and podcasting content make this transition to paid downloads, but most will maintain some sample version available for a fee with commercial ad support at some level. P2P technology like Bit Torrent will also enable low cost delivery of these downloadable webcasts and podcasts that will help keep subscription rates low, but all will need to stream to mobile devices as wireless Internet radio grows. Not everyone will want to download.

Rob Greenlee is host of the WebTalkGuys Radio Show, a Tacoma-based nationally syndicated radio and webcast show featuring technology news and interviews.