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Podcasting
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DawnTreader
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I’ve started this topic to provide a place for iPod enthusiasts to discuss the new phenomenon call Podcasting. I’ve been watching the emergence of Podcasting and I’m surprised how quickly it has evolved into a cultural and social trend.
Does Podcasting really have the potential to transform “radio”?
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Not sure about transforming radio per se, but it will certainly be a part of what we have traditionally thought of as radio going forward.
Podcasting is yet another democratizing force in information disbursal. It allows anyone to make a radio show, of sorts, whether or not the quality is “professional,” and share it with anyone in the world.
What’s most interesting, of course, is the fact that this same thing has been possible for many years through the Internet as we knew it.
The difference is the iPod, which has become this cultural force. There are more people listening to music (and now podcasts) than there has been in years, and this means that the Internet can be harnessed for delivering this content to your iPod instead of the Web being the vehicle.
As Steve Jobs said, it’s about the music, stupid. I think this applies to podcasting, too.
That’s a fascinating concept, IMNHO.
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This is another case of Apple leading the way where other tech leaders have failed to create a compelling and user friendly solution.
My guess is Podcasts are so popular because of the freedom they give both Podcast creators as their listeners. It’ll probably change radio as the dull, grey, commercial product it has become too. Once again it was Apple that saw the potential and made it easy to subscribe to podcasts.
Skipping commercials, listening where, when and how you want it. The iPod users are in control.
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DawnTreader
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Oddly, for a company that many think has expensive products versus their competition, Apple has found yet another avenue to success with an egalitarian ideal such as Podcasting.
Not unlike the the first Macintosh which made computing easier for millions of people.
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When I first heard about podcasting I was less them impressed because it, as Bryan mentioned, had been possible for years. Then when iTunes started supporting podcasts I listened to a few and thought “those are the only podcasts I will ever listen to”. Now I am subscribed to about 40 of them and listen daily.
When more commercial radio programs become available in their entirety you will start to see podcasting replace broadcasting as we know it. Since I got my first iPod (when they were first introduced) I have stopped listening to traditional radio content almost completely. Now with podcasting I listen to so many new things that I never even knew about, much less thought I would ever enjoy.
I can’t wait for NPR, Clear Channel, XM radio, or someone else, to start providing 100% of their broadcast content as podcasts. I also believe people would be willing to pay to download (subscribe to) radio programs such as Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, or ESPN Sports. I can see a decent business model where content providers give free or ad based content and provide paid access to vast archives of content that will build up quickly.
DawnTreader you mentioned something in another thread about not seeing companies besides Apple that stand to make money off podcasts, don’t forget about the bandwidth and hard drive space (for archives) it will take to provide a moderately successful podcast. Internet hosting companies, storage/bandwidth providers, Google (if they wanted to) stand to make tons of money by providing services to the podcasters themselves.
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- Gavin (DrShakagee)
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/me starts a hosting company
“ItsaPodcast - For all your podcasting needs”
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I think that theres still gonna be those people that are scared of new things, like people still running Windows 9x(or even just running Windows in general
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Paradigm shift
This definitely changes radio as we know it. Much like the “new media” of blogs, websites, e-mail, listserves, etc has changed the way news and entertainment are distributed and consumed, podcasting will do the same for radio. Internet has allowed for a level of media “specialization” that was impossible before the mid-1990s and the same is true here. We all thought it was the recording industry that would suffer as the age of digital music dawned…as it turns out, broadcast radio may be the real casualty.
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AndyWoodall
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I am now about to gush about podcasting. Podcasting is keeping me sane. I moved to France a year ago, and while it has been a fantastic experience so far, despite being only an hour and half by plane from home, it can feel a little lonely sometimes. French tv borders on the terrible, to just plain boring, and the music on the radio is even worse than the music on the radio back home.
Then, last month, despite reading about it a couple of months before, I noticed that the latest iTunes supported it. A friend of mine had said check out podcasting as there was an Audio Commentary for some episdes of the new Battlestar Galactica series, so I went away and hunted.
I couldn’t believe what I had discovered, I regularly listen to the BBC Radio online (annoying through realaudio) and although thats good, this is even better. I can get my favourite film critic’s weekly review, an short daily overview of the Today Programme, and all other sorts of stuff, and take it with my on my iPod or listen at leisure in my living room.
What a great invention, I may be a little slow, but I’m still enjoying it.
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[quote author=“Spider”]/me starts a hosting company
“ItsaPodcast - For all your podcasting needs”
http://www.thevoicebooth.com/podcasting/index.htm
We’re in the middle of a general election here, and all the leading political parties have been doing the podcasting thang.
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Laurie Fleming - the singing geek
@LaurieFleming
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[quote author=“Andy Woodall”]French tv borders on the terrible, to just plain boring, and the music on the radio is even worse than the music on the radio back home.
I second that.
Tell you what, you need cable TV. I subscribe to Noos, and at least I get CNN, BBC, CNBC, BBC Prime, and some movie channels that you can watch in english.
