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The Podcasting Challenge

So many issues with this article about how difficult podcasting is.

Clearly as Adam’s figures show, podcasts from the BBC and other radio stations are huge, in part because of the massive push they give their shows and their already huge audiences.

Adam argues that the majority of people make the connection between podcasts and the iPod, and its easy to understand why. When podcasts were being invented, they were initially just short audio attached to an RSS feed, all around 2004. It wasn’t until 2005 when Apple introduced the Podcast store in iTunes and listening to podcasts became more popular.

In today’s modern age, most people who listen to music use an iPod, and there are an estimated 100m-150m iPods in use in the UK according to The Guardian. But today, most of those are propably actually iPhones and iPod Touches, and that adds another component. iTunes is likely the most popular way to get podcasts on your device, which ties you to downloading podcasts on a single computer and syncing them to your device. But with the advent of the App Store, there are now a ton of great podcast clients on your mobile phone.

One of the most popular is Instacast. It has a built in podcast directory, or you can click any podcast link in a web browser to subscribe. The app will download all the new episodes for you, so you’re no longer tethered to one computer. And if you also use an iPod or iPad to listen to podcasts, your subscriptions and current playback positions are synced across devices with iCloud.

To address Adam’s list of ‘fixes’ :
• Apple doesn’t exert any rights over the term podcast. Its here to stay.
• There is a file format already. M4A is an enhanced AAC file that can include chapter markers for shows. But since its still just audio, why change from M4A and MP3. In fact a podcast can be any audio file in existence. You can put video and PDFs in a podcast feed too.
• Syncing podcasts isn’t the issue. Its getting them on your device to start with. See my point on the App Store. Even Google has its own Podcast client, Google Listen. As does BlackBerry
• Subscribe is an appropriate term. You can ‘subscribe’ to an ethos. Subscription doesn’t hold an inherent payment requirement.
• We already have a pcast:// URL scheme that can be used by any application to catch a podcast feed when its clicked. Instacast can use these, as does iTunes, although iTunes also offers an http URL that points to the page in the iTunes Podcast Directory.

Adam also addresses monetization. Ricky Gervais switched to a paid model for his second series of podcasts. For this, he released them as a series of audiobooks. iTunes does support authenticated RSS feeds too, meaning that as a creator, you could have a website signup and provide user details to all subscribers. That way you also get direct knowledge of who is subscribing and can get marketing feedback from it.
Many other creators go down the route of advertising, and that seems to be fine for people. For smaller creators, there is already a cost associated, with purchasing a domain name, web hosting, recording equipment, but it is very possible to do it for cheap, using Tumblr, FeedBurner or a combination of other free file hosting services.

Without going the route of the typical example, my mum, who is somewhat computer literate, was able to download and listen to the Chris Moyles podcasts without needing to call me at all. Which is quite a shock given previous history.

Finally, I don’t understand why he goes on to mention NFC, Near Field Communication, as I can’t see how that could have any relevance to the availability of podcasts to listeners. Unless he is suggesting a podcast purchase terminal you can walk up to and wave your phone at, i don’t see how NFC is relevant at all. Paypal has some relevance. In fact I have just become a member at ShawnBlanc.net, and pay him $3 a month via a Paypal subscription to support him writing full time, and for his podcast. The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab also have an online premium subscription of $25 for 6 months access to their premium shows. All done with existing payment systems.

Realistically, podcast applications on smart phones, which already exist, and perhaps need more awareness, are the key to podcast popularity growing. Since these are often the devices you use to listen, when walking, on your daily commute, in the car, at the gym, that is where we need to see the growth. And you can always listen live to some of the bigger shows.