Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting
Who will become the "go-to" source for podcasts?
This afternoon I found this article over at Yahoo! news which discusses, in part, just how podcasts may become profitable, and what a tremendous effect this will have on their popularity. As the article states, most podcasts these days are talk, as copyright laws have made it very difficult to legally include music. What's more is the fact that they don't necessarily generate a whole lot of income for the folks putting them together, as tracking the numer of listeners makes adjusting advertising dollars difficult (remember, number of downloads does not necessarily reflect number of listeners). More after the jump.In the meantime, the article continues, the race is on to become the go-to source for podcast content. Podcastalley.com and Podcast.net are already popular, and most recently Odeo.com has tossed its hat into the ring. Odeo lists podcast directories and even provides studio-quality sound tools for podcasters to use. Podcasters are encouraged to upload their shows, which are then categorized by genre, including arts, food, religion, sex, technology and so on.
Before you say, "But what about the iTunes Music Store as the definitive podcast source?", I'll answer that I'd certainly like that to happen, but right now there are, of course, more total web users than iTunes users. It would be interesting to know what percentage of podcasters/podcast subscribers are using iTunes to distribute/retrieve content.
In the meantime, Apple is lucky enough to have their product name built right in to the term "podcast," so perhaps they can become that source. One thing is for sure: I really like the path Apple has been taking lately. Cool, calculated and patient. That will win the game.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Harry Richman said 3:54PM on 7-18-2005
Out of 40 people suscribing to my Podcast, 39 are of iTunes...I assume to have lost the 5 who were subscribing before iTunes gave support (or they have switched to usin iTunes).
But I dont know if this is typical of the bigger Podcasts, eg. Adam Currey, Dawn and Drew, or the MacCast.
However, the Cinecast, which was fairly small before iTunes is now one of the biggest, so I assume they have a fairly high proportion of iTunes users.
(one slightly un-related thing is that iTunes seems to have made it so much easier to subscribe and unsubscribe that people are subscribing and unsubscribing much more then before)
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Matt said 9:20PM on 7-18-2005
Ummm...I'm definitely in that article, right under (Matt Galligan)...wow...this is awesome...yahoo... :D
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Andrew Kaufmann said 7:45AM on 7-19-2005
iTunes has a nice head start, but I don't think that means they've won. If the other sites innovate and push the envelope, they could gain some big market share. We're still early enough in the adoption cycle that no one has "won" yet. Odeo allowing you to upload your podcast? That means you don't have to use your own bandwidth for the podcast. That's a big selling point.
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