Is podcasting the latest subject of media hype, or will it become the audio equivalent of the online blog? That’s the question posed in The Economist’s – Intelligent Life (Summer 2005, p93).
Adam Curry is quoted as the ‘father of podcasting’, and his ‘Daily Source Code’ has 95,000 subscribers. And there is considerable excitement around the potential for growth – new research from The Diffusion Group (TDG) quoted by BBC News claims a US audience alone of 56 million by 2010. And that’s before you take into account Apple’s latest release of iTunes which includes a directory of 3,000 shows.
But the Economist article goes on to suggest that commercial interests will win out – and the commercial potential of podcasting will be exploited. On a small scale it highlights the Lascivious Biddies, a four woman band from New York, who let the audience join them backstage in their ‘Biddycast’. “The band was inspired to podcast when guest-appearances on other podcasts quintupled their album sales.”
At the other end of the scale I’ve already highlighted the growing interest of mainstream media – and my own employer, the BBC, has started trials of podcasting established programmes - my article here, and details of BBC trial here.
However, Charles Arthur writing in the Independent, takes a much more measured view – highlighting the shortcomings of the Podcast format:
“Podcasts take contend and put it into a form which can’t be indexed by search engines or be speed-read, and which you can’t hyperlink to (or from). A podcast sits proud of the flat expanse of the internet like a poppy in a field.”
So – a niche form of distribution for radio? An democratisation of broadcast media which will allow much more choice of programming? A fad which will be exploited by mainstream media? The Economist article asks: “Will big new players squash the eccentric vitality of the small-scale podcasters who started it all?”
Matt
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