Podcasting - An Introduction
Andy Headington - 29th June 2005
The iPod has been one of the biggest technology breakthroughs in recent years and its popularity has spawned the latest Internet phenomenon - Podcasting. This article aims to define what Podcasting is, how it works and how you can benefit from it.
What is Podcasting?
To put it simply, Podcasting is a form of Internet broadcasting. In the same way Sky Plus and TiVo have empowered consumers to control television, Podcasting allows consumers to access the radio or music shows they want, wherever and whenever they want. Podcasting allows users to download MP3 audio files to their computer, or MP3 player and then listen to them at their convenience.
However, despite the name, Podcasting is not restricted to iPod users. As Podcasts are delivered in MP3 format, almost any player can be used to listen to a Podcast show be it a PC, personal MP3 player, even mobile phone, provided it supports the MP3 format. The growth in MP3 playing devices therefore makes listening to Podcasts as easy as listening to your favourite CDs.
How did it start?
Although Podcasting has been around for a couple of years it has only experienced recent success due to the maturity and growth of technologies such as RSS (definition: Really Simple Syndication), which makes content delivery and receivership extremely simple for the consumer, and the continued growth of the MP3 music format.
It is widely believed that Podcasting came about from an idea between former MTV VJ Adam Curry and RSS founder and developer Dave Winer. Although this view is partly correct (see "a brief introduction to Podcasting") the real growth can be attributed to the use of personal, and now business, blogs, which allow easy and widespread delivery of content.
As more people started to 'blog', technology became easier to use by inexperienced users and bandwidth levels got bigger. Bloggers soon realised that they could not only distribute the written word but also radio shows (be them professionally recorded or made on a home PC) to their subscribers.
Internet killed the radio stars?
MP3 is 'the' way to listen to your music in the 2005 (see MP3 player sales). The idea of sitting up late at night to record your favourite music show on tape or even your computer, now seems highly unlikely.
Radio, thanks to the likes of the ever impressive and improving BBC radio player, is now changing. People can now listen to their favourite shows from around the world live using their PC or listen to recorded versions of them and, in this age of user empowerment, it is now up to the listener to decide when and what they want to listen to (see listener figures on BBC radio player).
It's not really a surprise then that radio shows now need to find another way to reach their listeners, and the Podcast has become the most effective way to do this.
Could your business benefit from Podcasting?
More and more companies are starting to use Podcasts as a way to distribute their content, although the number worldwide is still very small. So why would you want to start using this new technology for your business?
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Accessible format
The MP3 format can be accessed and played by just about anyone; nearly all PC's no matter how old, have provision to play MP3. With Podcast-downloading-software, such as iPodder now supporting accessibility, blind or partially sighted users can now access information in new and exciting ways.
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Convenience
In the 21st century there has been an increasing shift towards a 24/7 society. People value their time and many demand to have information available to them on their terms.
By providing information to users so that they can listen to information when they want, you are not only increasing your audience reach (to those that would listen normally and those that wouldn't) which could gain you a unique competitive advantage.
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Large listener base
Sales of MP3 players have increased dramatically over the last few years and more devices are able to support MP3 playback (including mobile phones). This means that there is large, and growing, base of consumers with whom you can communicate with through Podcasts.
As with more traditional mediums, such as magazines, Podcasts have the potential to accumulate a large number of listeners over time. Using the same principles of viral marketing, it is safe to assume that if a listener enjoys a Podcast, they will pass it on to a friend or colleague whom they believe will appreciate it.
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Highly targeted
If a Podcast is about a specific topic, you will get specific listeners tuning in. This means you can provide highly targeted advertising to a captive audience.
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Opportunity for advertising
As Podcasting is an industry in its infancy, this could be a very inexpensive and cost effective method to reach your target audience.
As Podcasting can reach highly specific consumers in large numbers Podcasting may well be the future for audio advertising.
Potential Podcast pitfalls
Despite the ease of use and ability to listen to MP3 Podcasts whenever you wish, there are still a number of issues which could slow the adoption of Podcasting to the general public.
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Copyright of songs
Music privacy has been one of the most controversial subjects relating to the Internet over the last five years (it is estimated that music piracy is now worth over £3 billion per year). Recent years have seen a number of people and companies (such as Napster) prosecuted, and even sent to prison, for distributing music 'illegally' over the Internet.
Due to the ease of which Podcasts can be made, it will be hard to stop broadcasters from using copyrighted music (or even material) in their Podcasts. This has serious implications for the copyright profession and any company looking to protect their IP.
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File size
Currently Podcast shows tend to be an hour long so this has problems with file size (typically 50-80MB). Many users have inexpensive MP3 players which have limited capacity (such as 256MB or 512MB) fitting on more than three Podcasts can be a slight problem.
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Playback
Another issue with less sophisticated players is that they have limited playback options. Less sophisticated players only support playback and track selection, rarely the ability to forward tracks to a desired point. Although this means advertising can not be avoided, should you accidentally skip tracks towards the end of a Podcast, you will have to listen to the whole show again which can be very frustrating.
How do you start Podcasting?
Podcasting allows users to subscribe to the shows which they are interested in using technologies used in blogging tools. The steps needed to partake in a Podcast are as follows.
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Record a music show
This is fairly straight forward, as long as you have a microphone to record your voice and a computer which can convert the sounds you've recorded into MP3.
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Set up a blog
This can be easily achieved using any one of the number of free blog tools available (re. Adido's article on blogging). All you need to do is add your MP3 file you've created to your blog post
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Get people listening
So you've got your show recorded and available for download, now the hard work now begins! How do you get people to hear it? One of the best services to use is Liberated Syndication which is inexpensive service provider who distributes Podcasts to a wider audience and can host your Podcasts for you. Jake Ludingtons has a good starters guide to Podcast distribution.
Where can you get Podcasts from?
At the moment there are a wide variety of companies who are Podcasting on a wide variety of subjects from Internet marketing to entertainment. There are a number of places Podcast shows can be obtained from:
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The BBC have a selection of Podcasts for download
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Podcast directory mainly aimed towards the American market
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Podcasts from a variety of UK music stations such as Radio1, Radio2 and Talksport
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Another directory of Podcast shows from America
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Comprehensive Podcast listing covering American and UK radio shows
A more definitive Podcast directory list can be found at the LooseWire blog
Future of Podcasting and Podcasts
The future of Podcasting is still far from clear. Due to the use of blogs, which fuels podcasts, the growth of RSS has made the technology come along way in the last twelve months. Many modern companies from Firefox to the BBC to Yahoo (see MyYahoo for more), have made subscribing to RSS feeds very easy. Even Microsoft plan to have RSS support in the next version of Windows, code named Longhorn which should make RSS ubiquitous to most PC users. However, this will not be released until late 2006 and will mean that until that point, mass adoption from the general public remains unlikely.
Until a 'killer app' comes along from someone like iTunes (perhaps iTunes 4.9 will take Podcasting to the mainstream?), it is likely that the reach of Podcasting and Podcasts will remain limited to those in the know. However, until Podcasts become the norm, the young, modern, forward thinking users currently accessing Podcasts could prove a captive audience for marketing and advertising companies.
Time will undoubtedly tell.
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