...in Ireland. Yes it's true. Frank from The Overnightscape reported to me earlier today that one of my podcasts was at #93 on the Irish version of iTunes. Hell, I didn't know there were different versions of iTunes. He sent over a screen shot which appeared to display my Welcome To The Beehive podcast in the 93rd spot on the list. Just to be sure I fired up my wife's computer and checked it out. Yes! I am in the top 100 in Ireland. I also checked a couple of other countries. The same podcast is #97 in Denmark. I have a European following. A tour must be in the offing.

Well, probably not. But I appreciate the listenership and this has certainly put a little wind in my sails. So no matter what Greg Lindsay says, indie podcasters may be starting to get a little down, but we're certainly not out.

Mike Dunn from Nomadic Audio calls people like Greg Lindsay knee jerkoffs. According to Linday's assessment, based on a recent Washington Post article, independent podcasting is soooo over. Apple has joined the fray flying the flag for corporate and big media podcasts and Mr. Lindsay thinks that signals the death knell for the little guy. Perhaps he's right. That would definitely be the pessimist's view of things.

Now I know that Apple is doing their best to kill "indie" podcasts, and I don't include podcasts funded by Adam Curry in that group. Corporate big media types would just die if actually citizens took over the creation and distribution of rich media. So they'll do anything to stem the tide, including enlisting naysayer trolls like Greg Lindsay to try to put down the rebellion. Sorry folks, this indie (and doomed for failure because of that?) podcaster is sticking it out in the land of the big trees.

If you're considering picking up the mic and publishing a podcast then please do so. Try it out, mess it up, hone your craft then take your shot at big media. There will always be major channels for indie podcasts even if Apple is leaving them for dead. If you're already podcasting then keep on keepin on. If you want to make a business out of it then study all the principles of a good business and apply them to what you're doing. You're not guaranteed success (who is?) but you'll never know until you try.

I'll quote a line from a Doors song that always comes to mind when I hear things like this, "They've got the guns. We've got the numbers."


Columnist Greg Lindsay trashes podcasting...: "

Columnist Greg Lindsay trashes podcasting by the people.

"

Ice Rocket, yet another search engine, has added a free RSS feed generation service. The service is web based and allows you to very simply create an RSS feed, but not a blog. This could be a good tool for folks who don't want to have a blog site but do want to get into podcasting. Inexplicably, the RSS generator does not support enclosures. How hard would it be to add a field for the enclosure and generate the tag? Oh well, they're just throwing Feedburner another bone it seems. If you add a link to an MP3 file somewhere in your RSS and then point Feedburner (with the SmartCast feature selected) at your RSS it should work just fine for podcasting.

Great news here. I just popped on to my Our Media page this morning to find that they've added RSS 2.0 and mRSS feeds for all of my media files. This means that you can upload content for free AND podcast. That's excellent. So if you use Audacity to record and Our Media for hosting, you can podcast for free! Even better, video enclosures are supported as well. If you don't have an Our Media account yet, get your a$$ over there and get started.

Democratization of media indeed!

This looks like an interesting one. A self service podcast promo exchange. They claim to have some kind of java plug in that allows insertion of the promo without editing your mp3 files. Hmmmm. The details are located here. Sounds like a very interesting technology. It could be used to automate the production of entire shows by inserting random (or selected) clips. I think that the folks at Dailysonic are using something like this to insert ads into their shows.

Kiptronic Website

...is live. Adam Curry has finally gotten his Podsafe Music Network up and running. I checked it ouw today. It's designed to be a place where podcast producers can list music podcasts and get podsafe music to use in their 'casts. It's also a place for artists to submit their music to be heard and/or used by podcasters. I tried it out on the producer side by getting my Alley Cuts show listed on the site. I think that you can see the listing here.

My early assessment is that this is a lot more helpful to musical artists than it is to podcasters. I mean that in the sense that the artists really need the exposure more than podcaster do. Just my opinion. As a producer I don't think I'll use it much since I really value that one to one connection with the artists that I'm featuring on my site. Picking up a random track and inserting it into my show or feed doesn't appeal to me. Still, I recommend that music podcasters get listed here as it is the first directory specifically for music podcasts.

Podcasting: Can This New Medium Make Money? - Knowledge@Wharton: "Podcasting: Can This New Medium Make Money? is provided by Knowledge@Wharton, an online resource that offers the latest business insights, information, and research from a variety of sources. Content includes analysis of current business trends, interviews with industry leaders and Wharton faculty, articles based on the most recent business research, book reviews, conference and seminar reports, and links to other websites."

The Wharton Business School weighs in on podcasting. A pretty generic analysis without any revelations. Of course they quote the Pew Internet Report. Doesn't everyone? And they ask the question that everyone else is asking, "Is there a business here?" Of course there's a business, but people need to stop thinking about "podcasting" as the focus and start thinking about the delivery of information and entertainment.

Podcasting - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com

Mark Cuban, founder of Broadcast.com which he later sold to Yahoo! for billions, has some opinions on podcasting.

One opinion is:"Creating your own podcast and trying to make a business out of it is a mistake. Unless you are repurposing content from another medium, it will be rare to find anyone making money from originating podcasts."

The piece as a whole intelligently written, unlike some recent analysis on the world of podcasting. Still, who is Mark Cuban to tell someone that trying to create original content for commercial purposes is a mistake? As a business man who's made a bundle by taking risks on new technologies, he should appreciate the possibilities afforded to the average media producer via podcasting. Sure, 99% of people won't be able to quit their day jobs to become internet superstars. But I think it's highly possible that someone who's committed enough to delivering content while speaking to the wider audience of the world, might just be able to make a living being a podcast host.

Here's to all the folks who disregard Cuban's advice and give it their best shot.

For those of you who haven't heard, Virgin Atlantic has started podcasting city guides to various destinations where they travel to around the world. New York was first up. Of course, I listened intently to some of the audio "guides" and really wasn't impressed by the content. Neville Hobson of The Hobson and Holtz Report commented on the audio guides in their podcast #46. I replied with a text comment and then decided to re-listen to the guides just to make sure that I wasn't being too harsh. On the second listen I realized that I liked the Virgin Atlantic audio guides even less. So I put together a pretty long audio content (about 11 min.) and sent it over to Neville and his podcast partner Shel Holtz. They've been nice enough to include the entire comment in their current show, For Immediate Release #48.

On another note, Neville happened to be traveling through London on the day of the bombing there and luckily he made it home safely. Neville did take the time to record some audio comments about his experiences on the day of the bombing so I thought it would be worthwhile to link to that post as well. Glad to hear you made it home safely Neville.

LibSyn, the coolest podcasting host on the planet has added another helpful feature to their already nice list of services for podcasters. They have a configuration page that allows users to designate the proper iTunes information for their podcast feed.

Even though some folks like Dave Winer criticize Feedburner for "locking people in", I continue to find their service to be a valuable resource for podcasting. They've added functionality that properly tags RSS feeds for iTunes, which will insure that my podcast feeds have the proper elements and a nice image when they show up in the iTunes software. It's a pity that Apple didn't build this option in for podcast producers.

They allow you to add a category, subcategory, description and image url to your feed. This service is available to people who utilize Feedburner's Smart Cast service to power their podcast feeds. You can read more about it here.

Dailysonic Blog » iTunes 4.9 Issues: "Evidently there are a lot of podcasts that are having problems with Apple’s iTunes 4.9. We’re one of them."

Dailysonic has issues with the way iTunes is delivering podcasts. It seems that Apple is caching content on their own servers and then delivering it to listeners. Oh, that's so wrong. Content producers want and need to know how many people are subscribing, especially if they are exploring revenue models for their content. Odeo tried this at one point and got their hand spanked by some users. Apple needs to correct this post haste. The question is, will they correct it?

MacDevCenter.com: Inside Odeo with Evan Williams: "Odeo is the podcasting service from Noah Glass and Evan Williams (creator of Blogger.com). Here's an inside look at Odeo, as described by Williams himself."

An interview with Evan Williams and he talks about Odeo's recording features and expected revenue model. I think they're on the right track.