Mike Dunn of Nomadic Audio correctly pointed out in May that AudioFeast was heading in the wrong direction. Their DRM heavy business model was destined to be a loser. AudioFeast must have listened because they took their site down for a while so they could retool and focus on podcasts. Their new site has resurfaced and it looks like they're on the wrong track once again. For starters, the site functionality doesn't support Mozilla which may have a small share of the browser market but is likely a popular browser among tech saavy web surfers. If that wasn't bad enough, their new podcast lineup contains zero music and exciting content from the likes of The Weather Channel and Consumer Reports. Finally, no RSS feeds to be found anywhere on the site. You must download the AudioFeast Podcast Agent in order to listen or subscribe. Good grief.

Oh and someone should tell them that the word 'begin' is not spelled begn...

For the past two weeks I've been checking out a piece of software called Ziepod. Ziepod is a podcast aggregator/player that allows you stream and rate podcast episodes as well as allowing you to do the traditional download thing. The software, currently for Windows boxes only, also allows you to get a peek at the show notes prior to deciding whether or not you want to stream or download the episode. Adding podcasts is easy and you can search for relevant shows right in the Ziepod client via integration with a service called Feedzie. Listening is pretty cool too since the application can take up to four form factors from a sliver of a player to a full screen application. So far I've been enjoying streaming the podcasts using Ziepod as I'm loathe to automatically download all that media to my hard drive. Give it a try for yourself and let me know what you think.

Something's up with the Podcast Hotel event that I mentioned here two months ago. Corante is no longer involved and Alex Williams is no longer their director of events. Alex has taken over the conference and is running the show with an "unconference" philosophy and a heavy focus on music in podcasting. I like it. Meanwhile Corante is still planning a conference on "the business of podcasting" for Q1 2006. Isn't music a business? Seems like there's more of a story here than is being told, but that's always the case with a breakup.

According to Adam Curry's partner in PodShow, their handful of podcasts have 3 to 4 million listeners. This clown's name is Ron Bloom and he appears to have lost his mind after ingesting the $8.5 million forked over by the suckers at Kleiner, Perkins and WebVan. The claim is made on the video located here during an interview given to CBS Marketwatch. Sorry folks, but there's no way that their podcasts have that many listeners. If he's not full of s@#t then let them back it up with some hard facts. Interestingly enough, later in the interview they say that their goal is to have 1 million listeners. Well which is it? Do you have 3 to 4 million listeners or is your goal to reach 1 million listeners? People who are really into podcasting should beware of clowns like this who exaggerate figures and excel in silicon valley double speak. In the long run, they'll make the people who actually care about creating great content look bad.

Is it too early to be tired of certain things related to podcasting? Maybe for some people but not for me. Here's what bothers me as of today.

• Husband/Wife or Boy/Girl podcasts. There are too many Dawn and Drew clones out there. They get two mikes together and talk dirty. Great stuff if you're a 14 year old who loves to hear foul language and sex jokes. I don't even like D&D so this trend is doubly annoying.
• Half cocked attempts at promoting some sort of podcasting related business. You know what I'm talking about. Some butt head puts out a free press release stating they've revolutionized podcasting or something like that. Then when you actually check it out, it's a complete joke. Simply annoying.
• Rob Costlow, Brother Love and that Podcast Song EVERYWHERE! First off, let me say that I was the first podcaster to feature Brother Love's music. I've also podcasted Rob Costlow. I've got no problem with any of these musicians. I do have a problem with the fact that so many podcasters have chosen to feature these cuts over the last few weeks. Can't people be original and search for other music instead of skimming tracks off the top of the Podsafe Music Network. There are plenty of other talented podsafe artists to play. Sadly, podcasting is treating music more like the traditional media does all the time.

I've got a few other gripes, but those are the big ones. You may not agree with me and that's cool. Just felt like I needed to speak my mind at this time.

***UPDATE***

Oh yeah, one more thing. I've had it with the Cafe Press crowd selling t-shirts hats and mugs with their podcast logos. Aren't there enough useless items of clothing in the world? I don't know why I'm so sensitive to this but I am. Selling t-shirts, hats and cups with the logo of some uploaded .jpg file does not constitute a business model. In fact it seems like a cheap way of making a buck. How many quality bloggers do you see selling this kind of stuff? None that I know of. Note to podcasters: If you really want to sell something, try adding value instead of taking the most obvious approach to a dollar. Your listeners will appreciate you for it.

Read it and weep folks. Podcasting has reached the highest office in the land. President Bush's weekly radio addresses are now available via podcast. It looks like the feed has all the radio addresses since the beginning of the year. This is a perfect use of the medium and I give the White House credit for adopting a medium that makes it easier for people to hear message's from the country's leadership.

Web Page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/
RSS Feed: http://www.whitehouse.gov/rss/radioaddress.xml

Word on the street is that Podshow and Odeo have received funding from VC's in the millions of dollars range. I wonder what the PodShow folks are planning outside of their PodSquad and Podsafe Music Network. Odeo has shown a little leg but I have a feeling that they have a few more tricks up their sleeve.

Remember folks, money is a guarantee of nothing. You need to have innovative people who bring original ideas to the table. Those people then need to have the business and technicals skills to make it happen in an elegant way that effectively serves their clients. Remember Web Van? They had huge amounts of funding but they also had an unrealistic plan. Remember insert dot com name here? All those companies had big funding but that didn't make them successful.

Get ready to party like it's 1999...

And there will be plenty of suckers who submit applications for the CBS Podcaster Search. Oh people are thrilled. They say, "I can be a podcasting star and interview celebrities." "I'll be rich. I'll be famous. I'll be the official CBS podcaster." Wait a minute now. Have you read the rules?

If you win, you'll get round trip airfare for one. One? If you want to go with a friend you'll have to shell out the bucks for an airline ticket. You'll get "deluxe occupancy hotel accomodations," whatever that means. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that you won't be staying at the Four Seasons. Besides that, the PodStar will pay for everything else (food, drinks, q-tips) and basically be guaranteed nothing. You're not guaranteed to interview anyone, and you're not guaranteed that your interviews will ever be heard. Oh, you are guaranteed to have to pay taxes on the estimated $2000 value of the trip. Sounds like a crappy deal to me.

Oh and you'll get the privilege of flying home less than two days after you arrive....on September 11, 2005.

N.Y.'s WINS-AM Launches Podcast Service: "WINS-AM (1010 WINS), Infinity Broadcasting's News station, launched its new podcasting service at 5 a.m., the first of nine Infinity stations to expand into podcasting. In total, WINS is offering 12 separate podcasts, all new content (nothing repurposed from the station) and running the gamut from 1010 WINS Morning Podcast to the off-the-wall You Can't Make This Stuff Up. There is also a Spanish podcast, 1010 WINS Noticias Ahora. "

This is a huge development as there has been a major gap in the market for local content. This is a development that could also spur a lot more interest in podcasting in the New York City area. There's a good variety of content on the 1010 Wins site including news, local sports, financial information as well. The downside of what they're doing is that they don't sound like podcasts, just snippets of radio commentary. Still, I give them good marks for embracing this new technology.

Check it out for yourself at http://podcast.medianext.com/stations/wins/.

It's in beta but it seems to work pretty well. You can search the internet for audio, including podcasts. I've done some basic searching and my stuff was showing up with the keywords I expect. Check it out yourself at http://audio.search.yahoo.com/.

There's a nasty little dustup happening between the folks at the Association of Music Podcasting (AMP) and the Podsafe Music Network as chronicled here. The Tartan Podcast is taking issue with comments made about "selling out" and other ridiculousness. I'm not sure of the source or even the substance of the comments, but it seems that the Tartan dude has decided to take aim at AMP in his replies. This looks like it could be the first major podcasting feud but it certainly won't be the last since some more dollars will be coming down the pipe real soon. And where there's money, there's feuding.

What's my position? Good question. I really could care less. If the Tartan dude wants to exchange the rights to his show for a few bucks from Adam Curry and Absolut Vodka then so be it. Adam's trying to buy up some properties to create his own media empire. If some fool wants to sell his talent short by being one of those properties then so be it. Know this though. Adam and Absolut will eventually take tighter hold of the reigns when it comes to managing the content of these podcasts in order to squeeze more advertising dollars out of the situation. I'm not sure how the producers will deal with that. They may deal just fine if the dollars are sweet enough.

For my part, I'm not selling to anyone unless they pony up enough money for me to live the high life in NYC without holding down another gig. The chances of that happening are between....well actually there's no chance of that. So I'm just going to keep on playing the music of indie artists who need independent outlets for their amazing creativity.