Chris Penn (no not Sean's brother) of the Financial Aid Podcast has put together a video that shows musicians, "how to get the most out of the music they’re already selling in iTunes." Check it out here.

Labels: itunes, musicians, podcasting, video

The recently announced iPhone from Apple is very promising indeed for podcasting.

Think about it. Millions of people with a direct connection to the iTunes podcast directory in their pocket. Plenty of storage (4GB or 8GB). Audio and video playback capability. It could be a podcast consumption juggernaut. Wait a minute though.

This isn't an iPod, it's a cell phone. And that means people will have to make a big decision before picking up this sweet piece of hardware. Do they really want to switch to Cingular (soon to be AT&T again) wireless?

It's a fact that people can be pretty darn loyal to their cellular providers. Especially since departing mid-contract can mean a financial hit of up to $200. I just recently extended my contract for two years, upgrading to the pretty darn good Samsung Blackjack. I like the look of the iPhone but there are some concerns that will prevent me from switching.

• No 3G support. Yeah, I know it has WiFi but 3G coverage is more widespread. Sure you can connect at Starbucks and lots of other places. But you also need a separate paid account for many hotspots. Why pay the $$$ for a cellular data plan and pay for various WiFi plans?
• Potential battery life issues. This device has all the great power suckers including a big screen, wifi and bluetooth. And the battery is not replaceable. The one big difference between an iPod and a phone is the fact that you need your cell phone to be with you almost all the time. The iPod is carried typically by preference but no necessity. Powering up on the go would be easier if the battery lasted longer and was replaceable.
• Lack of support for 3rd Party apps. The Windows Mobile and Series 60 platforms both have a robust suite of independently developed applications. There are questions about what will be available for the iPhone since it will run OS X. There's no doubt that OS X is great for the computer. But will it work for the cell phone?

In my mind this device would be ten times more killer if it were not a cell phone. Heck, Id put an order in tomorrow if you took away the cellular requirement and made the battery replaceable.

I think this phone will be good for podcasting because a lot of non-iPod users will switch over, thereby adding to the number of people who will seek to leverage iTunes for their entertainment. I don't think it will be the blockbuster success that is being predicted by the hype. Initially I'm willing to bet that there will be hardware and software issues that will make the overall experience less than stellar.

Apple will make adjustments though. And with future releases the experience will improve greatly. So put me on the waiting list for an iPhone for June...June 2008 that is.

Labels: apple, iphone, podcasting

Not much happened with podcasting in 2006. Oh, stuff happened but if you look at the Google Trend line then you can see that overall interest was flat in 2006. Don't panic. I'm not saying that the medium of podcasting is stagnant or that interest is declining. I'm just saying that 2006 didn't see the major spikes in interest compared with 2005.

If you take a look at the trend line you'll see that interest in podcasting spiked big time in 2005 when Apple introduced podcasts to the iTunes music store. They followed up in 2006 with a lame shuffling of the categories, in effect making it more difficult for people to find certain types of podcasts. Other than that, nothing major from Apple. It was still 2005 when Apple caused the video podcast world to open up by introducing their Video iPod. In 2006 Apple added more storage space, made the screen brighter and tightened up the feature set. Still, the big splash was made in 2005.

Yahoo! is the other major player who helped make 2005 a banner year for podcasting with their Yahoo! Podcasts directory. Nothing new from them in 2006. It looks to me like they've put this baby on auto pilot.

Audible took their shot at podcasting in 2005 with their WordCast offering. Audible scored a coup by landing the highly Rick Gervais podcast. But the mass podcast audience wasn't ready for paid subscriptions and DRM. Gervais retired the podcast then Audible retreated, turning WordCast into mostly a directory.

Odeo went un-VC after failing to develop a coherent strategy while developing a seemingly more popular service with Twitter. Remind me to get a Twitter account in '07.

Media format standards remained the same in 2006. MP3 rules audio. QuickTime formats (either MP4 of M4V) rule video, although some people are starting to publish WMV and 3GP (for cell phones).

Microsoft did not jump into podcasting as expected in 2006. Sure, they released the over hyped, under featured Zune in November. But they included no software for quick podcast subscription and transfer to the device. Maybe that's a good thing. If you don't create your own podcast directory then at least you can't screw things up for podcast producers.

Most of the big podcasting news in 2006 was of interest to the current community and of little interest to the masses. Robert Scoble joined PodTech. Amanda Congdon fought it out with Andrew Baron over RocketBoom. iTunes choked under the holiday crush.

Anyone hear a peep out of Google in relation to podcasting? Me thinks they've got something up their sleeve.

The community podcast directory idea, spurred by Dave Winer, popped then fizzled. Maybe this year!

Much of the growth in podcasting in 2006 happened behind the scenes, without much fanfare in the popular media. The Podcast Expo expanded and will expand even more in 2007. The PodCamp phenomenon is going strong. The number of podcasts being regularly produced has at least doubled since the beginning of 2006.

Several new directories, networks and communities got rolling in 2006 including PodShow+, Blubrry, WildVoice, Podango, Pluggd, Podcast Dot Com and Podcast Ready. Podcast Ready introduced a meaningful piece of pod-catching software called MyPodder.

I could go on. So a lot of stuff happened in 2006. But there was no huge podcast story that pushed the idea into the imagination of the masses. The masses are getting it. But they're getting it slowly, from the people who are most passionate about the medium. I think that's a good thing. The light that shines twice as bright shines half as long.

Oh, the Digg part of the story. Digg recently introduced their own version of a podcast directory. This is news, but not huge news. That's because 99% of people don't know or care about Digg. One percent is a big market though and this should mean something to podcasters. Still, Digg has stared out making some of the same mistakes as all the other big tech or VC funded outfits.

For now, Digg is hiding the directory behind a subscription wall. I thing they'll change this once the feature is out of Beta. There are presenting ads next to the content even though they don't have the right to commercialize most of it. Many feeds seemed to have been automatically added instead of having producers opt-in. There's no way for a podcast producer to control their shows. None of these things are mortal sins. But it would help if the folks at Digg and other directories took them into consideration.

So we roll on in 2007. This year podcasting will be bigger than ever.