The Problem with Podcasting
May 9, 2007 by Jason Chervokas
Podcasting as we know it is a disaster.
Howard summed up a few of the problems in his post this morning:
Podcasts are still hard to get, find, and take with you, except if you have an iPod and are using iTunes. Even then, you have to search, subscribe, and regularly sync and remove old content. Microsoft hasn’t build podcast-catching functionality into Windows Media Player or the Zune (not that we should judge by what’s in the Zune.) But I can listen to audio podcasts or watch video podcasts on my Tivo (some are pre-loaded, others must be tediously typed in). Still not a wonderful overall experience, but Rocketboom looks great on TV.
Howard’s first point is the most important one–podcasting, right down to its name, is fatally tied to the iPod. If consuming DIY Internet video had required the used of a portable player–even one you already owned–a near random search for content, the docking of devices and constant file maintanence, YouTube would have never fetched $1.6 billion.
To thrive, DIY Internet audio needs effortless cross-platform access, content that is uniquely suited in form to Internet listening (in other words content must do more than emulate traditional radio), and some useful means of discovery. In short, what podcasting needs is its own YouTube.
There’s legitimate debate about whether or not YouTube could have exploded as a business without the unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted content. But there’s no debate about whether or not YouTube revolutionized Internet video. It did. And it did so for two reasons.
First, it provided a central hub where content could be amassed. Second, it offered a fantastic system for discovery, a system that worked because it was social not only with shared tags and ratings, but also, and most importantly, with social redistribution through an embeddable Flash player.
By giving viewers the opportunity to tag and share video, the YouTube system transformed a media format that was otherwise one-way into something interactive. This spurred viewing and provided feedback to video posters who began creating videos that suited the format that users most appreciated (largely short, often comic).
Podcasting, or DIY Internet audio (I prefer to think of it outside of the ‘Pod’) may well get its YouTube. As Howard mentions podcasting may be among Joost’s offerings–though the degree of user control permitted by Joost remains to be seen. But without a transformation of that sort I think podcasting will remain a geek’s niche.
How big a niche can that be? It’s hard to tell from the Pew numbers. Howard reads Pew’s survey to show a 71% increase between April and August of last year in the number of people who have downloaded a podcast at least once (although the way Pew presents its research makes it hard to make apples to apples comparisons). And Howard and Mary Madden of Pew arrived at the figure of 17 million for the number of people who had downloaded a podcast at least once, a number Howard compares favorably to that of satellite radio subscribers. But its a bad comparison: one-time downloaders vs. a body of subscribers with a 2% churn rate and an ARPU of $11 a month. Call me when podcasting in the aggregate generates $2.2 billion a year.
I know I sound like a wet blanket (it’s what I do best). But that’s not what I’m trying to be. I would love to see a vibrant Internet audio universe but I think there are many rivers to cross between here and there. (And don’t get me started about the cost of podcasting copyrighted music.)
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“But its a bad comparison: one-time downloaders vs. a body of subscribers with a 2% churn rate and an ARPU of $11 a month. Call me when podcasting in the aggregate generates $2.2 billion a year.”
Ummm…not to be picky, but you didn’t include the cost of, you know, launching the satellites into space and the massive amount of money spent on daily, weekly, yearly upkeep. Not to even mention the cost of acquiring talent like Howard Stern.
Couldn’t agree more about the lack of ease of use. Shame on Microsoft (and others) for not building a simple functionality in to players to catch the files. There’s simply not an elegant solution currently available.
Tim, I’m not saying satellite radio is a good business. I’m just saying it’s scale of users makes a bad comparison. The Stern deal, as it turns out, was unit profitable in its first year, no reason to expect that not to continue. But the debt load amassed in order to launch satellites…that’s gonna be a tough nut to ever cover
The problem with podcasting is that the high nerd/geek concentration of early adopters focuses on the medium and delivery mechanism, as opposed to the talent or brand.
People don’t love your podcast because it is an RSS-enclosure-based-XML-auto-delivery-and-download medium, they love your podcast because of YOU.
If I tell you that Leo Laporte was going on about product X, you’ll go get Leo where you get Leo. That could be on a blog, could be on KFI or television or a podcast.
*That* is the problem with podcasting. It focuses on the wrong thing. (And hell, being associated with the word iPod, you know, those little sexy things that are all over the damn place and the closest thing we got to radio penetration) is probably the best damn thing we got going for it.
This is one of the reasons that the websites that we have built, blubrry.com, podcasternews.com and TechPodcasts.com are designed from the ground up for listeners.
Sure we have all the geeky stuff but from a usability status we have made it easy to consume.
Early on there was a one click subscription discussion going on that would have allowed a spec to have been signed off on that would have set the stage for people to one click subscribe. But like other things it got drug down in sandbox politics.
Plus major players abandoned the community and went and built their own sandboxes very few people are actually trying to build the listener community.
That remains RawVoice’s primary goals an we are seeing significant success in doing so for those podcasters that are part of our communities.
Another difference between the YouTube model and the Podcasting model is portability. I absolutely love the fact that I can take my podcasts with me on my iRiver, or on my iPod, or burn them to CD to listen to in my car. I hardly ever listen to them on the computer. That’s something that’s hard to do with YouTube, at the moment…
I agree however, that the original players in the Podcasting buzz seem to have abandoned the community in pursuit of their own agendas, pretty much forgetting about creating standards… I hope they realize that they are still needed within the community and that if they don’t somehow figure out a way to standarize an elegant one-click subscription model (independent of platform) then podcasting as a whole will die a thousand deaths (every company out there working on their own model “mashboard”, playlists, etc. will die eventually because it’s not compatible with other company’s way of doing things.)
Jason - I think I understand your point of podcasting needing a YouTube in order to fuel growth but I feel substitute technologies that enable the easy sharing of audio/video content in a more decentralized environment might be more attractive to the masses. For now, iTunes and other niche sites will have to do.
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Podcasting actually makes the internet inaccessible for me– I’m deaf. I’m hoping that transcripts will be an automatic thing for every podcast in the future…