SocialCASTER:

Podcasting and Internet Radio-Why is there a difference?

I've been hooked on using Alexaholic and the brand new Google Trands lately. Today is my first post where I will use data from these two sources to illustrate a point about podcasting. Will it work? Who cares. Graphs are cool.

In one of my post about RSS adoption and why it's so slow I talked about how tech acronyms will slow adopyion rates among the main stream. The more we can flatten the learning curve the faster new technology will take off. Of course, this is common knowledge, but usually appilied to UI's. No one ever thinks it could work with something as simple as a name.

I propose that podcasting would have a higher adoption rate if all audio publishing was refered to as "internet radio" and podcasting was simple a feature. Perhaps all podcasters should stop using the word "podcast" and just call themselves EJs (Electronic disc Jockey) with internet radio stations. Most blog post from podcasters already have a built in player so it is really internet radio on demand. As a matter of fact, an entire campagin should be waged on that note alone. It's not "podcasting", it's "Internet Radio On Demand". Now THAT is something the mainstream can grasp.

Below is a chart from Alexaholic that clearly shows top internet radio destination Live365.com still dominating all personal audio publishing. All the other sites on the graph are podcasting directories or hosts. Oddly, Live365.com host their own podcast but makes no mention of personal podcasting on the homepage for their users.

alexa website statistics by alexaholic

Interest in podcasts is up, WAY UP. But America seems more hooked on internet radio while Singapore is falling in love with podcasting.

One could make the argument that podcasting will soon overtake internet radio. Someone else could make the argument that podcasting and live streaming are radically different. I see it making more sense when podcasting is put under the umbrella of internet radio.

podcasting trends internet+radio

Tower Records to launch podcast network March 15

Douglas MacMillan of Adotas.com is reporting that Tower Records plans to provide a free podcast network for those hungry to jump into podcasting. With help from The Independent Online Distribution Alliance Tower will provide users with a library of 6,000 songs to add to their programs.

The entire music library is free which means Tower Records must be very interested in spreading good will and facilitating social interaction. NOT. Towerpod.com will be ad supported much like every other podcast network except for the fact there is actually a revenue share model. The only problem is there are too many fingers in the pie. Tower not only wants to take a cut for itself (times must be hard in music retail since iTunes surpassed Tower in sales), but give a piece to podcasters as well. But what about the artists in the IODA? Well, Towerpod won't leave them out either. Even with brand power can Tower Records really bake a big enough pie? I don't see how it will work. But applaud the effort.

technorati tags: podcasting towerpod music

Audioblog.com

Audioblog.com hosts your podcasts and publishes them to your various blogs. I personally adore the service. It's cheap, simple, yet has great features. You can even podcast and publish right from your mobile. It also does video by converting it to Flash. Customization of players, moblogging, and unlimited bandwidth/blogs/podcasts makes this a 10 in my book. Listen to my first SocialCAST below.

please excuse the "uh"s and the few blackouts

MP3 File

Technorati: audioblog podcasting

BIG IN JAPAN launch PODSERVE

Big In Japan has launched a very interesting free service for podcasters called Podserve. Podserve is interesting because of it's "Social" and "Public" podcasts.

Social podcasts are created by a group and can only have audio added by members in the group. This is very practical for orginizations that have contributors with valuable content but find it hard to schedule a time for all them to be in the same room or on at the same time.

Public podcasts are similar, but anyone can a podcast. You can start a podcast on a theme and others can add their thoughts. It's like commenting for podcast. You can comment on the podcast with your own podcast.

Podserve is not an open directory, it hosts your podcast for you and submits to iTunes and Odeo, but only hosted podcasts are listed in Podserve. You can read more via Techcrunch by Michael Arrington.

MORE ON BIG IN JAPAN

Big In Japan develops web 2.0 tools for what they call "prosumer blogging". Podserve is only one of these cutting edge tools. ElfURL helps make your URLs under a mile long while Frankenfeed smashes your fav feeds into one. They are also preparing to launch other tools which bloggers will find useful.

Link: Big in Japan - PodServe - Podserve FAQ.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podserve, big in japan