Podcasting and the money.
Full disclosure: I work for a radio station, but I don't listen to it when I'm at work. Don't get me wrong, it's a great radio station, a good mix of classic and modern rock that's attracted a following locally and through the website.I'm just a talk radio sorta guy. Don and Mike or Bulldog on the way in, NPR on the ride home. At work, however, it's all podcasts, all the time.
I started off with TWIT and Diggnation about a year ago-- those were the two top podcasts not related to Harry Potter on iTunes at the time. Very tech-oriented, very smart stuff, all produced from people formerly employed by TechTV's the Screen Savers, so this ain't a bunch of teenagers sitting around talking about comic books with pregnant pauses interspersed. An occasional TWIT roundtable host is Molly Wood, the fulltime co-host of CNET's Buzz Out Loud. TWIT and Diggnation are weeklies, BOL is daily.
Format-wise, it's a roundtable discussion between Wood, co-host Tom Merritt and producer Veronica Belmont. Their pet-topics are DRM (digital rights management, the reason why iTunes songs won't work on your Sony mp3 player), Google's continuing and growing presence in our lives, and Microsoft's recasting as the (hah!) underdogs. They've got banter, they're smart, and it's not forced. This isn't (as opposed to most podcasts) being produced in someone's bedroom, they do it out of a studio in their company headquarters. And they're daily, it's something dependable and steady.
That's the new media for you. Eventually I'd expect them to do a vidcast of the show, like Diggnation and others before it... perhaps even ignoring the audio-only version. That's fine, I guess (it'll do a disservice to me and the many other listeners at work), and it'll only make the distribution even greater. TiVo began support for podcasts and vidcasts earlier this year, furthering the video-on-demand model we're heading to.
How're they paying for all their bandwidth? That's what gets me excited, because it's simple marketing. They're not the top podcast by any means, but BOL's sponsored by Earthlink-- there's a 5 second tag at the header of the show, and a 30 second ad in the middle-- very unobtrusive, very simple, very straightforward. Apparently Earthlink has fast internet. Who knew. Anyway, Earthlink clearly sees a value to it, and it's for the same reason that, right now, as an "IT manager" or something, I could get free magazine subscriptions, no catch, to dozens of tech-heavy publications. They know their message is getting to the right people, the decision makers, the guys with money (you know, like me...[koffkoff]). Thus it makes sense to foot a bandwidth bill if it's focused... and most of these podcasts are.
This model can work for anyone, assuming you have a compelling product that people will continue to visit. Let's look at the opposite end of the spectrum from the professionals-- I listen to a couple of comic book podcasts. One in particular, Comic Geek Speak, has done a good job of drawing in advertising clients and listeners.... and it's really nothing much more than four or five guys sitting around, really, really idly chatting for 1-2 hours. LOTS of pauses where they're trying to figure out who's going to talk and what they'll talk about-- these guys aren't bad by any means, but they've clearly never done radio or TV work before. Still, it's a good program with a lot of variety-- good themed shows, often with writers or artists... and a great amount of feedback with the listeners. They direct people to their website for input and questions, and have created a small community around the podcasts.
That's the same thing BOL does. That's the same thing most of these podcasts have done... that interaction brings people to your sites, it makes them stay longer... it makes them click ads. That's all they are, they're a way CNET can get people to come and look at their tech articles, read their reviews, use their message boards, and click click click some ads.
That's the way the world goes round. Bandwidth ain't cheap-- trust me, I hear discussions about it every other day. Eventually it's just not going to be worth the money to put your voice on the internet. Blogs are cheap and simple because they're text oriented, it took virtually no time even on a dialup connection for you to download this page. Watch for the podcasting bubble to burst pretty soon, as the companies providing free hosting and free support so that some kid in Nebraska could do the 467th PotterCast figure out that they're not making much money... and the people who secured their own hosting, their own bandwidth and their own sponsors rise to the top.
posted by Smith at Friday, July 14, 2006
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