Podcasting 101

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Move over TV, podcasting has joined the ranks of more traditional media sources, delivering the latest news and entertainment to anyone who cares to hear it. Offering time-shifting capabilities similar to TiVo, podcasting allows users to download and store syndicated audio programming to listen at their leisure. Largely untapped and full of unknown possibilities, this revolutionary new medium has captured the imagination of iPod enthusiasts and advertisers alike.

How does it work?

The term "podcasting" is a marriage of the words "iPod" (the portable gadget that receives and serves up the audio content) and "broadcasting." A podcaster is an individual or entity who makes syndicated audio content available (usually in MP3 format) for sharing via the Internet.

As with a magazine subscription, a listener subscribes to a podcast to receive its content. New programming is automatically downloaded from the podcaster's website to the subscriber's iPod or other portable MP3 as it becomes available. Unlike webcasts, which require that the user tune in at a specific time, podcasts are available for listening whenever the subscriber chooses.

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Podcasting uses RSS (the same RSS tool used for blog syndication) to deliver the audio content to the subscriber's MP3 device. In the case of podcasting, however, the user's subscriptions are regularly checked for updates. And since content delivery is automatic, no active downloading is required.
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1. Where's The Profit In Podcasting?

Depending on whom you believe, by 2010 as many as 57 million Americans will be listening to podcasts -- audio files downloaded onto a PC or portable listening device. That's almost one of every five people in the country, and a jump from about 6 million people today.
Sound like a lot? The media hype surrounding podcasting, which barely existed 18 months ago, is approaching the dizzying heights once reserved for home delivery of pet food and other dot-com pipe dreams, but one thing is certain: Many of the podcasts available today are free, which begs the question, can anyone ever make money off them?

It's easier to find naysayers. "Creating your own podcast and trying to make a business out of it is a mistake," Mark Cuban, co-founder of Internet streaming company Broadcast.com, wrote in his blog, blogmaverick.com, last week. Many other analysts agree with him: It's one thing for a radio station operator like Clear Channel to offer Rush Limbaugh's talk show in this new medium, or for ABC to make Ted Koppel and Nightline available or even for companies to turn their training materials or sales support tutorials into podcasts. All of that content can be repurposed easily at nominal expense. But trying to turn a profit with original programming is something else.

"This technology is a feature, not a market. You better have something else to offer," says Ted Schadler, VP and principal analyst with Forrester Research, which predicts a more modest podcast audience of 12 million by 2010. "As far as making money, it's all just a big experiment right now." Schadler divides the market into two distinct parts: a sort of radio TiVo for media companies, and audio blogging for hobbyists, who can record their own radio shows at home with just a microphone, PC, some free podcasting software, and a mixer.
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2. Internet Audio Craze Spurs Land Grab

The runaway popularity of blogging, which has turned everyday people into online news outlets, caught the media establishment off guard. The industry is trying not to make the same mistake with podcasting, which lets nearly anyone "broadcast" on the Internet.

Everyone from Disney to Newsweek to National Public Radio is now offering podcasts, and Apple Computer last month made it a whole lot easier to find them and download them to iPods.

While profits remain elusive, there's a bigger prize out there; the company that manages to become the go-to Web site for podcasts could gain enough leverage to strike favorable deals with proven content providers, and generate cash by charging for subscriptions and advertising.

Podcasts are recorded audio files, distributed via Internet download. They can be stored on computers or digital music players and played back whenever the listener chooses. Like bloggers, podcasters can sound off on whatever they please: from politics and religion to gladiolas and glass-blowing.
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