The last few days has seen quite a bit of discussion stem from the NY Times article talking about the coming of Odeo and the fledgling podcasting business. Though most are willing to half-reserve judgment, the other half are quite happy to cast the heavy-handed shadow of doubt on the quick-moving medium.

Today, Scott Kirsner has written a piece on the “growing pains” of the podcasting business. Here’s a quote from the article:

One problem is that, much like the Web before advertising and e-commerce, there’s no money in podcasting yet. I doubt we would have seen Google, eBay, CNN.com, or Mapquest emerge if the Web had remained a commerce-free zone. Ads and transactions on the Web gave everyone an incentive to produce high-quality websites, from start-ups like eBay to giant media corporations like CNN to individuals like Harry Knowles, who runs the movie insiders’ site Ain’t It Cool News.

And some of the founding fathers of podcasting — just like early Webbies — want to keep commercialism out.

[…]

When I suggested to Winer that podcasting might be supported by ads, like commercial radio, or sponsorship, like public radio, or subscription, like satellite radio, he had a quick comeback. ‘’The assumption is this must be exactly like every other medium that has come before,” he says. ‘’It’s different. It has different economics.”

Source: Boston.com, “Podcasting faces growing pains”

There are a few problems with the argument being made here. First and foremost, podcasting is too much in its infancy to really be having growing pains at all. What we do have, with little shortage mind you, is a burgeoning class of entrepreneurs and media pioneers all searching for the leverage they seek and need from Podcasting.

Second, any expectation that the podcasting “business” would not come to mimic the traditional media is just foolish. There’s a huge infrastructure in place that supports that model and despite its shortcomings, many people still believe it to be efficient and effective. I think podcasting presents us with many different opportunities that are yet to emerge, but the old and tried ways still dominate regardless of how much we like or dislike them. Dave Winer not wanting it to go commercial has nothing to do with it (though I have no doubt Dave also expects this to happen).

Third, when will these reporters stop talking to the wrong people. I’m amazed more and more that they continue to ask the same questions of the same people and somehow expect different answers (isn’t that called insanity). What most people seem to overlook is that innovation and invention happens at the edges. While the top shows serve as inspiration and a benchmark, usually, it’s someone tinkering at their computer that’s going to figure out the “next big thing”. If you want to know where the business model is - ASK THE BUSINESS PEOPLE!

Podcasting is filled with interesting people doing interesting things - don’t condemn the thing before you’ve done your homework.

P.S. For any reporter that actually wants to talk to someone with a podcasting business model that’s starting to make money, feel free to check out Beercasting.com or contact me at greg AT beercasting.com.

Conover on media: Frustration takes hold

To put things even more bluntly, as of today, podcasting looks more to me like a beta than a first release. Geeks and wannabes (like me) will love playing with it and puzzling through the problems, but the average person just won’t care that much.

Yesterday, I pointed out to the role of Power Laws in the major press coverage done on Odeo. The main point being that the reputation of the owners drove the mention.

I came across a pointer from Dave Winer where he points out another factor, the media. Dave quotes Staci Kramer of PaidContent:

Few start ups launch with John Markoff as an advance man. The story’s close to dismissive or oblivious to other entrepreneurial efforts to make money by automating audio feeds or creating audio for RSS-driven distribution. Markoff heralds today’s upcoming announcement of Odeo, Ev Williams’ new venture with Noah Glass, as “a small, hopeful step” toward podcasting “becoming the commercial Web’s next big thing.” He adds, “The question for Odeo, and for the many other entrepreneurial efforts almost certain to come, is whether there is any money to be made from podcasting.” (Like I said, blinders when it comes to endeavors already underway.)End of mini-rant.

Source: PaidContent

Dave also vents a bit of his frustration with the media and it’s often irresponsible reporting, especially as it comes to Podcasting:

My comment. This is John Markoff as kingmaker, not reporter. He’s trying to deal a market to people he likes, and away from people he doesn’t. Of course this is not the proper role of a NY Times reporter, who is supposed to report objectively on just the facts. But Markoff is so far from that role, he’s more of a king these days than a kingmaker.

Source: TheTwoWayWeb, “Markoff as kingmaker, not reporter”

I definitely think the media is a culprit and and eager to learn more about how these articles takes shape. I doubt we’ll ever get those answers though.

Podcasting News: IndiePodcasting.com Announces Podcasting Service for Musicians

IndiePodcasting.com began generating podcast feeds on February 12th. Seventy-five artists have been promoted on IndiePodcasting feeds since the initial podcast and five new artists are added each day. Artists have been evaluated on songwriting skills, recording quality and production, vocals and lyrics, and musicianship by staff members with backgrounds in these areas.

Some feeds have included well-known indie artists, such as former Capitol Records artist Dexter Freebish, former Buck Cherry frontman Josh Todd, and Celldweller, an industrial/electronica artist whose music has been in several movie trailers for major films such as Spiderman 2, Catwoman, and Constantine.

Today, the NY Times released an article on Odeo in the Technology section. Although it’s hard to say EXACTLY what Odeo is (the product is not yet released), the thing that seems to be driving the press more is the involvement of Evan Williams, founder of Blogger. Here’s what the Times did tell us about Odeo:

The primarily amateur Internet audio medium known as podcasting will take a small, hopeful step on Friday toward becoming the commercial Web’s next big thing.

That step is planned by Odeo, a five-person start-up that is based in a walk-up apartment in this city’s Mission District and was co-founded by a Google alumnus. The company plans to introduce a Web-based system that is aimed at making a business of podcasting - the process of creating, finding, organizing and listening to digital audio files that range from living-room ramblings to BBC newscasts.

Source: NY Times, “For a Start-Up, Visions of Profit in Podcasting”

If Odeo is what I think it might be, that would be very cool as I support any platform that gets the general populous involved. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in Odeo solely for the potential of the product. I’m interested in it as a case where Power Laws, in this case the big spike, rears its ugly head. Just for clarity, this is in no way an attack on Evan or anyone involved - just a quick observation about these damned laws.

So why Odeo? Why the press interest. Why are bloggers going to take it and run. The wrong answer, for now, is because the product is exciting or great. The right answer, and I’ll stress FOR NOW once again, is because of the all-star team that’s behind it. Can anyone tell me who the other 3 people on the 5-person startup is. Anyone who’s ever started a company knows that when you’re at 5 employees, everyone’s critical.

How about another example. There has been considerable press to Adam Curry’s soon-o-be launched Podcasting company. Problem is, there is nothing ever been stated about what that company does, who’s involved - nothing. Last publicly stated proof of its existence was a post from Adam or Dave, can’t remember who, stating that they WEREN’T going to do business together. So why is Adam Curry’s yet-to-be-named Podcasting business still written about and promoted? Simple, it’s Adam Curry the Podfather himself.

So here’s the proof from the other side. If you subscribe to any of the podcasting lists, you’ll see a sweeping array of announcement of new sites, services, what have you. Sign up for a Google Alert! and you’ll get a few more each day that are related. And this is the only place you’ll hear about them, FOR NOW.

The truth is its easy to expect great things from those who have done great things previously. In this case, it’s reputation instead of links. Of course, there’s far too many examples where success does not breed success.

[note] - This post is not meant to serve as any form of assessment of the efforts by anyone involved. It’s meant solely to look at the role of reputation and power laws in the Podcasting context.

It’s been about 7 weeks on the road now bringing Beercasting^TM to the corners of the States (and now Canada). I thought I would write in with a quick report on how it’s been accepted.

In short, it’s been amazing. There’s many reasons, but I’ll focus on just a few of the amazing things I’ve experienced:

• People are looking for this type of activity - I’d have to say that more than 90% of the stops that I’ve made so far have been by invitation. That’s right, I have been invited out by someone local to the community and they’ve played an active role in building awareness and planning the event.
• People are excited and curious to participate - Oddly enough, the turnouts have been greater than I expected and the show is quite infectious when we arrive. Some people are standoffish when we’re getting started but quickly people are attracted to the crowd and the microphones disappear.
• People love to hear themselves - One of the things I realized early on with Beercasting^TM (something I’d like to say I designed into the process) is audience participation. Of course, in the case of Beercasting^TM, the audience is the show. This leads to a really interesting mix the in terms of where traffic comes from. Not surprisingly, RSS is not the only way to building an audience.
• People are anxious to do it on their own - The network is expanding in ways that I had not expected so fast. So far, I know there was an experimental Beercast^TM done in Montreal and one was to be recorded in Warsaw, Poland yesterday (expect the Warsaw Squad to launch soon). In addition, there are at least 5 additional cities that I’m in the process of getting rigged for permanent shows. Many more are in the works as well.
• People have faith in the business model - Probably the most interesting aspect of the nods I’ve gotten are from the business folks out there that immediately recognize the financial potential of the Beercasting^TM model. In general, most people have trouble seeing the model, but after a few minutes with me they’re wide-eyed that they missed it. Sorta of strange experience, but quite nice to see the lights go on.

There will be many new announcements in the coming weeks. Hope you’ll stay tuned in for the ride.

Just a quick reminder that tonight will be the second meeting of the Portland Beercasting Squad at the Goose Hollow In from 8:00PM onwards.

I’ll be getting into town a little early and will be setting up as soon as possible. We will be outside under the heated lamps.

CF Developers are definitely invited as there are some programming topics planned for tonight as well (a first for the Beercasting Tour). Come down to find out why.

Back in January, I laid out what I believe the 3 phases of Podcast development to be. Here’s a quick recap:

Phase 1: Content
Phase 2: Creation
Phase 3: Composition

Since then, I’ve been even more immersed in the process of Podcasting, more specifically my own brew Beercasting. What’s most interesting, at this moment, is that there are now businesses that are attaching themselves to these different phases.

A couple of days ago, I posted about the first Podcasting Studio that has been setup. Clearly, the studio caters to the Creation phase. Now, there’s a new entrant that hits further down the stream in the Composition Phase.

PWOP Productions has announced that they are providing production support for podcasters. Here’s a quick blurb:

Pwop Productions provides podcasting services such as local and remote recording, audio editing and production, custom royalty-free music, transcription, RSS feeds, web development and hosting, and graphic design.

One of Pwop Productions’ newest customers is Microsoft’s MSDN Academic Alliance (msdn.microsoft.com/academic). The MSDN Academic Alliance will be providing a monthly podcast to schools and colleges to utilize in their academic programs.

Source: emediawire, “Podcasting Pioneer Launches Podcast Production Services Firm”

Once again, it’s not clear how successful this will be in the long term, however, it seems more scalable in the longer term to offer Composition services over Creation services.

Todd Maffin is speaking right now about Podcasting 101. He’s got a great presentation that I am hoping we’ll be able to snag some time to share with others.

As Todd points out, radio is the most visual medium there is, since there’s no visual to go with it. Here are the phases he’s identified:

Phase 1: Content
Phase 2: Record (Creation)
Phase 3: Post (Composition)
Phase 4: Promote
Phase 5: Feedback

I’ve noted in parenthesis where we map to each other. I definitely think the last 2 Todd’s mentioned are quite worthy. I’ll be expanding on that in the fuure, however, I tend to push those to a second phase of the process, beyond the file.

I’m currently sitting in the Northern Voice keynote being given by Tim Bray. He asked an interesting question of the crowd: “Why do you blog?”.

Since I had the QuitFiltering.com engine already setup, I’ve made a new list to check out.

Give it a try. It will be moved to whyblog.quitfiltering.com soon.