Comments on: Will Podcasting Ever Be Huge?

By: Rob Walch

Rob Walch — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:09:56 +0000

Jeff – iTunes is definitely the default client for Podcasts. It has been since June 2005. I think the bigger difference in Podcats vs Twitter (140 characters) and Youtube (Most videos <3 Mins) is that Podcasts run 30 to 60 minutes on average. It is really the difference between finding time for a full meal – vs grabbing a quick snack. One other big difference between Podcasts and Twitter – is the audience – in Twitter – you may have 10,000 or more followers – but “followers” is at best a shaky term. If you have 10,000 listeners with a podcast – you have a very loyal and engaged “audience”. From that perspective monetizing your audience as a Podcaster is much more likely than say for someone on Twitter. Read this post for more on engagement of Twitter followers - http://podcast411.libsyn.com/w...

Regards,

Rob Walch
Host – podCast411 and Today in iOS Podcasts
VP Podcaster Relations Libsyn

By: Jeff Jenkins

Jeff Jenkins — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:19:58 +0000

I think consumability is definitely a significant factor. There is no default client for podcasts in the way that twitter is one for links, or YouTube is for video. I assume there are companies who are trying to do that, although none have got so big that I (a very light podcast consumer) have heard of them.

By: amanda peyton

amanda peyton — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:57:18 +0000

Yep, Twitter and RSS were tackling the same problem from completely different angles, and one was much more easy to consume than the other. The idea of “consumability” is perhaps an issue with podcasts that you touched on. Maybe the real question is how to make audio more consumable.

By: amanda peyton

amanda peyton — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:54:47 +0000

That's an excellent point – though why has video been able to overcome some of the problems that podcasting has run into?

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:27:31 +0000

Inside every podcast, video, and webcast is a short text summary waiting to get out.

By: Jeff Jenkins

Jeff Jenkins — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:12:37 +0000

I think a significant difference with Twitter is that it's bidirectional. Even if you aren't posting new content yourself, there is retweeting. The format also makes it easy to read just a little whenever you have a second to spare. I'm really into The Economist's word-for-word podcast, but I find I have trouble paying any attention to it unless I'm doing something mindless (commuting, biking, cooking, etc).

The other problem I have is figuring out which podcasts I might be interested in. It would be neat if there was a page like you get when you click on an RSS feed which would give a text preview of a bunch of posts from a podcast.