Well let me jump on the Microsoft iPod reporting bandwagon. Our sister sites engadget and PVR Wire have posts on the Microsoft Argo Personal Media Player including a scoop on the first look on the device.

Now to add the Droxy angle to the discussion, with the WiFi connection it is rumored to have, will it come with some kind of podcast aggregator built-in? I think it would be a great advantage for them to have that built right int the device. Anytime you go to a feed on the wifi connection it check to see if it has any enclosures in it, and then ask if you want to subscribe to it, if you are not already.

Of course this is all just my dreams for the device. It would require a little more of an interface to allow browsing of feeds. But I would guess they will be having some kind of interface to whatever music (or should we say media) service that you can buy / download stuff from. So if they add some kind of Podcast (Argocast, or maybe just Gocasts, or in the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, Arrrrgcasts) directory like in the iTunes store, it could work.

Microsoft, if you are listening, this would clinch me as a convert from my iPod.

[via PVRWire]

Blubrry.com a new podcasting social network aimed at the listener's user experience had it's big debut at Gnomedex. Blubrry is another product offered by RawVoice, Inc. who is also responsible for Podcasternews.com (where I am a podcaster hosting two shows). The new site offers the typical social networking features, podcast directory, and tagging podcasts by users.

Podcasters can join the network for free as long as they agree to promote the network on their podcasts. For this the podcasters get another presence for their podcast on the web, and the chance to be involved in network ad buys setup by the blubrry team. According to the CFO of RawVoice, Inc.,  Jeevan Padiyar, "We've taken the model that is already making money for podcasters on the PodcasterNews Network, and are using it on this site." He went on to mention that there is no lock in of content producers with RawVoice.

The World Cup, it only comes around every 4 years. The last time, in 2002, punching "podcasting" into Google wouldn't have fetched any results.

I went looking for World Cup podcasts and what I found amazed me. Has big media taken over podcasting?

First, mainstream media continues to adopt the podcast name for its own purposes. The Mirror, has a World Cup 2006 podcast going, and are two episodes in. The interesting thing about The Mirror's cast is commentary from an English soccer bookmaker, William Hill. Hill has a seperate podcast about sports here. The Guardian, not to be outdone, has produced much the same.

The Times Online has Baddiel and Skinner hosting an irreverant version of a World Cup cast.

I did find a few less-than-mainstream casts to check out.. including:

The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire used a podcast to urge fans to not only cheer for England, but to behave when they do.

Former Aston Villa and West Brom manager Ron Atkinson is recording his own post-match analysis of England's World Cup matches and posting it on www.selfcasttv.com.

What World Cup 2006 podcasts are you listening to? Comment and help make this a comprehensive list.

The registration has been open since March but if you have been waiting to see the conference sessions before registering, now you have no excuse for not getting over to their site and registering for the Expo. On Saturday the 27th they announced that they had released the full session schedule on the Expo's website. The schedule and other things are discussed on this week's "Podcast Brothers" podcast, check out the site and the podcast for more information on the sessions available.

One session on Friday that sounds interesting, and is aimed at the people attended Track 3: Corporate Podcasting, is the "Podcast to Your Employees and Improve Your Internal Communications" being presented by Shel Holtz of Holtz Communication + Technology. Having been in big companies and seeing the whole site shut down and no work get done while attending company wide meetings I can see the advantage of podcasting to get out company information.

What sessions are you going to attend? Leave a comment here on what sessions you are attending or find interesting.

 

The Walt Disney Company has been in the podcasting space for a while. They have had podcasts on iTunes since that software started official support of podcasts directly in the software. They contacted Michael Geoghegan in the summer of 2005 to do a series of podcasts on the start of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Disneyland in California. These turned into the Official Disneyland podcast which is released monthly and still produced and hosted by Michael Geoghegan. Walt Disney World followed with a weekly podcast started in late December 2005.

Now the Disney Cruise Line is getting in on the action, sort of. The podcast feed is at the DCLNews.com site, which is designed for use by news media outlets and professional journalists. There are only two items in the podcast feed so far, which are an audio segment and a video segment on the press conference announcing the 2007 Disney Cruise Line Mediterranean cruises. These were produced by David Brady who is producer and host of the Walt Disney World Resort: Plugged In podcast, which is the official podcast for Walt Disney World. He does a good job with the Walt Disney World resort podcasts, and did another good job with these two segments. I personally hope for more podcasts from the Disney Cruise Line and The Walt Disney Company in general as they could do some really imaginative things.

EXPO magazine has released their 2006 Best New Shows Awards, and the Podcast and Portable Media Expo was the winner in the "Trade and Consumer Show" Category. In the first year of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo had over 2,000 attendees and 60 exhibiting companies converge on the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario California.

The 2005 Expo was in November, but this year it is being moved up to September. The registration is open for this years conference as reported previously. And if you are interested in going to this year's show you are in for even more. In an email from Tim Bourquin, he said there will be about 80 companies exhibiting this year which is a third more than last year's show. And to accommodate the additional companies at the show, as well as the over 2500 attendees they are expecting, they have moved to a bigger hall to accommodate everything and everyone, myself included as I will be there covering the event for Droxy.

Over at Libsyn's Soundoff blog they posted a report on their numbers for the first quarter of this year. What does the post cover? It starts with the number of unique IP addresses to libsyn.com requesting feeds and media files. This is a huge number reported. They have over 45 million unique IP addresses for the first quarter, and this is a 200% increase from the previous quarter. Thats from the previous quarter, not to the previous year.

The post then breaks down the statistics on the podcatchers being used by those users. Apple's iTunes still has the vast majority at around 72% which is reported as being almost a 5% drop from the previous quarter. The next category is web browsers at around 22% of which Internet Explorer makes up the largest share at 12% of the overall numbers.

More after the jump.

The Virtual Podcasting Expo we reported was happening is now open. If you follow the "Read" link at the bottom of this post you can get into the virtual lobby. From there you can view the schedule and take some orientation tours of how the virtual conference system works.

From the schedule they seem to have some interesting topics being covered, like the "What Makes (Or Breaks) A Podcast - Podcast Listeners Speak" by Leesa Barnes, the "Podcasting Networks - The Best Way to Market Your Podcast" being offered up by Todd Cochrane, as well as several sessions on Feedburner uses with podcasting. But there are also some that are a little confusing on how they relate, like the "Top 10 Tips for Running a Political Campaign" session, I am sure one (or more) of those is to have a podcast on your campaign site to build community with your potential voters.

If you check it out, please leave a comment on what you think about it.

A new study released by Arbitron and Edison Media Research called "The Infinite Dial: Radio's Digital Platforms" states that 61% of people 12 and older are aware of satellite radio. It says nearly one in five non-subscribers are "very" or "somewhat likely" to subscribe in the next 12 months. OK, no problem there, seems to pass the sniff test. But, the survey goes on to say this:

When read a description of HD Radio, 8% said they are “very” interested, and another 27% said they are “somewhat” interested. Those who subscribe to satellite radio are more likely to be “very” interested (10%) or “somewhat” interested (33%) in HD digital radio.

I would like to know the exact language of that description, but, no matter what it was, those are terrible numbers. The survery then states:

Most people who said they were interested in HD digital radio said they would be likely to purchase at a price between $50 and $100. Of the 35% of respondents who said they are interested in HD digital radio, nearly half (47%) said they would only be likely to purchase models that cost $100 or less.

What does this tell us? $50 to $100 is less than the cost of a nearly every satellite radio player (not including car kits), and is less than most MP3 players. Couple that with the low numbers of interest based on a description - one can assume that the description highlighted the key differentiating factors - it sounds like the market for HD Radio is still in the toilet and will be for some time. Certainly, the recent announcement that the HD Radio Alliance will rollout a $200 million advertising campaign for HD Radio is good news, but those interested in getting HD Radio to the masses must never lose sight of the fact that people will not care unless it offers something better than a) what they can get for free, or b) what they can get for an acceptable subscription fee. Free equals over the air radio, so paying for the same radio (i.e. the HD re-broadcast of a station) will never sell, ever. That implies that multicasting is the only way to differentiate. But, then you run into (b) - will the multicast stations be able to compete with satellite's offerings, enough to offset the cost of buying an HD Radio? I think the answer is No. What is the solution then? More on that soon.

Back a while ago we covered the advertising impact from a research study, and fellow Weblogs Inc Network (WIN) blog The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reported on the audience size aspect of the report. Now we have a blog post from the Geek News Central blog that their numbers for the current podcasting audience size is way off. Geek News Central is getting their counts from being involved with TechPodcasts.com network of podcasts and Podcasternews.com as well as also several other sites that are using the RawVoice Generator.

The post over there shows that if the Forrester Research report was  correct  that the numbers they have verified stats for would be a large percentage of the whole audience that the report says there is currently existing. Of course they know there are lot more other podcasts out there than they have the stats for, so they reach the conclusion the numbers from the report are way off.

NPR has selected Melodeo's Mobilcast platform to deliver a set of 45 of its podcasts to cell phones. NPR will get a branded, dedicated channel in the Mobilcast application. Mobilcast allows podcasters to easily add their feed to the Mobilcast directory, and users of the service can search, stream, and download podcasts to their phones. Mobilcast is installed by handset manufacturers, carriers, or users and is available on Cingular, Rogers Wireless, and T-Mobile (no Verizon or Sprint yet, dammit). This seems like a perfect place to try to do dynamic advertising - I mean narrowcast ads, one listener gets one ad. A podcast aggregator, a closed system, copious user information, limited playback controls... seems like fertile ground. It's also great to see NPR pushing podcasting to new heights; they are, after all, one of the more fervent purveyors of multicast HD Radio.

[via SymbianOne]

If you can't make it to the Portable Media Expo, which is taking registrations as reported here, or just don't want to wait until September, you can check out "The International Podcasting Expo" which is being held April 21 - 23, 2006. The unique thing is that this expo is being held around the clock, and online. The expo will be a non stop 48 hour event using a virtual expo system. There will be a cross platform audio conference room which will be recorded. Listeners can participate in live podcasts which will be available shortly after they are recorded on a special expo feed.  You can go sign up for the expo at their site.

Are any of our readers planning on signing up for this virtual expo?

A podcast called "Red Bar Radio" is claiming to be the first podcast to be syndicated on traditional radio without having first been broadcast over the air. Based out of Chicago, the talk show will be syndicated on the Genesis Communications Network on Saturdays from 9-11pm Central starting April 1. The live show can also be heard at www.redbarradio.com, and of course the podcast can be downloaded afterwards.

This is exactly the kind of movement we want to see in the podcasting space. Nothing will spice up traditional radio (analog or otherwise) than acquiring media from the bottom-up world of podcasts. Broadcast borrows from narrowcast, and the palette of options is improved. Podcasters like Red Bar get the obvious benefits of greater exposure, but can also involve advertisers in their Internet presence as well as their pure audio presence. Everyone wins.

P.S. Kudos to the author of the press release for using the word "portmanteau."

[via Radio World Online]

GoDaddy.com, known for its tasteful, chaste, kid-friendly ads is sponsoring over 50 podcasts on the PodShow Network, an aggregator of podcasts. GoDaddy's ads and sponsorship will appear in multiple podcasts and throughout the site. The press release is chock-full of zingers like "Advertising 2.0" and "the power of many voices discussing one brand." If podcasting sticks around, then certainly its monetized future lies in advertising of this kind - rolling out spots across multiple shows among a family of products and brands. It's the equivalent of sponsoring a night of bands at a concert, or a family of blogs all sharing money with Google Ad Words. At some point, NBC will have 70 podcasts (alright, maybe more like 7), and they will all have a coordinated ad campaign such as the one GoDaddy and PodShow are claiming to have done first. More power to 'em.

Of course, with all this new media being flung hither and yon, the bigger issue is "Why are these broadcast ads?" That is, why are all the members of PodShow's audience being given the same thing? Of course, it makes sense for a little minnow like PodShow to jump on a big fat ad contract, but this all highlights the fact that advertising is still delivered in a broadcast fashion but the audience is receiving content in a narrowcast manner. The audience is pulling down their podcasts, picking and choosing quixotically, but their ads are served from the same pool. Where is narrowcast advertising? Where are ad insertions based on individual users? THAT is the future: ads served in podcasts, webcasts, and digital broadcasts changed to suit each user.

[via Podcasting News]

Podcast aggregator, producer, and distributor PodTech.net received $5.5 million in Series A funding from 2 venture capitalist firms and Silicon Valley angel investors. PodTech.net focuses their business on PR-oriented podcasts for their corporate clients who include Intel, Juniper, Yahoo, Symantec, IBM, and Maxtor. Their flagship shows are called InfoTalk and PodTech News, and feature interviews with executives at the companies who sponsor PodTech, and others, such as VCs, the CEOs of interesting companies, and hotshot IT people. It's all very incestuous and nerdy, but it's a good way to push your company's softer PR efforts and put a more human face (voice) on topics that might not otherwise fight for bandwidth in the traditional business communication space. Guerilla PR? "Have mic will travel?" Hmmm... Anyhoo, I hope they use some of that money to better organize their website.

[via Podcasting News]