Day 2 of the Exclusive Feature, The Future of Podcasting! Today's writing comes from Michael Geoghegan of Reel Reviews.
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I am bullish on podcasting. I tell everyone willing to listen about the power of podcasting. I still
cannot get over the fact that you can sit in your home and produce an audio
show that has a worldwide audience. That
is just mind blowing. Podcasting has
experienced explosive growth; but is still in its infancy. There are so many
aspects that need to be worked on; it makes one’s head spin. That is also what makes it exciting. We can make a difference in developing and
shaping the growth of the medium. I
thought I’d take this opportunity to highlight some of the issues I see on the
horizon.
Podcasting is too
hard to do.
There, I said it and it is true. Now keep in mind, I am a proponent of getting
as many people podcasting as possible. I
have an entire series entitled Podcast
About The Podcast devoted to help simplify all the steps involved. In fact, on any given day those posts will be
the most requested of any on my site. There is a lot to learn and people need help.
The first thing anyone is going to judge a podcast on is the
audio quality. Is it pleasant to listen
to or for that matter is it at least tolerable? What no one tells a beginning podcaster is that they will also have to
become an amateur audio engineer. Welcome to the world of compression,
normalization, limiters, gates, de-essers, plosives, dB, kHz and sample rates.
What podcasters need are tools.
How about a basic application geared towards voice-over and
spoken word. In its default mode, you
start it up, plug in a microphone and it runs through some setup steps to set
levels and compression for your voice. Next, you record away. When you are done, it allows for basic cut
and paste editing, adding in an intro and outro and sound bed, if you like, and
then sets a final output level. You
assign a profile to the newly recorded show and a window pops up with all your
default id3 tag info, name, comments, author, genre, album artwork etc. It allows you to edit any tags for the show
you just produced. Next it asks you to confirm if it should encode to mp3 using
the default setting. The podcaster makes
his choice, hits enter and quickly the newly produced and encoded podcast pops
into his production folder. This is a tool designed for the beginner. As more
non-technical people get involved in podcasting, they are going to be searching
for simple tools that can help them get started. With tools this easy to use we can really
open the floodgates for people to express themselves. That is where the power lies.
Subscribing to a
podcast is not simple enough.
I recently produced a new podcast about wine called Grape Radio. We were fortunate that Grape Radio quickly
became popular among wine enthusiasts. However, these people had no experience with podcasting. What we didn’t
realize is how much they would struggle with trying to get our podcasts to
work. We received lots of “tech support”
questions from folks who couldn’t figure out how to use their podcatching
software. We were happy to help, but this points to a bigger challenge. These are the “customers”, the people we are
trying to attract to podcasting. We
should not be making them work this hard. It needs to be “idiot proof” - point
and click simple. Here is what I envision. A listener is at a site and decides they want to subscribe. They click
on a podcast subscription button. Their
default podcast client pops up a window confirming they want to subscribe. The user clicks yes and they are done.
Monetization
With all the talk about podcast monetization I can guarantee
two things:
1. “How are you going to make money,” will continue to be
the number one question asked of podcasters for the foreseeable future.
2. New Media Consultants will begin making money talking
about how podcasters are planning to make money.
Let me quickly highlight two emerging opportunities. One is
to license podcast content for use by commercial ventures. This is particularly appealing in the niche
content arena. As podcasting becomes
more popular and well known, large commercial sites with forum and discussion
groups will feel pressure to add a podcast channel. A partnership can be struck between a
well-known high traffic commercial site and a well-produced podcast covering
the same topic. This is something we
recently did with Reel Reviews and DVDtalk. Another example is licensing
podcast content for radio, both terrestrial and Internet. Think I’m crazy? Check out the Public Radio Exchange.
The second opportunity is consulting and production
agreements with businesses and organizations that want to begin using
podcasting as a tool to communicate with their constituents. There is a lot to learn and experienced
podcast producers can certainly add value in these situations. These
opportunities are not abundant but are becoming available.
Radio
I know that Mark,
one of this week’s guests bloggers, is a radio consultant so I thought I’d
address radio briefly. Podcasting has a
somewhat uneasy relationship with radio, not unlike blogs and traditional print
media. I think each is jealous of the luxuries of the other. Podcasters can do and say what they please
free from any regulatory or commercial concerns. Radio has all the tools to produce quality
audio, but more importantly, they figured out how to monetize the medium long
ago.
Podcasting borrows so much from radio. People who have radio in their background
make many of the best-produced podcasts. They certainly had a step up on the learning curve. In a recent
interview on podcasting I was asked if I always wanted to be on the radio.
That’s an easy one - no, never even thought about it. However, if a radio station were to ask me to
start doing movie segments, I’d just want to know where to park and what time
to be there. Not because I’m dying to be
on the radio, but because I am having so much fun sharing my passion for film
with others, and any time you get excited about sharing you want to include as
many people as possible. I think you’ll
see some people move from podcasting to traditional radio. Radio can leverage
podcasting as an effective farm system. Go looking on the Internet to see whom
people are responding to, what are they choosing to listen to given almost
unlimited choice. If someone can hold your attention talking into a microphone
in their bedroom, imagine what they can do with studio production behind
them.
Many broadcasters will dismiss podcasting as having no value
and being composed exclusively of wannabe rank amateurs. They should be cautious, I know that since I
found podcasting my time listening to radio is less than 10% of what it used to
be. I haven’t heard in weeks shows I used to listen on a daily basis. I’m not
trying to imply podcasting is going to take over radio, just that a trend is
emerging, because of portable media devices, whether it is music or podcasts,
people are spending less time listening to radio.
I think a second group, frankly a smaller group, will
embrace podcasting as a way to increase the strength of the relationship with
their radio audience. Offering special
segments from favorite hosts, exclusive content and show archives. They will
also be able to tap into their existing advertising relationships to make it
profitable. Essentially radio needs to figure out how to get on those portable
mobile devices We are already seeing some radio stations and personalities
releasing shows as podcasts. Frankly, with all the talk about how to make money
with podcasting, radio is positioned to do it first.
I am excited to see the growth of podcasting over the next
year. It will be interesting to look
back and see the changes that have occurred. Podcasting is moving so quickly it almost takes your breath away. Whether it is someone that wants to share
personal thoughts and experiences with close friends and family or someone
trying to build a worldwide audience, podcasting offers an amazing opportunity
for people to express themselves. Ultimately, that is what it is all about.
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tags: podcasting | reel reviews
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