Podcasts Going Mainstream?

One of the most attractive things about podcasting is the "pirate radio" attitude -- WITH decent production values. You can listen to niche podcasts about anything at all. Podcasting builds community, and artists benefit. It's also cheap (free) PR, and some folks are starting to get that idea.

Now mainstream radio is jumping in, using podcasting as a revenue source.

With radio trying to find new revenue streams, this is one of the obvious ones,” said Matt Feinberg, senior vp of national radio for Zenith Media, who has bought podcast advertising for a client.

Anyone who is podcasting right now is laughing. Podcasting? Revenue Streams??!! There are people who are generating money with their podcasts, but after their expenses I figure they might be breaking even. I know I'm not making a dime on my own podcast, and wouldn't dream of trying to make money on the church podcast. And that's not why I'm doing them. It's not why the majority of podcasters are doing their podcasts.

We podcast because they're fun. I did radio in college, and it's like owning your own radio station. I'm even starting to get demo CDs sent to me from bands around the country, asking me to play their stuff on the podcast.

Podcasting has changed the way a lot of people listen to music. But right now there are FAR too many professionally-done podcasts that are free for radio stations to even be thinking about subscription-based podcasts. They're going to have to do some serious value-adding to make that model go.

By the way -- if you want to hear some great music podcasts that are professionally done, check out a few of my fellow members of AMP. Right now, we're running a contest to rename iPodderX -- you can win some incredible prizes.

Posted by Warren Kelly at November 29, 2005 12:09 PM | TrackBack