The Current State of Podcasting: Hippie

Dave Winer (at scripting.com) and Frederic over at Last Podcast have decided to delve into a topic that is very near and dear to my heart: podcasting. We're heading into the home stretch of the year, and lots of folks are taking the time to look back at the mini-revolutions they've helped start. I'll chip in, since I've been in and out of podcasting since a few moments after the standard was set.

While Dave Winer may not encourage folks to "quit their day job," Adam Curry does. Unfortunately, the success (or lack thereof) of podcasting has largely been judged by the ability for independent podcasters to come in and do that, and thus far, only the most savvy have been able to achieve that goal.

I blame the lack of ascendancy and financial reward involved with podcasting on the fact that in the beginning, it was primarily populated by folks with what I call the hippy-happy mindset. If you've attempted to make a go of a capitalistic podcasting endeavor, you know exactly what I mean. Podcasting's first crop of hosts were seemingly of the mindset that "you just can't accept or make money with this stuff, because then it becomes a job. Once it is a job, it is no longer fun, and then no one will want to do it anymore." That mentality persists to this day.
Of course, to most folks, this concept is patently absurd. That you're reading this blog right now concretely proves that someone can make a living doing what they love. The A-List is thoroughly lousy with bloggers who make a decent days wage yammering on about stuff they'd be talking about for free if only two or three people were around. Why should podcasting be any different?

Its OK to Make Money for Podcasting
As I said, though, this mindset continues to persist. Let me give you an example. I currently have a podcast that, in its current incarnation, was started over on the TalkShoe network. TalkShoe is a great service on a technical level, and combines several aspects of communication technology that have been sorely lacking for independent audio producers for some time. They also have an advertising department, and allegedly sell ads that run on every show on the network. When you sign up (to this day) the FAQ promises you up to $4.00 per 100listeners to the show (or $40 CPM, in ad speak).

When I discovered this service and their advertising promises, I jumped at the chance to actually get back into podcasting and make some money at it. For about the first three months, I was making the same amount of money I was pulling in from my technology consulting business from TalkShoe. Our downloads were, at one point, accounting for roughly a third of all downloads from the entire network.

Then, Dave Nelson, CEO of TalkShoe, announced that they'd be changing their compensation program significantly. Our monthly revenue dropped from $15 CPM down to around $6 to $8 CPM. There was a very loud and boistrous debate between podcasters and management that took place on the forums of TalkShoe during the transition to less money. As a result of TalkShoe's decision to lower payouts, many of most downloaded podcasters left TalkShoe, like myself and Keith and the Girl. Still some like Scott and Kris, and Chris24 chose to stay.

Consistently surfacing in the dialogue the users had with the management over at the TalkShoe forums was that "we as podcasters should be happy that we get any money at all." I was called greedy and a prima donna for asking for a fair amount of pay for a fair amount of work. Unfortunately, this attitude is not limited to TalkShoe, and can be found in most podcasting communities around the Web. It is this same attitude that has allowed companies that make their living off the independent producer to engage in sub-standard business practices in terms of paying the talent. Unfortunately, it has also assisted in the creation of a talent vacuum, allowing Old Media to come in and dominate virtually every podcasting directory in existence with their programs, crowding out any independent producer's chances of rising through the ranks.

The sad bit is that there exists the opportunity for indy producers to make far more in audio podcasting than almost any other medium. For a savvy and talented content producer, creating quality content is cheap, and acquiring an audience despite these barriers is relatively easy (at least when compared to other Internet media like blogging and video). The hardest part is finding advertising representation that will actually sell for you and then subsequently pay you what they promised to pay.

If There's No Money In It, Why Tailor My Software or Device For It?
Unfortunately, the problems don't stop there for podcasting. The same hippy-happy attitude that allows the monetary aspect to cloud their judgment is also at the root of the problem in terms of devices and software suitable for receipt and playback of podcast.

Podcasting is a passive medium. You can listen while you jog, you can listen while you work, you can multi-task in a myriad of ways while you're paying attention to podcast. It is, in its essence, the digital translation of AM/FM radio (time-shifted of course). An optimum podcast player should allow you to set your subscriptions, define a playlist based off the subscriptions, and then play those podcasts for you (preferably in the order in which you set them when you set your subscriptions).

gates-zune.JPGYou shouldn't have to go back to the program and click on the next podcast. You shouldn't need a player that's separate from your subscribing utility. Neither one of these utilities should take more than a few seconds to load on the average machine.

We're talking about processing text (the RSS feed) and playing an MP3. I had WinAmp 2.0 seven or eight years ago on a machine four times slower than this one. It loaded up under a second, and took no time at all to initiate playing of a file. Now my machine is faster, my hard drive is bigger, and my RAM is greater; I have to wait at least a minute and a half (or longer, if Firefox is open) for iTunes to load up, remember that it has podcasts, and nag me to upgrade before I can even go an click on my first podcast (and there still isn't decent playlist functionality).

Simply put: the reason is that there is no public outcry from any large podcasting agency with a decent amount of cash behind them. Why the lack of outcry? Because there aren't any podcasting agencies that rival the size of your next largest video ad firm, much less anything that's more than a blip on the radar of Apple these days.

It all goes back to the hippy-happy mentality of podcasts. Once podcasters decide to make a real go of it, to organize and fix the industry, to make their media palatable and accessible to the general public, you'll see dramatic return to the forefront of podcasting.

Podcasting is, as Frederic and Dave say, in a holding pattern. A few minor tweaks by the right folks, and it can break out. Unfortunately, stemming from the lack of perceived demand and money flowing through the streams of podcasting, there are very few players and gadgets built that truly take advantage of how podcasting should be.

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