New Thing - Old News

You may not have heard it here first, but you definitely heard it here way before USA Today figured out that Podcasting is the next Internet wave. How it breaks is still anybodies guess.

One topic we that quickly came up on the first edition of the Spartan Podcast, is the continuing exodus of younger listeners from Radio to Internet delivered content. Some are incredulous that it's Microsoft and not Apple that is touting the genre, while others believe that the company Steve Jobs built has "sold it's soul" to the music industry and has nothing to gain by promoting something that is doing it's viral thing no matter what. ASCAP and BMI are on the bandwagon, issuing podcast licenses and word has it that Sound Exchange isn't far behind. Chris McIntyre's PodcastAlley.com is suddenly one of the most popular stops on the web and guys like Todd Cochrane at Geek News Central are getting paid for their pontifications. And then, there is the cryptic post on Dave Winer's Scripting News site:

"Since I'm not pursuing a podcasting business with Adam Curry, he's going to move his sites off my servers, on or before the end of this month."

Have the two fathers of the concept had a falling out? One guess. It probably has to do with money.

And that's the $64 million dollar question. When I discussed podcasting with a friend who is a senior strategy executive at one of the country's biggest media companies, he said that his people still haven't figured out how to make money with it. "Downloads don't necessarily mean listeners," he warns.

Which seems to bring us full circle to the ongoing discussion at Keener13.com about what makes good radio. It seems to us that compelling content will get listeners no matter what the platform. Like em or not, Dawn and Drew are compelling to the twenty some thousand people who regularly download their version of Ozzie and Harriet on Crack. Brian Ibbott's Coverville strikes a chord with folks who like their classic rock in different wrappers. And if our download stats are any indication, at least a few of you find some value in your regular dose of the Keener13 Podcast.

Content is the key. It's the holy grail, that moving target that is constantly changing with the unpredictable winds of the public taste. It turns out that Mcluhan had it backwards: the message is the medium. Figure out how to consistently connect with an audience, any audience, and no matter what your platform, sooner or later you have a business model. Nellie Knorr figured that out in the cool Fall of 1963 and changed the definition of Detroit radio. Podcasters are on the verge of doing the same thing.