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Podcasting: Still Full of Hippies


I was promised late last year that the Association for Downloadable Media would begin their crusade to rid the podcasting community of the hippies this year. Given the conversation arising today as a result of my tell-all yesterday, I have to admit a certain eagerness for them to get on with it.

Dave Winer said that I was "full of shit wrong" when it came to podcasting being in any way a business proposition. Paul Colligan told me to stop advertising and make money other ways (echoing Leesa Barnes' statement). The folks at Podcasting News were so incensed over the whole deal, they put out a hit piece on Mashable in general (calling our news coverage essentially dry and frivolous), and disparaging me in particular as a podcaster without a track record. They eventually dialed back the fervor a little bit and published a piece that addressed Dave Winer's points directly, and then agrees with my original piece (although, I'd definitely categorize it as "acrimonious agreement") with the conclusion that "podcasting is a technology, not a world view."

Unfortunately, everyone is dead wrong on this one. The problem here is one of semantics. For some reason, the word podcasting has gotten all mucked up by hippie philosophical meanderings of the Adam Curry's and the Dave Winer's of the world. Folks like Leesa Barnes and Paul Colligan apparently eat it all up. The folks at Podcasting News seem to grasp parts of the separation. Separating the word podcasting from its three diverse but distinct meanings is apparently impossible to do for most people, though.

Podcasting is a Philosophy
socrates.jpgI was originally sucked into podcasting because it is a philosophy. You know all those opinion pieces I do here at Mashable where I talk about how the big nine media aren't any good for culture and their ruining everything, and how New Media is the solution to our ills? That's the philosophy I'm talking about. It's not difficult to grasp that media in the 20th and 21st centuries has gone far astray from where it started. Whether you believe there's a liberal bias, a corporate bias or a sensationalist bias, we all agree: there's a bias, and we don't like it.

We want our information the way we want it. New Media offers that. There's a million and one different opinions out there on the net, all spinning the news in their own unique way. We have a veritable buffet to choose from on how we consume our media. I like that. I feel richer for it. I no longer am constrained to three, seven or nine news and entertainment choices - I have millions to choose from.

Podcasting is a Community
village-podcast.pngAs an outgrowth of the philosophy, there arose a community. Or perhaps as an outgrowth of the community, there arose a philosophy. I don't know which came first, but both exist now, and it is important to note. At first it was constrained to the little hotspots that Curry and Winer set up. Then there came PodcastAlley. Then the podcast hubs (like my old hub, BlipMedia). Then PodcastPickle. Then certain popular shows grew their own communities. Now there are hundreds of splintered communities. If you trace the philosophies and the mindsets of the trendsetters in these groups, you'll find they go back to the originals, and the philosophies I described above.

As a community, podcasting is subject to all the strengths and foibles of traditional online communities and social networks. The collaborate and push each other forward, as is demonstrated in things like the Podcast and New Media Expo and the many PodCamps around the country. They also have downsides, like the herd mentality exhibited when I sacrificed the sacred cow yesterday and 'named names' on people I felt deserved to be called to task. The most important foible (and perhaps greatest strength), though, is that the philosophy, technology and community are unable to be divorced in the minds of the community members.

Podcasting is a Technology
ipod-technology.jpgMost importantly, podcasting is a technology. Just to give you a brief synopsis of my experiences with podcasting: I originally started in a different media type. For me, I've been a professional writer since I was in high school, but once writable compact discs became an affordable technology, I and one of my good buddies started making radio shows we'd burn to disc with the label: Pirate This Radio! Our distribution was sneaker-net. We played cool music, we talked about geek stuff, and it got an interesting amount of distribution.

During the tech bust at the end of the 90s, I worked off and on for terrestrial radio at WABC, amongst other places. Then, the rise of streaming radio occurred, and I took to using the technology in the form of the then-popular Shoutcast and Oggcast stations. I had a modicum of success at AKARadio (then called 'Cam-Mafia' radio), but really took off at RantRadio. A couple years into my streaming radio experience, the podcasting technology emerged.

I created the first free podcast hosting company (which was, a year or two later, wiped out by Hurricane Wilma), and launched several podcasts that had amazing download numbers, even by today's standards. Over the years, Art Lindsey (program director for RantRadio) and I ran a number of different shows, experimenting with format length and types to varying degrees of success. Over the last year, the most successful podcast I've run to date was the RizWords podcast (which I've touched on several times in the past).

All this to say, I don't really feel as if audio podcasting is significantly different from any other form of auditory entertainment at its basic level, and I have the qualifications to make that assertion. Generally, what works in terrestrial radio works in podcasting. Aside from certain time restrictions, what works in streaming radio also works in podcasting. Audio podcasting can do almost everything that more traditional forms of audio entertainment can, plus quite a few things that it can't. By that token, the old forms of monetization should be at least as effective in the New Media as in the Old.

So Why Won't Advertising Work?
It can, it should, and it will. And it'll work better, faster and stronger than the old technologies, because that's the nature of technological improvement. There can be better statistical and demographic tracking with podcasting. There can be better community and personality oriented endorsements and targeting. There can be greater niche carving at a fraction of the price.

The bottom line is that podcast advertising isn't snake oil. Those that advertise on podcasts are generally more pleased with return on investment than similar ad ventures on traditional media. The problem isn't in the business model, nor is it in the technology, philosophy or the community.

The problem, as I stated before, is in the networks. I haven't tried every advertising network out there, so I can't say they are all bad. I can speak to the quality of the networks I have dealt with, and I can say that there is a definite consistency in my experience - they aren't for, whatever reason, paying podcasters consistently. In yesterday's piece, I outlined the many different reasons for this on a company by company basis based on my own anecdotal experience.

The Ad Model Isn't Broken, Just the Companies
Because they aren't doing it right doesn't mean it can't be done right, though. The advertising model is straight forward enough, and generally works, both for advertisers and podcasters. It needs to be executed properly, end to end. Until a company can completely execute end to end on that, the state of audio podcasting will continue to be challenging for new producers to break into and stick around in.

The vast majority of the companies I mentioned in yesterday's article are particularly good, and in my opinion, have it 90% right. Podango is a great organization, and hands down some of the classiest folks in the business. They need to get their ad sales department in order, and they'd be one of the biggest ad powerhouses on the net. Wizzard is obviously doing a lot of things right, as is evidenced by partners like Nielsen/Netratings and clients like the Navy. They need to work a bit on their flexibility, and perhaps increase their awareness of other players in the market (not to mention work on their people skills).

TalkShoe is a, for the most part, solid piece of technology, but seems to vacillate on whether they want to be a podcasting company or some other type of audio entertainment. Their constant incentive plan changes were very discouraging to the talent there during my tenure. They need to take a seminar on the concept of contracts, and possibly talent management.

As for the other companies I mentioned, there is more going on there than I have time to cover and make suggestions for correction, but I don't believe most of the companies I mentioned are beyond repair. Still, we're more than a handful of years into the development of the community, philosophy, technology and business models of podcasting. I think it is way past high time we get our act together and make it happen.

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