Podcasts - Radio To Go: The Podcasting Explosion - Truck Tronics

  |   truck Electronics podcasts If the term "podcast" isn't a familiar one, it's no surprise since the term was coined barely a year ago to mean a cross between "broadcast" and "iPod." Podcasts started out as amateur radio shows distributed as MP3s, but now fat-cat commercial broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh are getting into the act, as are non-commercial broadcasters like NPR's KCRW station in Santa Monica, California. So what's all the fuss about? Basically, podcasting has gone viral in a big way, meaning there is enthusiastic buzz about it on the internet-the same type of buzz that blogging created when it showed up a couple of years ago. Just as blogs are primarily text-based, podcasts are audio files-many of them recorded by enthusiasts in their homes, and distributed world wide on the internet. Subjects include fishing, religion ("godcasts") and, yes, trucks (or at least GM's perspective on it, in its Fast Lane podcast). A visit to www.podcast.net is a good crash course on the thousands of available topics and is searchable by keyword and listenable by streaming media. Whether streaming it or downloading it to a portable MP3 player, the point the pundits are making is 1) Podcasting is part of the internet's digital content distribution revolution, which is transitioning from text to audio and now, increasingly, to video, and 2) It's an offshoot of the TiVo time-shifting paradigm, since once content is stored, it can be enjoyed whenever and wherever. At this time, podcasting is non-commercial-the biggest online catalog of podcasts is currently the Apple iTunes music store, where they're available at no charge. So iPod users paying for music downloads can supplement them with free podcasts, which is driving their popularity. One reason why podcasts are still free, however, is that most of them don't contain any music, leaving intellectual property rights and their attendant royalties out of the equation. According to The Diffusion Group, 60 million Americans will be enjoying or creating podcasts by 2010. Podcasting's commercial future has been a point of debate; it's hard to predict the success of a format that didn't exist a year ago. However, industry observers agree on one thing: Podcasts will find their niche and will end up being just as influential as previous developments in information gathering and sharing. As an extension of the MP3 revolution, or (more broadly) downloadable digital content, it's just a matter of finding what people will actually want to pay for. Podcasts are the novelty du jour, but there's probably a new soup on tomorrow's menu.