iTunes V Podshow
I’ve been listening to Ron Bloom, co-founder of Podshow, the venture capital backed outfit that plans to bring podcasts to listeners, and sponsors to podcasters. His business partner, by the way, is Adam Curry, the “Podfather” - or perhaps “one of the Podfathers”, depending on whose history of podcasting you read.
Bloom was chatting on the Businessweek blogspotting podcast. Naturally I’m interested, as one day we hope to find sponsors for Storynory and some other podcasting ideas we have in mind.
Bloom has some good points, although he does go on a bit. He says that some podcaster presenters have a “special relationship” with their listeners. We definately agree there. Perhaps the relationship is even more special than radio, because of the feedback via the website, and because of the friendly and personal style of podcasts, which are rather like the blogs of the sound waves. I don’t really believe him when he says that Podshow can “measure” the relationship. That seems like Dr. Spock from Star Treck trying to measure humanoid emotions with a little bleeping box.
He also talks about creating “listener delight” by giving audiences better control over what they listen to. Well it’s true that none of the podcatchers or directories are ideal yet. Perhaps Podshow can make its Podcast Alley into the best. I don’t know. But I do know that over 80% of Storynory’s listeners use Apple’s iTunes. That makes Apple the gatekeeper of podcasting. I find the iTunes approach a bit clunky. It’s a pity that you have to open up the iTunes softwear application to cruise its directory of Podcasts. One day, I think, Apple will fix that so that you can access its directory straight from your browser .
What I’m driving at, is that Apple could easily dominate the market for driving sponsors to podcasts. It has the power in its hands, and it only has to find the will to do it. If podcasting continues to grow, Apple can eat Podshow’s lunch.
So if Podshow is going to fullfil its dreams, it had better come up with some very wonderful ways to “delight” listeners and capture the podcasting audience. It needs to be the “Google” of podcasting. It’s not impossible… but it’s certainly a long shot for its venture capital backers.
