About Podcasts

Broadcasting made simple

Just as blogs have made publishing open to all, podcasting has liberated broadcasting. If you have a microphone and a computer, you can record your voice and put it up on the net. Listeners can download audio by clicking on a link. Listeners with iPods can use Apple’s free iTunes software to subscribe to favourite podcasts. Each time a podcast is published, iTunes transfers it automatically onto the iPod.

This simple technology has surprised many with its popularity. In early 2004, the BBC tried out podcasting with Radio 4’s In Our Time It’s a heavy weight programme presented by the intellectual, Lord Melvyn Bragg. 30,000 people a week were downloading ; More recently, The Guardian has been publishing a podcast by Ricky Gervais (Of The Office).  It’s been receiving about 180,000 downloads a week, and is top of the iTunes podcast parade. The Daily Telegraph has appointed a former BBC Radio Presenter to edit theTelegraph’s podcast , which currently is an audio rendition of various stories in the newspaper.

Independent podcasters have been attracting audiences too. Dignation, which covers top stories on the social bookmark service, “Dig”, has 30,500 subscribers - and this is not counting those who download directly. Technology is a popular subject.  Photoshop TV, a video with software tutorials, has 25,000 subscribers.  Other popular subjects include learning languages, humour, and reality style chit chat.  There also music shows featuring unsigned artists (podsafe music).

The owners of Blog Relations publish a podcast for children called Storynory . An actress reads classic fairy tales. Storynory is very new, but it’s already getting around 4000 downloads a week. As the stories never date,we expect them to continue to be downloaded and reach a large audience over the year.

Costs 

The equipment can be bought for a few hundred pounds.  A basic podcast kit includes a microphone, headphones, perhaps a sound mixer, and a computer which you probably own anyway.   After that you need a quiet room without any trace of echo.  Finding somewhere quiet can be the hardest part if you are based in the city.

The bandwidth (cost of online hosting) is coming down in price.  We use Bluehost which charges $7 per month for 250 Gigs of transfer each month.  Supposing you have a 15 minute programme saved in a reasonable degree of sound-quality. 250 gigs of transfer would represent 16,500 downloads.  If you buy more bandwidth, the unit price falls.  But if you are worried about costs, there is a risk-free option.  Libsyn will give you unlimited transfer for one month, before asigning your audio to a secondary (lower quality) server.  We find Libsyn is a bit slow, but otherwise fine. 

The Potential Revenues

 If you have an audience and a good demographic, then advertisers will be interested.  Our own inquiries reveal that at this stage in the UK, media buyers are watching the development of podcasts with great interest.   Traditional advertising is losing effectiveness, and advertisers are actively seeking new outlets, especially ones that can “borrow” credibility.

This is not a virgin market.  In the USA, $30 billion is spent annually on radio advertising. The money will follow the audience.

We believe that the most effective form of advertising for a podcast is a short message read by the presenter.  This has the following advantages – low production costs for the advertiser; “credibility” lent by the programme; and minimum disruption to the main content.   Just as online, text-links have much better click-through rates than pictorial banners (Google has proved this) , in podcasting, simple is also best.

Product placements are also possible so long as the commercial link is disclosed (or else the programme will lose credibility).  It is important that there should be value for the listener - e.g. tips and information, rather than a straight plug.  For example, a travel programme might have a city guide, while staying at a particular hotel.

Podcast sponsorship can be sold in two ways - on a flat rate or per 1000 downloads.  Further revenues can come from advertising sold off the website.  Interesting podcasts  are good for generating webtraffic.

Intermediaries are springing up to assist in the sale of advertising. PodShow , run by podcast pioneer Adam Curry, aims to network together independent podcasts and negotiate with media-buyers.  It is a serious venture with $10 million of backing in venture capital.

Some Reported Deals

  • PodShow helped The Mommycast, presented by two mothers,  to conclude a $100,00 sponsorship deal with Dixie paper products.(Mercury News, 28/11/05 ).
  • Last year Volvo paid $60,000 for a six-month sponsorship of the monthly podcast of Autoblog, as well as advertising on the site itself. Over that period, the show was downloaded 150,000 times.  (BusinessWeek 14/11/05)
  • The online line downloads of KCRW ,a public radio station in Santa Monica, is sponsored by a Lexus car.  It is currently charging a flat rate and plans to switch to  $25 per thousand downloads.  It has around 100,000 downloads per month. (Business Week 14/11/05).
  • The University of Texas Longhorn football Club Podcast is sponsored by Time Warner Cable and RunTex at $25 per thousand downloads It’s called The Zone Read.   (Business Week 14/11/05 - reader’s response)
  • GrapeRadio receives $1,000 a week from sponsors for his show about wine. (Wired News 28/09/05).  It sells advertising on a “per week” basis.
  • 15 year old “Emo girl” is sponsored by  Nature’s Cure acne treatment. (Undercover News 18/11/05 ).
  • Techpodcasts - a network of podcasts about technology, with 750,000 downloads per month across the network - is sponsored by GoToMeetings.com and GoDaddy webhosting. (Press Release 04/08/05 ).
  • PhotshopTV is sponsored by iStockphoto, Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, and Wacom.(Photoshop TV website)

Skills

Nobody thinks that working at the BBC is an easy job, but lots of people think that making a podcast is easy.   Well it is true - anyone can do a podcast badly.   Working in audio or video requires an ability to think in a certain way.  It’s practice mainly, but you are structuring your information so that it can be easily absorbed by a listener or viewer, while holding their attention or interest.  It’s similar but different from the way you would put your thoughts down on paper.  Newspapers are finding that if they just pay somebody to read out a column or an article, the effect leaves the listener cold.

A good speech radio programme has to be planned.  If you have a good script it is possible, though not easy, to do it as a monologue.  Otherwise you need  a variety of interesting speakers, different shades of opinion, and a lively exchanges of views.   Above all you need to transmit human warmth.  

You need to record the sound cleanly, keeping hiss, pops, distortion and background noise to a minimum.  It requires practice.

Finally you need editing skills, to take out all the re-takes, boring bits, and if possible, the ums and errs.

It’s amazing how well some newcomers to audio have taken to all this.  But it’s a mistake to think that making a good podcast is easy.