Wednesday, November 30, 2005

All things pod

Sometimes, I'm a little slow.

For example, I'd had my iPod for over a year before I finally realized that if I just bought a dock I could plug in some speakers and play all my music without the aid of a CD player (or those cute little white earbud headphones that really don't fit in my ears all that well).

Like I said, sometimes I'm a little slow.

Now, walk past my office and you're likely to catch a waft of music seeping out my door (or blowing out, depending on my mood and whether or not the classroom across the hall is in session).

Mostly I just let it shuffle, so you could hear anything...from John Mayer or Martha's Trouble...to Richard Thompson or Youssou N'Dour...to oldies like Patsy Cline (one of my Mom's favorites; I used to sing along when I was a kid)...or even a bit of choral music from Chanticleer.

But some folks are really cooking. The other day I read how some club DJs are leaving their CDs and such at home and just taking their iPods. (I guess they also figured out about the dock and speakers.) And some people are podcasting -- creating their own digital audio shows and posting them on the web for others to download. What's more, some of them are even making money at it!

I don't know if you saw Podcasting Riches, an article by reporter Michael Bazeley in the Tech Monday section of the Mercury News, but it had a great article about people who are making money off podcasting. He quotes two Midwesterners whose podcast radio show is attracting enough advertisers that least one of them could quit his day job, and two women whose "mommycast" has attracted a $100,000 one-year sponsorship deal from Dixie Paper Products. Amazing!

Which gets me thinking...that maybe the Borg-like Clear Channel will finally meet its match...not in another media behemoth, but in a growing army of colorful and idiosyncratic podcasters. And maybe they'll replace this homogenized, automated, targeted-to-death crap that most radio has become and bring back the real thing...real music, real people, combined in ways that can still surprise and delight.

It really is a brave, new world out there. And for all our worries about radio and newspapers, and the future viability of careers in either, there are also some interesting opportunities cropping up.

So keep your eyes and ears open...and if an opportunity comes along to try something new, grab it! You never know how it might turn out.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not a big fan of the Ipod. not sure why, just don't care for the product. I have heard about podcasting and many people are liking it. Still I think it will be sometime before podcasting takes over the radio. Still it is nice that people are trying to get away from clear channel and the restrictions that they put radio stations up too. Hopefully podcasting will take over, but I doubt I would still buy one.

Gabriel Velez

Anonymous said...

The idea of being able to download pre-recorded radio shows offers the choice to listen what is of our interest and the convenience to listen to podcastings on our own time. Most of us find ourselves constanly juggling our time, it being between school, work, and family yet considering podcasts provides the handiness to listen pre-recordings when one does have time, and of our choice makes it very enjoyable as well as functional. Podcast seem to be less formal and shifted to what is realistic. However podcast listners need to keep in mind anyone can post up a podcast which may be meaningless information posted.The challenge will as listeners will be to be able to identify what is credible information and what is not.As of now podcast are becoming known as as powerful communication tool. I have tuned into podcast yet personally I'm not much of a tech junkie and well i would rather tune into clear channels. As far as podcasts taking over clear channels i strongly feel that would not happen anywhere in the near future.

Anonymous said...

podcasting has become an incredibly popular tool for people to get their messages out to the masses. In my Mcom72 class with Bob Rucker we had a guest speaker who came to basically speak about podcasts and how their revolutionizing the information age. You can find anything on podcasts from your typical talk radio show, to a food recipe podcast, or even a podcast strictly based around beer. Whats cool about it is that anyone can do it with a microphone and a computer. This has lead to an unbelievable amount of shows available for anyone to listen to. Its amazing how much the apple Ipod has changed the way we live our daily life. Now and days every person you see will have an ipod when they're at school, grocery shopping, or at the gym. The ipod is becoming a whole new branch of new age media.

Anonymous said...

Podcasts are surely a revolutionary form of media. But are they destined to change the way people get information? I think podcasting has the potential to change the way people listen to entertainment by having programs on demand, similar to the way TiVo has changed television. Laura Burstein spoke to Bob Rucker's mcom 72 class about podcasting and the emergence of civilian journalism. It is important to know that any moron with a microphone can record noise and call in information. So because of this, we must be able to filter out the garbage and reject the nonsense, creating podcast categories such as news and entertainment.

Anonymous said...

i just typed the above comment and forgot to leave my, and I hope its ok that I posted November's blog at 12:30 a.m. Dec 1
Jackson Harp

Anonymous said...

I've never really heard about podcasting either! I don't really concider myself slow, but this one sure passed me by. I personally don't think that podcasting is a bad idea. honestly, I think it's something that I would like to do! I don't have an ipod myself...always wanted one but never got around to getting one. Music is something that everyone can relate to one way or another; that's why I think that podcasting is somthing that could really cach on just like the ipod did!

-Charlene Crooks

Anonymous said...

I am from MommyCast and am so excited to see people spreading the news about podcasting. I was skeptical myself before I got into the whole podcasting culture. Now I am realizing how much more real podcasting is compared to conventional radio. Of course, I believe that podcasting is already taking over clear channel. As of right now there are over 10,000 podcasts available and this medium has only been in existence for about a year. Gretchen and I thought that we would do five shows and call it a day. It turns out people like our show so here we are with a one year sponsorship from Dixie! Gretchen and I were just at Disneyland and we visited Tomorrowland where they have "Club Buzz". I wish I could post the cute pictures of the kids doing the "robot" with Buzz Lightyear. Anyway, my point in this story is that the DJ there was playing all of her music from her iPod. Not only that, but Disney has come out with its own resort podcast. It talks about all of the upcoming attractions. Gretchen and I were lucky enough to get an interview with the park archivist inside of Walt Disney's personal residence within the park. We found out all kinds of good stuff that most people don't know about Walt Disney and the beginning of his grand idea 50 years ago. I never would have had this opportunity if it weren't for podcasting. What the heck? I'm just a mother of 5 from Virginia! Proof that anyone can have a great time in the podcasting world.