Next Wednesday, October 26th, Working Pathways will be podcasting the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association 2005 Summit.

As always, I expect it to be one of the best interactive conferences of the year. Lots of great, practical, conversations; including Laurie Blum from Best Buy and Shar Vanboskrik from Forrester. If you’re there, stop by and introduce yourself – I’ll be the one with all the audio gear.

On a related note, I checked out the Video iPod while at the Apple Store picking up some gear. Yes, I would watch TV on the 2 1/2-inch screen.

UPDATE: So, now I have about 12 hours of raw audio. Time to grab the headphones and fire up Audacity.

UPDATE 2: The MIMA Summit audio is now available.

The Working Pathways’ produced First Crack Podcast made it into podcasts.yahoo.com‘s staff picks. An excellent 1st birthday present. Thanks to the Yahoo Staff and thanks to Kris from the Croncast for pointing it out.

On October 12th, 2004, I sat down with a Jabra Bluetooth headset, some since forgotten audio recording application, and published the first First Crack Podcast.

How I’m doing the show now is far, far different than I did then – if only that I’m not hand-writing RSS. Despite improvements on my end, iTunes adding a Podcast directory, and PodcastMN.com going from 0 to nearly 50 unique podcasts, I still believe in podcasting’s underlying promise (here stated by Rex Hammock):

“Podcasting will lead to things we haven’t even thought about today.”

Traditional broadcasters haven’t figured out the magic formula, nor have the podcast pure-plays. This is a really good thing.

What we do know:

• A human, personal message is more important than the audio quality.
• Episode length and publication frequency don’t matter, there just needs to be another one.
• Each additional subscriber adds bandwidth costs
• Monetizing might happen through underwriting or commercials. Listener-supported models or podcast-as-marketing-for-something-else are more sustainable.
• Podcasting will continue to radically transform brodcast radio, television, the recording industry, church, politics, and voicemail.
• Right now, I have 273 un-listened podcasts (more than 6 days worth) in my iTunes. I need more – have you started yours?

I like to thank Steve at Micro Persuasion for pointing out MacWorld’s sensational “Is the Clock ticking on podcasting” rant. As usual, the Jennifer Berger only listened to radio ported to podcasting (KCRW, Inside Mac Radio). These are good listens, but they are not where podcasting’s future lives. They are not even an example of what’s interesting in podcasting today – for a sample of that, just skim PodcastMN.com or audio.weblogs.com.

Podcasting existing broadcast radio programs is today a convenience for radio listeners (listeners have independence from programmers schedule) tomorrow it will be the only way for broadcasts to have any relevance. Yes, if this were the future, podcasting is dead in the water. Anyone that’s hit record knows the least engaging audio is coming from existing producers. If you will, these carriage makers only now trying to leave off the horse. Like the weblogs before them, the promise comes with creating you own and sharing it with the world.

I agree with part of Berger’s closing statement:

“The answer is in the content—it has to be valuable and of high quality—and possibly even in a different format we can’t foresee now. I also think that someone or something, the iTunes Music Store or otherwise, will need to help listeners pick their podcasts.”

We do need help on what to pay attention to, this has always been a problem. Whether with movies, tv shows, websites, or people in general. We’ve always used the same solution – each other. I don’t see that changing at all.

I object to her uses of the words “valuable” and “high quality”. In this long tail world, both are far too subjective to be requirements.

Aside from sounding cool, “podcasting” is a combination of ‘ipod’ and ‘broadcast’ To deflect the impression that ‘podcasting’ requires an iPod (it doesn’t). Doc Searls has recommended the name stands for;

“Personal Option Digital ‘casting”

Others have suggested

“Personal On-Demand ‘Casting”

Both are fine backronyms, though I prefer CyborgName’s response:

Since I started podcasting nearly a year ago, there’s always been the question of how best to include music in a podcast. Personally, I’ve found it adds too much production time and I frequently fast-forward over songs in other podcasts anyway.

The CARP license that destroyed webcasting doesn’t quite fit. The RIAA, SoundExchange, and the other copyright holders haven’t published a license that makes sense to podcasters and I don’t see the incentive for them to. Their business model is based on keeping music unheard.

If there’s anything I gleaned from Frontline’s The Way the Music Died it’s that the really interesting artists aren’t in Wal-mart or any record store. Chris Anderson over at the Long Tail has the graphs to prove it. Yet, it’s the record store artists that new podcasters want to include in their new podcast.

Why shoehorn a model that doesn’t promote the interesting (traditional publishing) into a model that does (podcasting)?

Including a known artist’s work in a podcast is bad on two counts:

1. It invites the RIAA and their lawyers into your wallet.
2. It’s a lost opportunity to share other independent artists with your listeners. Sure, they won’t be as polished as your $18.00 radio-friendly unit shifters, but neither is your podcast. (That’s why it’s worth listening to.)

If you’re looking to use pre-recorded music for your podcast:

First know why you want music. Is it to sound like a “real radio” program? Or is it to share stuff you like with others in hopes they’ll like it to?

Secondly, pack up your CD collection and put your hometown in GarageBand.com’s city or state search, flip through the Magnatune‘s catalog, or through everything licensed under Creative Commons.

I’m confident all the artists there will be more than happy to be on your podcast.

ELSEWHERE:

“…basing any new work on Big Machine Music is insanity, particularly when there is a wealth of available music via Creative Commons or trivially licensable sources like Magnatune.” – Dave Slusher