Odeo Disconnects

“As of November 1, 2006, Odeo phone posting will no longer accept calls. We will continue to host and serve all MP3s made with the service indefinitely, but you will no longer be able to use it to post new audio.”

Until moments ago, I would recommend Odeo and Hipcast (formerly Audioblog.com) as the easiest way to get podcasting – just sign up and call the phone number they give you. (Odeo free, Hipcast small fee)

Boom. Mass voicemail.

Outside of that, I wasn’t sure what Odeo had unique and compelling from so many of the other players in the space (is it a directory?, a studio?, a social network?, an aggregator?). Only their post-by-phone clicked for me. I guess it didn’t click for anyone else.

Kudos to Hipcast for charging from the beginning and ensuring a greater permanence than a free, resource-intensive service.

Many thanks to Eric Rice for clarifying the difference between Hipcast and AudioBlogger.com (the post-by-phone engine behind Odeo). For quite a while, I thought they were one in the same. Real glad they’re not.

Introducing the HijackingWP Script

One of my biggest problems with podcasting is the production process. Even without editing the audio, the process is far too manual to repeat without inherent discouragement (65 podcasts in year 1 and 20 in year 2 should speak to that).

In an effort to publish more and make podcasting as effortless as writing this post, I spent a couple hours last night writing the HijackingWP script.

It’s a little Applescript glue to connect AudioHijackPro (recording), Transmit (uploading), and WordPress (publishing and distribution).

More info at the HijackingWP page.

Oh, and yes, First Crack 86 proves it works. 😉

“Statistically Nobody is Listening to Your Podcast”

“…at the beginning of the year Feedburner had 1 million subscriptions to podcasts it helped deliver. That number has now grown to 5 million subscribers for 71,000 podcasts. For you math fans, that means the average podcast has … 70 subscribers. – Frank Barnako”

(emphasis mine.)

70 is a great number. It’s not a number that makes sense for advertisers – it’s statistically zero (credit to Dave Slusher for the quote titling this post). Well, until we can accurately measure influence and caring.

“But it is a number that can find your friends, like thinkers and make you feel that you are talking to more than 3 people.” – Kris Smith.

Exactly. Mass voicemail.

Related:

“”The average blog has exactly one reader: the blogger.” – Eric Schmidt, CEO Google, via Jeff Jarvis

Severe Cold Alert

Monday night, I stopped by the Target cold and flu aisle on the way home from the Emerging Digerati presentation.

I’m thankful that cold remedy makers put they symptoms on the box front; body ache, sore throat, fever, headache.

Tuesday, all the symptoms were turned up to 11. The few conversations I had, were hastily rescheduled between my few awake moments.

If I missed you, I’m sorry. It’s better I wasn’t there.

Things are improving. I just might be back to normal tomorrow.

Shure is Quiet in Here: A Review of the E2c-n Sound Isolating Earphones

Noticing I get more work done with headphones on and music drowning out the rest of the world, I picked up a pair of Shure E2c-n Sound Isolating Earphones – thinking I wouldn’t need the music up so loud.

I don’t know how I could have handled airplane travel without them. The rest of the world is muffled away. Even with nothing playing, they turn the world down a couple notches. All the ambient noise of the cabin – fans, air, all of it gone. The screaming baby directly behind me? I barely know it’s there.

Ahhhh. Quiet.

They came with a number of different inserts, I found the orange foam ones most comfortable. Though, I still haven’t found the perfect position for them. With the iPod ear buds, I could just set them in and go. The Shure’s need a little wiggling before they’re comfortable and then, a little more wiggling after a while.

First Crack 85. Jeremy Messersmith Talking about the Alcatrez Kid

Here’s my long-awaited conversation with Jeremy Messersmith talking about his new album, the Alcatraz Kid ($13.00 PayPal, City Pages review, Pulse review), and playing a couple of the songs of from it – two of my favorites (Day Job, Snow Day) and one of Jeremy’s (Great Times).

Listen to Jeremy Messersmith Talking about the Alcatrez Kid [15 min]

Slow Marketing

“slow marketing is a focus on human, one-on-one connections” – Evelyn Rodriguez

The great thing about technologies like RSS, is their low-committment persistence, their bias for – as Evelyn calls it – ‘slow marketing’.

For example, take real estate. It’s a big purchase occurring infrequently. Most of the time, I’m not looking for or buying a house. Having an RSS feed in my subscriptions continually reminds me of the voices and people I trust – continually in a very non-distractive manner.

The longer term horizon on this is refreshing.