To start off with let’s look at the overall information on the web. One could (with a flexible mind) divide the different sources of information into text, sound and images; much like in real life. These media hold within themselves different characteristics in how, when, and why they are consumed.
- Text can be read over and over again, and really studied in depth. It's easy to tag up and make perfect quotes from a piece of text, which still makes it the only medium (of the three) to be used as a more serious source material. You simply would not cite Discovery channel in an academic text, no matter how accurate facts than show presents.
- Pictures and movies can be made very easy for the consumer to absorb, making the media appealing for anyone conveying information. In a few seconds you can get a simple summation of something that would have taken several minutes to read in text form. A movie clip can be immediately set mood, feeling and presence of the message, thanks to the fact that it plays to all different senses at once.
- Sound is the intermediate step between text and images. An audio file can articulate a feeling and paint the images, but can never directly show you the pictures you are meant to see. Thus, your perception of what is communicated is always influenced by your own judgment. Equally so if you quote an audio file , it's easy to make it into your interpretation of what was said - try singing any song you think you know really well and see how far you get before you lost the lyrics. However, it can be used to convey a whole text in its exact form without having to redo or distort the source. This is something that is really not accepted in the image media (you´re never going to watch a movie with someone reading the Great Gatsby to you), which in turn makes sound unique. It offers consumers a way to take in a whole book without actually having read it, you just listen. In this also lays the problem however; both for sound and podcasts in particular.
Internet is driven solely by advertising. There are a few other services that brings in some income, but most of all that happens and is offered on the Internet, is done through paid advertising revenue. For advertising to be viable, one must be able to ensure those who pay to advertise that their advertising reaches a certain number of people. Normally you would do this by looking at the number of visitors to a particular page, and allow that to govern the cost of your advertising (it's obviously a very simplified picture, but by far the most important variable is the number of visitors). If the visitor can’t consume the advertising it will be useless and in the long run not generate any money.
Podcast are therefore faced with a tough situation when, due to the nature of the medium, one can’t display images in a podcast. People who consume podcasts do it while doing something else (at this instance while writing, I’m listening myself to the Bugle). Some podcasts have solved the problem by either advertising on their own website, letting the podcast break for commercials, or (in some rare cases) ask for donations to keep the podcast alive.
Personally I do not believe in any of the above options. Your podcast needs to be niched enough to make it work, but this demands that you quickly build brand awareness, something that it is extremely difficult to do. Not impossible, just very difficult.
However, I still believe in the podcast as a product, and I am guaranteed that it will only grow over the next few years. I do not think we’ve even seen the beginning of the podcast. If companies learn to integrate the podcast to their existing line of products, it will create a huge added value to the product. Research show that most people (almost 65%) constantly pull out their smartphones when queuing, something that companies need to take advantage of! If you’re waiting in line, commuting or stuck in transit, it means that you have nothing to do but wait – so give the consumer a podcast he/she wants to listen to while waiting!
What is he doing? Who is he? Where is he going? Is it just around the weekend or has the weekend just passed? What is on his mind for the upcoming week/holiday/home projects/dinner right now?
Real-estate apps can releases a weekly podcast updated on the latest in the housing market. Game developers releases podcast which discuss the latest in the gaming world. New technology magazines does the same, and publish panel discussions about the next-gen phones. Travel agents releases special reports about a new, exotic destination each week.
There is a huge spread of news you can implement immediately, it would not cost much and it would (I think) create a tremendous added value!
In my mind the podcast is far from over, rather it has not yet quite found the right place in its new medium. It will perhaps take four or five years, but we will soon be seeing a lot more of the podcast!
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