04.20.06
Posted in Marketing, Podcasting / Podcasts at 11:54 pm by Administrator
Podcasts Surpass Radio Stations Worldwide; Podcast Demand Growing Faster Than Supply - From Podcasting News
The number of podcasts managed by FeedBurner, a news feed service provider, now exceeds the total number of radio stations in the entire world, according to Rick Klau, FeedBurner’s VP of Business Development.
Podcasting is also one of the fastest growing technologies of all time. The number of podcasts feeds managed by FeedBurner is growing 15% per month. The number of subscribers, though, is growing even faster, at a rate of 20% per month.
According to Klau, “Podcasting is outpacing the speed of adoption of the last ‘most successful consumer product launch in history’.”
More Podcasts Than Radio Stations in the World
FeedBurner has been seeing 15% growth per month in the number of podcasts that are published:
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“FeedBurner recently surpassed a major milestone of 44,000 podcast feeds under management, which, according to the CIA World Factbook, exceeds the total number of radio stations worldwide,” notes Klau.
The Podcast Audience is Growing Faster Than the Podosphere
Recent reports of podcasting’s death appear to have been premature.
FeedBurner’s numbers show podcast circulation growing at bubble-blowing 20% per month. “Today, there are more than 1.6 million aggregate subscribers to FeedBurner-managed podcasts,” adds Klau, “and this number has more than doubled in the past six months.”
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Podcast Adoption Rate Makes it a Successful Technology
Podcasting’s adoption rate makes it a success, according to Klau. “Back in 2000, the DVD format, just 3 years old at the time, was declared the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history, outselling the VCR five to one. Using these statistics as a benchmark, in less than two years, the number of podcasts available online is tenfold that of DVD titles in nearly half the time.”
It’s Not All About iTunes
Some podcasters have started to focus their promotion efforts on iTunes, because of the popularity of Apple’s iPods. FeedBurner’s numbers, though, suggest that podcasters that focus exclusively on iTunes may be missing out on as much as half of their potential audience.
“Since we recently started tracking podcast downloads within feeds, we’ve also seen the ratio of downloads to subscribers average 2:1, suggesting a significant secondary market for podcast listenership beyond just the feed’s subscribers,” according to Klau. This confirms what many podcasters have noted, that they often have many more downloads than they do subscribers.
FeedBurner’s numbers reveal “a number of podcast directories generating a sizable amount of traffic” for podcasts,” notes Klau. This suggests that getting listed in top podcast directory sites can be a major source of listeners for podcasters.
And, while iTunes is the most popular podcast client, 43% of the subscribers to FeedBurner-managed podcasts use other podcast clients.
Klau’s comment’s on the expanding podcast universe are posted at Burning Questions, FeedBurner’s official weblog.
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04.17.06
Posted in Internet Business, Software and Web Apps at 3:19 pm by Administrator
From an article at ZDnet,
by Richard MacManus
I came across an interesting report of web technology penetration rates, dated 1 April 2006, by SecuritySpace. It’s based on a sample of 1,358,991 web sites in 2006, so it’s a pretty significant study. The following table shows the penetration rates of a variety of client side web technologies, for the years 2002, 2005 and 2006:
Technology 2002 % 2005 % 2006 % 2006 Sites
JavaScript 45.46% 59.37% 58.08% 789,309
Frames 26.71% 18.17% 15.91% 216,280
StyleSheets 21.16% 39.93% 49.51% 672,803
Java 4.24% 1.67% 1.64% 22,314
IFrames 3.99% 12.12% 9.88% 134,319
GIF Images 62.98% 58.54% 63.26% 859,760
JPG Images 47.08% 47.25% 54.11% 735,287
PNG Images 2.63% 6.42% 7.78% 105,749
Flash/Shockwave 6.08% 8.77% 12.75% 173,253
2002 was as far back as I could go with these stats, but the trends they show are very interesting. Among other things it shows that JavaScript has increased in popularity. Perhaps this is not surprising, when you consider that the ‘J’ in AJAX stands for JavaScript! The biggest gain though has been for stylesheets, which now has a nearly 50% penetration across the Web - up from just 21% in 2002.
I was a little surprised that Flash is only 12-13% penetration - although it has increased from 8-9% a year ago. On the other hand, Java seems to be dying a slow death, down to just 1.64% penetration.
Of the image formats, GIF is still going strong, but expect to see the PNG figure rise over the next few years. I use PNG for most of my web images these days, because I find the quality to be better.
Interesting also to see that nearly 16% of all websites still use frames! I guess Web 2.0 hasn’t quite made it onto those sites yet 
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04.15.06
Posted in Marketing, Podcasting / Podcasts at 8:37 pm by Administrator
Some think this is good for radio, however, I think it may be good for artists and consumers, I doubt radio will be seeing anything but declining advertising revenues with more and more people choosing to go commercial free…
From Podcasting News: Arbitron: 27 Million American Podcast Listeners; Podcast Users Young and Rich
Arbitron: 27 Million American Podcast Listeners; Podcast Users Young and Rich
April 14, 2006
Arbitron, a research firm serving the radio industry, has released a report that paints a rosy picture for the future of radio. According to Arbitron, “The proliferation of digital broadcast platforms such as Internet radio, satellite radio, HD and podcasting is a testament to the popularity of radio programming. ”
The report highlights user interest in new audio delivery platforms, such as satellite radio and podcasting, but suggests that the AM/FM audience remains strong. This contrasts with other recent reports that have suggested that podcasts and MP3 players are stealing radio’s audience.
According to the report, “Seventy-seven percent of Americans say they expect to listen to AM/FM radio as much as they do now despite increasing advancements in technology.” About a quarter of all Americans expect to listen to less radio, according to the report. For people that have listened to podcasts, 27% expect to listen to less radio, and among satellite radio users, 36% expect to listen to less radio.
Report Highlights:
* The weekly Internet radio audience has increased 50% over the last year.
* Nineteen percent of persons age 18-34 have listened to Internet radio in the last week.
* Satellite radio subscribers are twice as likely to live in 100K households
* Many people are still confused about what podcasts are.
* Podcasting attracts a relatively youthful audience. More than half of listeners are under 35.
* 11% of all Americans have listened to audio podcasts. That translates into approximately 27 million Americans that have tried podcasts.
* More than half of all teens own an iPod or other portable media player.
Podcast Highlights
According to Arbitron, 22% of Americans have heard of podcasting, and 11% have tried podcasts:
arbitron_podcast_chart.png
Podcasting is attracting an upper-income audience:
Arbitron recommends that advertisers start look at the new audio options that are available. People that are using podcasts, satellite and other new audio formats tend to be relatively young and affluent, a group of listeners appealing to advertisers.
“Consumers are quickly embracing radio’s digital platforms and this new research reveals that these advertising vehicles are becoming increasingly viable,†said Bill Rose, senior vice president, marketing, Arbitron.
Source: Arbitron (Acrobat file)
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04.13.06
Posted in Podcasting / Podcasts, Software and Web Apps at 9:36 pm by Administrator
Software Converts DVD or Internet Video Content to iPod
By Matt O’Conner
From Xbiz
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Software developer Roxio has released a program that enables the conversion of DVD and Internet video content for use on iPods and other portable devices using a PowerPC or Intel Mac.
Numerous adult studios have scrambled to make content available for iPod users since the release earlier this year of Apple’s Video iPod. Roxio intends to make it easier for users to convert content on their own with its Popcorn 2 program, thereby eliminating the need to pay for iPod-formatted content.
Popcorn 2 compresses and transfers DVD videos, disc images, menus and languages through a burn engine.
The software supports QuickTime’s MOV and AVI formats, DivX, MPEG2, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, DV and H.264. It can export videos to iPods, Sony’s PlayStation Portable, 3GP mobile phones, DivX handhelds and other video-enabled devices.
Users can also create “director’s cuts†by selecting certain scenes and screen shots as well as the order in which they play.
There are Open Source applications that will produce similar results, but Popcorn is more user friendly and has predefined settings, according to Tim Deal, an analyst with Technology Business Research.
Popcorn 2 requires a G4 or faster computer, Mac OS X 10.4 or later, QuickTime 7 or later, iTunes 6 or later and up to 15 GB of temporary hard disk space for video compression and translation.
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Posted in Internet Business, Marketing, Podcasting / Podcasts at 9:29 pm by Administrator
Podcasting, MP3 Players Stealing Radio’s Audience
April 11, 2006
ipod_nano.jpgPodcasting and MP3 players are stealing radio’s audience, according to the latest figures from Bridge Ratings. According to Dave Van Dyke, President of Bridge Ratings, “By 2010, today’s 94% penetration for terrestrial radio will have sunk to 85%.”
27% of people 12-24 attribute their reduced use of radio to MP3 use; 22% attributed it to tired radio programming; 3% attributed it to podcast listening.
“The days of top market - top station margins in the 40% range are numbered. Expect those hot stations to fall into the 30% range and the entire industry on average to fall lower,” adds Van Dyke. “Wall Street and corner offices will be readjusting their expectations on performance and having to swallow that pill happily knowing it is the only real operational option left.”
According to the firm’s latest research:
* Terrestrial audience erosion to alternative audio entertainment continues to occur in young demographics.
* Podcasting is beginning to siphon listening.
* MP3 device usage can consume as much as 80% of a radio user’s audio entertainment during initial ownership weeks and months. This number tends to be generally lower among 30+ women and 35+ men.
* MP3 player fatigue is slowing overall as the market continues to expand due to consumer interest in these devices. Fatigue with MP3 players remains high among those consumers who have owned the devices longer than 6-8 months.
* Competition for traditional radio time-spent-listening is more severe. Time spent listening to terrestrial radio is fighting for its share of time with a multitude of digital devices. Even television has regained viewership based on this quarter’s data. The most often given reason for this by our sample: better programming and new shows. Meanwhile, music-specific radio stations are vying for the attention of their constituencies as MP3 players continue to be more pervasive than ever (75 million sold). Podcasting is beginning to show evidence of cannibalizing radio’s time-spent-listening.
* Satellite radio also suffers from attrition! For the first time, we are seeing satelite radio consumers who have been subscribers for longer than 6 months are actually spending less time than they were six months ago with their satellite service of choice. According to our panel, during the second quarter of 2005 average time spent listening to satellite radio was 16 hours per week. During this most recent study during the period of January 1 through March 31, 2006, weekly TSL for satellite radio among subscribers of 6 months or longer was down to 12.6 weekly hours.
Source: Bridge Ratings
Story found via Podcasting News
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03.31.06
Posted in Software and Web Apps at 5:29 pm by Administrator
PodPress, a plug-in for the WordPress blogging content management system that adds podcast publishing features, has been updated to 4.1.
The 4.x release is described as a “massive upgrade”, adding support for “Premium Podcasting”, improved stats, better support for video podcasts and more.
PodPress Features:
* Full featured and automatic feed generation (RSS2, iTunes and ATOM)
* Auto Generation of enclosure tag
* Preview of what your Podcast will look like on iTunes
* Podcast Download stats
* Support for Premium Content (Pay Only)
* Makes adding a Podcast to a Post very simple
* View MP3 Files ID3 tags when your Posting
* Control over where the player will display within your post.
* Support for various formats, including Video Podcasting
* Supports unlimited number of media files.
* Automatic Media player for MP3, MP4, MOV, FLV, ASF, WMV, AVI, and more, with inline and Popup Window support.
* Preview image for videos
* Easy way to link to your podcast within iTunes
A tutorial on using it is available at the MightySeek site.
PodPress is a free download. A working install of WordPress is required.
Story originally found via Podcasting News.
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Posted in Software and Web Apps at 5:19 pm by Administrator
Eye on rival YouTube, Atom overhauls video site
A couple of excerpts from a story from yahoo / reuters:
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Online video and game company Atom Entertainment Inc. on Thursday unveiled a new service to let people upload their own videos and footage taken on mobile phones.
Salmi said he expected the Atom site’s traffic to grow fairly quickly. “Our goal would be to get to the size of YouTube,” Salmi told Reuters, “but realistically, we think that in the next three to four months, we’re going to be nipping at their heels.”
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Posted in Internet Business, Podcasting / Podcasts at 5:15 pm by Administrator
Alesis Intros Two Podcasting Kits
Alesis, a maker of audio gear and musical instruments, has introduced two new Podcasting Kits that bundle together a mic, mixer and software.
Available in both USB or FireWire versions, the new Alesis Podcasting Kits are designed to provide all the necessary hardware and software needed to create audio files for podcasting.
[photopress:Alesis_firewire_podcasting_kit.jpg,full,alignright]
Podcasting Kit Description:
“Alesis takes the guesswork out of podcasting with the creation of two easy-to-use podcasting kits for USB or FireWire. Each system includes a dynamic microphone with a desktop microphone stand and a mic cable, along with Cubase LE general purpose recording software and a dedicated podcasting application for the easy creation and management of one’s podcasts. USB kits include the MultiMix 8 USB mixer, while the FireWire package includes the MultiMix 8 FireWire mixer. Record your music sets. Distribute them. Promote them. The Alesis podcasting kits make it easy!”
USB Podcasting Kit Features:
* Alesis MultiMix 8USB mixer: 8 channel mixer with 16Bit /44.1kHz two channel recording direct to your computer
* Dynamic microphone with desktop microphone stand and cable
* Podcasting software for easy creation and management of one’s podcasts
* Cubase LE general purpose recording software
Firewire Podcasting Kit Features:
* Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire mixer: 8 channel mixer with 24Bit /44.1/48kHz eight channel recording direct to your computer
* Dynamic microphone with desktop microphone stand and cable
* Podcasting software for easy creation and management of one’s podcasts
* Cubase LE general purpose recording software
Pricing and availability have not been announced.
via Alesis
Story originally appeared via Podcasting News.
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