Podcast

Social Media Portal Landscape - Podcasts

What

A podcast is an audio or video file (often called vodcasts) that is available to stream or download on demand and most commonly syndicated through Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds; alerting subscribers as and when new content is added.

Background

Podcasting (the act of recording and syndicating a podcast) began in 2001 by Dave Winer, the author of RSS, broadcaster Adam Curry, journalist Chris Lydon, software engineer Kevin Marks, early adopter Harold Gilchrist and author Tristan Louis. Although the actual history and involvement is somewhat controversial with many varying stories and disputes appearing online and even accusations of changing Wikipedia to discredit and over credit involvement.

It was in October 2003 when the means to transfer an RSS feed to Apple?s iTunes software and subsequently to the iPod was demonstrated at the first Bloggercon conference. In early 2004, the term ?podcast? was used by The Guardian journalist Ben Hammersley to describe the marriage between ?broadcast? and ?iPod?. The iPod was and remains the most popular device for iPods, although misleadingly an iPod is not required. Podcasts take many forms, and can be played from a plethora of devices ? from direct from PC, to mobile, to MP3 player to other portable devices such as a PSP and similar.

The latter half of 2004 saw the launch of dedicated services such as iPodder, PodNova and Liberated Syndication and the publication of detailed ?how-to podcast? articles. October 2004 also saw the first ?Top Ten Podcasts? list, four of which were about technology, three about music, one about movies, one political and the most popular at the time was described as ?husband and wife banter? The Dawn and Drew Show.

Mainstream

In November 2004 came the launch of podcasting networks such as GodCast Network, The Podcast Network and Tech Podcasts Network. 2005 was a big year for podcasts, which is when it reached mainstream. New Oxford American Dictionary named ?podcasting? the word of the year in 2005 and iTunes added a podcast directory to its iTunes Music Store. Some popular networks today (July 2009) include Jellycast, Podiatric and PodcastFM all of which enable broadcasters to host their podcast/s at a relatively low cost (if not free) and syndicate to an audience directly or through a service such as iTunes, which remains the most popular and extensive catalogue of podcasts. In 2005, over 4.8 million people downloaded a podcast from iTunes, up from 800,000 in 2004.

In July 2005, the White House started podcasting the then President George W. Bush?s weekly radio addresses. The growing medium saw somewhat of a revolution towards the end of 2005, when popular British comedian and TV personality Ricky Gervais created an internet sensation with his podcast series ?The Ricky Gervais Show? which broke ? and still holds ? records for most downloaded podcast; appearing in The Guinness World Records.

The benefits of adding your podcast service to SMP

Connect with marketers and advertisers that need to reach your audience
Help new listeners find out about your podcast
Identify potential stakeholders, peers and media for your podcast
Differentiate your approach, products, service and/or technology from your competitors
Update your stakeholders and target audiences with case studies, events, press releases and/or whitepapers about your podcast
Submit news scoops about your podcast through SMP to be considered for social media news
List other assets of your podcast posses that relate to the social media Landscape and demonstrate the other relationships that it has
Share your expertise through opinion and thought leadership articles published on the SMP site reaching your audiences

Do you broadcast a podcast?

Become part of the SMP Landscape by adding your podcast