How Podcasting and Satellite Changed Radio

prostoalex writes "Business Week magazine discusses how podcasting changes the radio industry: "Consider the basics: With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy creating audio programming for thousands of others. They're bypassing an entire industry." The article notes about some advertising deals that podcasters managed to procure, but it also notes that another industry, satellite radio, represented by Sirius and XM Satellite radio, is already changing the radio landscape."

Comments

All this hype about 'podcasting'

[fwice]

There is all this hype about podcasting but nothing about shoutcasting or other forms of internet radio -- which have been aroudn longer and have more than quite a bit of a userbase...

Re:All this hype about 'podcasting'

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is, Shout/Icecasting is just that... Radio. Podcasting is something different:

1. It is different in that the low-speed delayed delivery makes publishing (read: bandwidth) costs much cheaper, and it stacks with BitTorrent.

2. It is different in that the listener doesn't have to schedule their listening around a broadcaster. The TiVo metaphor is apt.

3. It is different in that it is built around mobile. Shoutcast is great, unless you are in your car on an hour and a half commute on 285.

Personally, I think Satellite radio is doomed business. Once 3G-ish technologies roll out widely enough, shout/icecast will kill satellite radio dead. I mean, why have this extra box and another subscription service when you already have a cell phone and an iPod?

Podcasting?

[NeuralAbyss]

....am I the only one who's had absolutely no experience, nor been affected by either podcasting or satellite radio? I'm tempted to just write it off as a fad... who'd spend time downloading a multi-hour 'podcasting' program just to play later?

I personally would much rather go for a personal selection of mp3s.

Re:Podcasting?

[nicktripp]

While it may just be a fad, I don't "spend" any time downloading Podcast content. When I wake up in the morning my Powerbook has already done the work during the night. Schedules and RSS feeds are a beautiful thing. As for "just to play later", isn't that what gets people so excited about PVR's? I love being able to find a favorite show and always have it available on my iPod for when I'm in the car or at the gym. Okay, okay. So just in the car, but my point still stands.

Radio's Advatages Over Podcasting

[reallocate]

To me, the advantage of radio is that stations exist that broadcast programming in specific formats. I can tune into these stations anytime and listen to programming that I enjoy.

For example, 3 FM stations exists within 25 miles of me that have 24/7 jazz formats. I'm a jazz fan, so that makes me happy.

I'm not aware of any podcast sources that provide comparable services. Podcasts require that I go out and find digital files I want and then set them up for play. I don't have the time to do that to build up a podcast playlist as lengthy as the one I can get just be turning on my radio.

There's no reason why someone couldn't hire a staff, pay them to create and collect podcasts and then broadcast them over AM or FM on a 24/7 format, but that would be very much the same as radio anyway.

Inveitable

[luckytroll]

I stopped listening to radio a long time ago - my MP3-cd player for the car was the best money I ever spent. Aside from our commercial-free public radio (CBC) I have only occasionall listened to commercial radio, and was driven off by the advertising within a few minutes. The only thing that is missing from my de-commercialized listening experience is a way to inject new music and news into the stream of music I have chosen so as to keep it fresh.

So - why not broadcast cue information about which stations are playing what so my (yet to be invented) intelligent radio/player can dash seamlessly between stations and canned tracks whilst avoiding the blaring Ads with tivo-like grace. We do it with the remote on television to avoid the chaff, why not with radio?

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[velo_mike]

Satellite's subscription model will make AM/FM's advertising system obsolete. The majority would rather pay for no/few commercials than music that's interupted after 5 songs or talk shows that need breaks every 10 minutes. Opie and Anthony on XM do a four hour show with almost no breaks, and it's taken off so well XM is using them to compete against $500 Stern.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that the allure of Cable TV when it was introduced in the late 70's? I've never been much into TV, and didn't get cable til I hit my mid 30's, but I seem to remember that a lack of commercials was part of what you paid for.

The problem with that...

[solios]

... is that these "specific formats" typically consist of a 200 song playlist. There were a hell of a lot more hit singles in the 80s- nevermind hit albums or hit artists.

I listened to the local Clear Channel Alternapop Earcock a couple of days ago for the first time in months... in a thirty minute span, I didn't hear anything I haven't heard a few hundred times before, and years previously. Last I checked, Radiohead has written more songs than "Creep"- but you wouldn't know it to listen to these asshats.

When I got to this town (Pittsburgh) in 1997, there was a Jazz station parked at 104.{5|7}. It was nice and I listened to it quite a bit... until one day it magically Changed Format to hiphop/r&b. Just like that. A few years later and that frequency is a black hole of Rod Stewart / Michael Bolton-esque soft rock. :-| And College Radio can't get the OMFG TECHNO OMFG GANSTA RAP OMFG HIPPY MUSIC out of their systems either.

Radio's great when you're in the serviced demographic- if you're noti, it's a vast, staticy wasteland.

Re:Satellite will kill off AM/FM

[HFXPro]

It was... and now look at it today. Commercials all over the place and even a lot of dedicated commercial tv stations (Home Shopping Network or whatever its called). As much as I hate most radio, if people switch to Satellite I only see it becoming worse and satellite becoming just as bad.

Licensing issues will burn podcasters

[DetroitSongBird]

If you add songs to your podcast you'll need a set of licenses: for the songwriter (bmi, ascap, etc) and for the "mechanical" owner (the owner of the sound recording) at the very least. Or, you'll need explicit permission from the songwriter and the music label/artist. Podcasting won't fall under the internet broadcasting licenses. It's much closer to file sharing and will end up with the same issues as file sharing.

That's why you'll start hearing about "podcast safe" music - usually by independent artists or small labels that explicitly give permission for their songs to be included in a podcast.

Hopefully podcasters will keep this under control so that the paid for leaches in congress don't start passing legislation that would hurt this.

For public radio stations and alternative news/music organizations podcasting is awesome! I could see some podcast producers being picked up by radio show distributors. Coverville, for example, would be an excellent show even on terrestrial radio.