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Indie Podcasters vs. Big Radio
skepticality writes "The weekly news and business magazine BusinessWeek has an article coming out in this weeks edition that highlights Skepticality, Coverville, AMP, and other indipendant podcasts and podcast networks. The article explains how a small number of indie podcasts are holding their own against the corporate and big-radio shows in the iTunes top 20 rankings." From the article: "In one of the shortest trajectories yet for a new Internet technology, podcasting has gone from the hands of indie developers to media giants in less than a year. Credit Apple. With typical finesse, it has created a centralized, easy-to-use service on iTunes that makes it a snap to find and listen to podcasts, the audio recordings that can be downloaded from the Net and played on a computer or portable music player. Apple also put out a new version of the iTunes software, which makes it easy for people to create their own podcasts, and invited all to post their creations on the site. Indie podcasters such as Kempenaar and Hallgren rejoiced, ready for the mainstream to embrace the technology they had championed."
triple j too.
Podcasts refer to Mp3 or Mp4 files downloaded via RSS.
The reason podcasts are called podcasts because the "podfather" or creator of the first program that downloaded mp3 files via RSS made it automatically add to iTunes and then sync to an iPod staight after the mp3 was downloaded.
The rankings are based on how many new subscribers the show has received, not total subscribers for a show. That means established shows will probably have a larger listener base but might not be in the top 20.
What, me worry?
Every science geek should listen to Dr Karl's podcast on triple j. Dr Karl has degrees in physics and medicine and is great at answering all those science / medical / engineering questions we all have - and his answers are entertaining to boot (if I had kids, I'd force them to listen to it - and they'd love it too). Brilliant stuff - it's on my iPod every thursday morning. (he's also on five live in the UK an hour after his triple j show, but noon Aussie time translates to 3am UK time unfortunately). To quote from the website: Once a week for a magic hour, Karl is Live on Air on triple j. It's an hour devoted to the collective exploration of some of the great mysteries of life, such as "why does the water in the shower slow down just when it gets hot?". Sorry this has turned into a Dr Karl ad, but it's a great listen.