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Yahoo Launches New Podcasting Service
sdirrim writes to tell us Reuters is reporting that Yahoo! has just released a test version of its new podcasting service From the (short) article: "Yahoo's new service will allow users to download shows from National Public Radio, the weekly presidential address, and independent shows with subjects ranging from sports to knitting." Additionally Yahoo! Podcast users have the ability to rate shows.
NPR, the oration of George W. Bush and knitting!?! Truly, Steve Jobs hath led us into a glorious new existence!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Now I'll get to listen to even more poorly produced podcasts put on by people who have no business behind a microphone.
Some of the podcasts are pretty good (The ones produced by NPR are generally good), but almost all of the other's I've heard I can't stand to listen to for more than a minute or two.
I wish Apple or Yahoo would come up with a way to rate the podcasts, so I know right off which ones to not even bother wasting my time with.
Increasingly popular podcasts, which allow users to download audio programs from the Web and listen to them on portable music devices, have attracted interest from some of the biggest names in technology, including Apple Computer Inc..
:)
I should hope podcasting's got Apple's attention. Rumour has it, they're the ones behind the iPod in the first place.
Sent from my computer.
Now GET OFF MY LAWN!
Now, I'm starting to see some reason to get one of those pods. I'm a really cheap guy and I don't like much of the new music these days so I never had a reason to get one. But, I have a hard time catching The Infinite Mind and other PBS/NPR shows I love and I can't always listen to it over the net when I'm at my computer - it does suck up a lot of badwidth.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
I wish there were some way to give a revenue split from advertisers to the best rated podcasts.
Abstinence is a government conspiracy. www.SafeSexZone.co
The rumor has been discredited. The iPod was created by terrorist music pirates who are bent on destroy the recording industry.
If someone wants their podcast show to succeed, they would have to put it on iTunes, Yahoo, and at least a couple other podcast sites. How about a single site that uploads to the multiple destinations for you. Maybe that's what people need instead.
it is "Diary" not blog it is an audio file not a podcast I got a revolution for ya, lets put an audio file for download on the internet (yeah nobody has ever done that before), but give it a hip new name: "Podcast" cause you need a $400 piece of electronics to duplicate 20 year old technology. Next you will see "Podcast Novels" at barnes and noble, cause "books on tape" is just not a shiney. Get off my lawn :))
The following quote seems very appropriate for this newsstory:
We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
- Robert Wilensky
--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/
...and saving and/or playing them in the player of my choice. Despite owning a portable music player (a gift), I never did quite understand all the excitement of podcast time/placeshifting. When do people find the time to listen to all this stuff anyway? (commutes, I suppose, but beyond that...?)
Anyway, the idea of a podcast directory is nice, and I'm neither surprised nor unhappy that Y! has stepped up to the plate. However, some of the whizbang stuff they've tacked on isn't, well, very user-friendly.
For instance, clicking on "listen" under a listed podcast brings up a little window with a mini-player... which (at least on Firefox) doesn't even let you skip forward or back in a broadcast. Huh?!
The integration with Y!'s player -- Yahoo! Music Engine -- is, however, pretty useful and generally well-done.
Only the truly shameless shill their blog in a Slashdot sig
The next big thing is going to be listening to a podcast of a guy telling you how you should simplify your life into a state of analog nirvana. The podcast will tell you the joys of reconnecting to your friends and family by ditching the mp3 player and getting off of the computer.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
NPR already allows you to download a "podcast" from their website. Yahoo just collects it and gives you another link to it.
It works with iTunes, too. When you click Subscribe, it opens up iTunes and downloads it automatically.
I'm still pissed that NPR abandonded Audible.com with no backup plan. I mean, what the hell? Who had the brilliant idea?
"I know, let's turn of this service that is generating a revenue stream and replace it with ... ground seashells and sand! I wonder if anyone will notice."
Feh.
Imagine if NPR shows could get rated and get karma like /.:
Postitive: Interesting, Insightful, Informative, Underrated, Funny, and just for radio: timely
Negative: Offtopic, Troll, Flamebait, Redundant, Overrated, and just for radio: yesterday's news
What I want to know is: Do high-karma contributors start out at +2?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I know you're being sarcastic however it's really quite funny how many people actually think that blogs and podcasts will revolutionize the way we get news. Blogging has had a very little effect on changing global media. The vast majority of people don't read blogs nor do they care what some random person has to say over the Internet. Most blogs are incredibly poorly written and it shows almost immediately. Podcasts generally are incredibly poorly produced and often have little to no content. Most of the people that are creating podcasts are very young and frankly they offer nothing of value to their listeners. I have yet to find any podcasts that I would regularly enjoy listening to.
I think the one thing that blogs and podcasts have shown very clearly is that people who want to write stories or produce their own shows really need to be educated to do so; otherwise they're more than likely to end up creating more trash.
"A Lisp programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing." - Alan Perlis
I've looked at the Yahoo! Music Engine (they emailed me about a job, but never got back to me) - and the one thing I don't understand is why they don't have special Yahoo! only Podcasts - YahooCasts or something -- something they aren't doing with this initiative. If you're sane you're asking "Why would they make Yahoo only podcasts?" - because their Music service is on a subscription model. People could make music show "podcast" (obviously in some sort of format specific to this service) with all the commercial music they want, and all the subscribers could listen to it without copyright concerns. It's something that might actually make their service appealing.
I'm an iTunes/iPod user and shuffle always gets annoying, and I don't have the time to keep making new playlists (which don't duplicate the "surprise factor" of radio anyway). If there was a subscription service where I could listen to podcasts with Music on my portable device I would be quite interested. Of course, Yahoo! would still have to deal with the iPod lock-in - their service currently requires WMA music players, which I'm not likely to buy in the first place.
Even more recently, it was bloggers that started the cries of outrage over the US government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Again, mainstream media is very reluctant to openly criticize politicians for fear of being accused of lacking impartiality and (more importantly) because they must rely on these same politicians and don't want to burn bridges. Look at 9/11. It tooks months before criticism grew and it had to have its roots with the victims' families. This time things were much, much quicker because of bloggers. Bloggers don't care about being impartial and don't care if they upset politicians.
In both cases, "the news" changed because of bloggers. That's where the power of blogging comes from. It allows a broader range of people to define what is news.
I like many of the PBS radio programs, but it's frustrating that (IMHO) their best show - This American Life - is not podcastable. Boo.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.