2 weeks ago, I downloaded my Al Franken show podcast, only to find a message before it saying "In one week, podcasts will only be available to Air America Premium members, please subscribe to continue." It cost me a heafty 60+ dollars, for 1 episode a day, 5 days a week. I understand the logic in Air America's decision, though; if they allow everyone to get commercial-free episodes off the internet, only 1 hour after they air, they'll lose a huge source of income. This compensates them for the cost of hosting 10 3+ hour episodes for every day of the week, the bandwidth for all the downloads, and the lost advertising revenue. Podcasts do cost money to make, host and distribute; and advertising isn't very popular. The only way a popular podcast, such as the one mentioned in the article, can stay afloat (or at least avoid becoming an enormous, gaping money pit for the maker) is by charging you, the viewer, for the privelege.
I'm sitting in an internet cafe in the slums of Bangkok (stop laughing! It's accualy called Krung Thep). I am from canada (and they think i'm slow...eh?) but have been volunteering here for a month. They have more internet cafes per capita in the slums of thailand than on the main street of Toronto (read: the biggest city, in the most wired country). But they're all 56kbps, my ADSL will seem like T3 when I get back. I'll install my new Wi-Fi PCMCIA 2 card that I bought for aprx. $25 canadian as soon as I get home.
To all you slashdotters, Thailand is the PLACE for (cheap) technology. They have a place called IT MALL, where I bought my Wi-Fi card, that sells everything for horibly (which in my books means good) cheap. They also have a 5 story mall called Pan Tip plaza, all it sells is pirated DVDs, software, and electronics.
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2 weeks ago, I downloaded my Al Franken show podcast, only to find a message before it saying "In one week, podcasts will only be available to Air America Premium members, please subscribe to continue." It cost me a heafty 60+ dollars, for 1 episode a day, 5 days a week. I understand the logic in Air America's decision, though; if they allow everyone to get commercial-free episodes off the internet, only 1 hour after they air, they'll lose a huge source of income. This compensates them for the cost of hosting 10 3+ hour episodes for every day of the week, the bandwidth for all the downloads, and the lost advertising revenue. Podcasts do cost money to make, host and distribute; and advertising isn't very popular. The only way a popular podcast, such as the one mentioned in the article, can stay afloat (or at least avoid becoming an enormous, gaping money pit for the maker) is by charging you, the viewer, for the privelege.
Great question!
I'm sitting in an internet cafe in the slums of Bangkok (stop laughing! It's accualy called Krung Thep). I am from canada (and they think i'm slow...eh?) but have been volunteering here for a month. They have more internet cafes per capita in the slums of thailand than on the main street of Toronto (read: the biggest city, in the most wired country). But they're all 56kbps, my ADSL will seem like T3 when I get back. I'll install my new Wi-Fi PCMCIA 2 card that I bought for aprx. $25 canadian as soon as I get home.
To all you slashdotters, Thailand is the PLACE for (cheap) technology. They have a place called IT MALL, where I bought my Wi-Fi card, that sells everything for horibly (which in my books means good) cheap. They also have a 5 story mall called Pan Tip plaza, all it sells is pirated DVDs, software, and electronics.
I AM WRITING FROM SLASHDOTTER HEAVEN