followthemedia.com - a knowledge base for media professionals
All Things Digital
AGENDA

All Things Digital
This digital environment

Big Business
Media companies and their world

Brands
Brands and branding, modern and post

The Commonweal
Media associations and institutes

Conflict Zones
Media making a difference

Fit To Print
The Printed Word and the Publishing World

Lingua Franca
Culture and language

Media Rules and Rulers
Media politics

The Numbers
Watching, listening and reading

The Public Service
Public Service Broadcasting

Show Business
Entertainment and entertainers

Sports and Media
Rights, cameras and action

Spots and Space
The Advertising Business

Write On
Journalism with a big J

Send ftm Your News!!
news@followthemedia.com

Want Podcast. Ask Wizzard. And if you think podcasts aren’t big…think again!

Wizzard Media is a podcast hosting network. Last year they distributed 360 million episodes, individual podcasts. And you think podcasts are but a tiny grain in the great media content desert. In March this year Wizzard distributed 70 million podcasts.

Wizzard Media logoSaid Wizzard Media CEO Chris Spencer in a long string of late night emails, “There have never been numbers this high."  

Insert, now, the appropriate word (in French): VOILA!

Wizzard Media’s network reaches a largely North American audience, 85% of their downloaders are in the US or Canada, urban dwellers, mostly on the coasts. Next on the list of more than 20 countries is the UK.

ftm background

From Podcasts to Mobcasts: Broadcasters Take Big Leap
Munich radio station 95.5 Charivari joins other German stations and UK broadcaster Virgin Radio in the rush to entice cellphone radio listeners with the clever software – Spodradio – produced by Liquid Air Lab, powered by Nokia’s 3G handsetline.

Podcasters (And Broadcasters) Are Losing the Plot
Europe’s broadcasters wept and moaned when forcibly relocated from “broad-casting” to “narrow-casting.” Now arrives anew that great cleansing agent called change. Get set for “inter-casting.”

2006's Word of the Year - iFad!
Trend spotting is a no luxury. Media makers mine this diamond of knowledge like caviar before the well-heeled gourmet, the stuff of life. What will the world be like tomorrow: the best to get there before somebody else and hoard the spoils?

Podcasting – It’s Either A Big Fad That Will Fade As Business Models Fail, Or It’s The Best New Way to Make Money on the Internet. And Right Now the Experts Are Divided on Which It Is
Mark Cuban, the respected Internet entrepreneur who made more than $1 billion selling his broadcast.com to Yahoo says Podcasting is a fad. Have fun with it, he says, but don’t expect to make money. The very respected Wharton School of Business, on the other hand, isn’t so sure. “Some will do Podcasting well and be rewarded for it,” says a Wharton marketing professor.

With So Much Attention These Days on How Video Is Transforming the Web Let’s Not Forget Audio
The BBC Didn’t, Offered Five Beethoven Symphonies For Free and Logged More Than 650,000 Downloads. And Podcasting Is Growing Everywhere.

With hundreds of millions of podcasts flying around from thousands of producers through the internet and on to iPods, iMacs, PC and other digital devices the advertising opportunity is far from vague. Actually reaching people who are actually choosing to listen – rather than not quite reaching folks simply exposed to but not really engaged with a program’s content – challenges the conventional wisdom of selling advertising by the ton…and hoping for the best.

“We’ve merged three podcasting hosts together to bring mass to the market to attract advertisers,” said Spencer. And herein lies the service Wizzard Media offers to ad people who can grasp the concept. They have extended the ad aggregator concept into audio.

There’s another truth in podcastings growth: people with personal digital audio players (iPods, et.al.) are downloading much more than music, track for track. Wizzard Media CEO Chris Spencer describes podcast downloaders as a “user generated content hungry audience.”

To satisfy time shifting urges several broadcasters – those who actually produce content rather rotate tunes – offer podcasts. Confiscatory music rights fees prevent including music. Podcasts, then, are typically speech-based programs. And they have production values not typically heard through other (read: broadcast) sources. Noting that a significant portion of Wizzard Media’s downloaders are in the UK, the BBC has aggressively pursued a digital, user-generated strategy that has expanded its’ audience and, arguably, expanded interest in actively seeking audio (and video) content.

And Wizzard Media’s top downloads offer more than a subtle clue about audio content that actively attracts people. ReFrederator offers classic cartoon tracks. (“It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s…”) AskANinja is quick comedy (“ Do ninjas minature golf?”) from VJs Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine Grammar Girl, Survival Spanish and JapanesePod101 offer education in your pocket. IndieFeed offers poetry and music not otherwise heard on Jack 98.5.

There is one more digital reality check in the podcasting evolution. The vast majority of downloads, at least from the Wizzard Media network, are independent productions, shows, stories and ear candy. Homogeneous content need not apply.

There’s a buzz on podcasts. The build has been slow and steady, viral, like everything else that builds from new media. It remains to be seen if internet gadfly / broadcaster Mark Cuban is right: “Have fun but don’t expect to make any money.”

Big media might just take a lesson from Wizzard Media’s success. Compelling content, still and always, attracts folks. Put enough of those folks together and you have a serious market.


ftm Follow Up & Comments

copyright ©2004-2007 ftm partners, unless otherwise noted Contact UsSponsor ftm