Thu, July 14, 2005
Podcasting pods podward
"Podcasting" is the practice of publishing audio recordings online for users to hear on their computer or portable music player. It's possibly also the only current web craze that will never find its way into the onebee stable of offerings. Resistant as I am to new fads, I'll typically adopt fun new ideas when the time is right. But I've always hated radio* and I have no interest in being a DJ or droning into a microphone about the issues of the day. I'd rather write, I'd rather produce something skimmable, and I'd rather collect comments.
Of course, that doesn't mean I'm against podcasting or anything – I'm just making the point that I'm well outside the demographic of potential podcasters. Nothing wrong with that. Podcasting is becoming very popular (and this is "popular" in the sense of the tiny minority of hardcore web geeks – overall, it's little more than a blip), and its adoption rate approaches the adoption rate that people think of when they think of blogs or RSS (their actual adoption rates were much slower, but their perceived adoption rates – which were actually their awareness rates – had this same skyrocketing characteristic).
So far, I've listened to three things that could be called podcasts: an interview with Robert Redford on "The Al Franken Show" (Franken's show is currently Apple's second-most-popular podcast), Maciej Ceglowski's "Audioblogging Manifesto" (linked from Gruber's piece), and an episode of James Lileks's The Diner that I heard back in April before "podcasting" was a thing. (It's a lot of funny '70s TV music – worth a listen.) In all three cases, I listened on my laptop and not my iPod. (Hee! Do I sound like an old fogey? That's fine. In Internet Years, I suppose I sort of am.)
Anyway, Apple is quite wisely moving to capitalize on the trend, by offering podcast support in the new version of its popular music software, iTunes. Daring Fireball's John Gruber evaluates this move – as always – with his singular perspective and panache. (Read Is That a Podcast in Your Pocket?.) And he makes the point that I've been making – the very name "podcasting" is a huge win for Apple. Sure, there's that squidgy grey area we'd rather not get into, where any portable music player is called an "iPod" just as any transparent adhesive tape is "scotch tape" and any disposable facial tissue is "kleenex." (And don't get me started on the waiters that bring me Pepsi under the moniker "coke.") But Apple has done a fairly rigorous job of setting the iPod apart from its competitors with style, usability, and functionality – so the name should prove stickier than previous brands that have lost their capitals. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I'm not fan of the suffixing of -casting, nor of the cutesy rhyme of "podcasting" with "broadcasting" – nonetheless, it creates a giddy disadvantage for competing portable music players, laid out incomparably in Gruber's article.
So, while listening to people talking seems an unlikely growth sector in the blog boom (and many, many new podcasts will surely fail), it's once again interesting that by being intelligent, adaptable, and forward-looking, Apple has positioned itself to take advantage (in dollars and mindshare) of this popular phenomenon. iPod's runaway popularity begets audioblogging begets the "podcasting" name begets podcasting support in iTunes. They know how to keep feeding the beast. In five years, we'll all be laughing so hard at the people who bought non-Apple music players. (Although not much harder than I'm laughing at them already.)
*"This American Life" and "Loveline" being, of course, notable exceptions.
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"AC" — Thu, 7/14/05 8:41am
This is yet another example of a new irritating trend in the culture that's been bugging me to no end. It's exactly the same thing that's happening in the mobile phone world too. It's the trend toward making a big deal over a new way of doing things before trying to figure out if that new way of doing things is actually MORE useful than the old way. "But it's NEW! So it MUST be BETTER!!" Case in point: Podcasting. To me, this sounded like a great idea. I could listen to Le Show, the Newsweek News Thingy, and sundry other pieces that I usually miss because TiVo hasn't felt the need to make a radio version of its DVR. But here's the thing: I almost NEVER listen to these, and when I do listen, it's NEVER on my iPod. Why? Because while I'm a fan of sitting on the couch staring at the ceiling for an hour or more, I'd rather be reading. It dawned on me that I only listen to talk radio in the car. I can't listen to it while I'm working on something that requires me to think. And unlike TV, radio doesn't give you any visual payoff. So what's the point?
Another example of this phonomenon where things-with-cool-names-are-instant-classics is getting in the way of common sense is with the strategies of the new Al Gore network, Current. When it was first conceived, it was meant to be the anti-Fox news with documentary-style programming and a smattering of citizen journalism. But instead, it's turned into something else, something involving "Pods" (that damn word again!) and video submitted by any Joe-blow on the net and voted on by people at their web site. You can read about it in this great Salon article:
http://tinyurl.com/756cu
For the life of my, I can't understand this trend. It might be yet another sign that I'm getting older. But this cultural phenomenon of the technology age, wherein something is great and world-changing just because it's new, is stupid, not to mention exhausting. I feel like I'm in that movie version of Max Headroom, a world of head-exploding "blipverts" and information overload.
But I guess it's just a fact of modern life. In which case, I restate my long-held contention: "People Are Stupid."
Bee Boy — Thu, 7/14/05 9:53am
And, right on time, vblogging! Wired celebrates and educates with its article, Man Cleans Freezer, Film at 11.