Ok - I'll admit it... when something gets a ton of hype, it is my nature to try and poke holes in it. I'm sorry, I just can't help it. Perhaps it is my contrarian nature, my futile desire to be unique in a vast society, or maybe it's just my distaste for anything rubber stamped by the masses. I'm really working on it, because I know that it makes me judgemental and rude - but, enough for caveats.

I really have been holding back on this one, and I've waiting until there was a sign - and this interview on CNET certainly was a sign:
http://news.com.com/The+man+whos+got+mainstream+radio+quaking/2008-1026_3-5711864.html?tag=nefd.ac. I actually had another sign just now when I went to start this blog, as Paul has added "Podcasting" as one of the "categories" for a post.

In the CNET interview, the interviewer questions the level of hype that Podcasting is receiving, and in its defense, Curry uses the television show "The Osbournes" as, i guess, some kind of allegorical support. He heads further down the "reality tv is proof that Podcasting is compelling" argument for a few more questions, but honestly, he lost me on "The Osbournes". I mean, I kind of think we might all agree that reality tv has sort of eaten itself, right? Also, reality TV is hardly produced in bedrooms on laptops. Anyway, I won't continue on with the Adam Curry thing - you can read it yourself - but it did get me to hone in on some core questions: is Podcasting compelling, and if it is, why?

It brought me to think of none other than our old friend Marshall McLuhan and his famous "The Medium is the Message" quote. (Tim - are you REALLY going to quote Marshall McLuhan? Yes - see you at Burning Man, bro). I believe that Podcasting is compelling as a phenomenon due to its marriage to that cultural heavyweight, the iPod, for sure. McLuhan would do doubt say that the mere existence of such a phenomenon is compelling enough to spark the collective consciousness into innovative action that will drive a new paradigm and generate something even more compelling and with more substance than the original phenomenon. Well, let's hope so, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. As industry professionals, we are interested in how it affects people's behavior, how it affects markets, and since its content related, what is it doing for content?

Well, on the behavior front, I think it is pretty compelling. Timeshifting is a HUGE benefit to the content consumer, and that alone makes it quite interesting. There are, of course, other behavioral effects, but let's just quite while we're ahead.

Markets... hmmm. Well, there certainly is a market for digital audio books, but does that count as Podcasting? I say no... first of all, they were around well before the term, and i don't really think it qualifies as being "programmed", which I think is necessary for the definition (see below). As far as all the other content types, including music podcasts, I think there is potential, but most of it is unlicensed and free at this point, so I am going to say that that its short term affect on markets is pretty small... compared to file-sharing - microscopic.

With respect to content - I have to say that I'm on the fence. Now, I dig the idea of sharing playlists with people, but most of the Podcasts that I have checked out aren't really about music... they are about some music and a lot of somebody talking about what they are playing. To be honest, as a discovery tool, I think the legal/paid sharing options available via Rhapsody, Musicmatch, Yahoo, Peer Impact, Mercora, and others are much more compelling from a pure music perspective due to a much lower barrier to creating and sharing. As far as the other, well, shall I say, "variety show" type Podcasts... well, most of it conjures up either public access television or worse. The tricky thing about content is that the quality of the content is, and always has been, independent of the "medium" in my humble opinion (sorry Marshall).

Ok - so what does all this mean? Yeah... its getting too much hype, but its also pretty cool when done right. Just like blogs, its all about filtering and finding people who have a knack for it vs. miles of garbage (yeah...well, I walked right into that one, didn't I). I really don't feel like I've seen a good definition yet, so, let's get back to basics. Sometimes a simple definition will demystify the thing and make it easier to put it into the proper context, so here goes:

Podcasting = programmed digital audio content available for download and playback on any device that will support the encoded format of said content. Not very sexy, is it. If it catches on, I want credit, dammit.