Podcasting, unlike other media forms, almost never has
charges for services, and the vast majority of feed
producers distribute free podcasts. This puts at odds
with, say, online radio stations, news sites that offer
media to subscribers, or the online music industry
general. Even though podcasting has very direct
correlations with industries like news and music that
have strong business models, podcasting differs.
Podcasting does not really have a business model, and
hardly anyone is podcasting in order to profit from it.
There are some businesses and news sites that podcast,
but they do it as a way to supplement their companies
and to gain technological geek credibility, not to make
money. This is an odd thing, but explainable in light of
what podcasting is.

The free podcast problem is not difficult, and
podcasting differs in several key ways from other media
areas. First, podcasting involves the physical transfer of
a file from the host to the users computer. An online
radio station does not do this; all that they provide to
their listeners is a streaming sound file that cannot be
saved without difficulty and work. If someone did
manage to do so, the station would have strong grounds
for suing them since they were never given the rights to
keep and store the files. By podcasting the complete file
to the users computer, express permission is granted the
user to copy and use as they wish. Second, the podcasts
are, for the most part, made by individuals who have
low costs involved in creating and distributing the files,
as opposed to a news broadcast or song by a music
company. These individuals have little reason to charge
for their work since there is little cost to them to do so.
Because the files are distributed in a way allows their
copying and does not control the media, and since
podcasting is a very low cost media outlet, feed
producers have little reason or ability to charge for their
work.

Podcast video, and other types of podcasting are thus
part of the blogging revolution. Individuals and groups
around the world, with a small investment in equipment
and time, can become content producers. Because it is
so simple to use and cheap to set up, many people are
getting involved. They can podcast video around the
world, becoming producers and directors for any small
niche they want to exploit.

Many of these podcasters have small audiences that
download their podcast video, but larger groups are
getting involved. News organizations and websites that
serve massive audiences are discovering that podcasting
and podcast video can distribute their content to
millions of people easily. These groups have found that
podcasting video is yet another way to distribute their
news and information. Since podcasting is so easy to
use, it’s likely that even more people will start using
podcast video.

Today, however, a podcast feed tends to refer to the use
of a feed to share media files. Most podcasts are done
with audio files, and the individual files that are created
and shared are called episodes. These audio files may
contain a variety of things; there are music, comedy,
news, technology, even podcasts about wine.
Podcasting, because of the low entry cost, especially for
audio podcasting allows nearly anyone who believes
they have something to say to broadcast it over the
internet. Even more established groups have found that
audio podcasting works well. Some radio stations
podcast portions of their content, sharing it over the
internet to allow listeners who missed a specific show
to catch up on it later. NPR now does this with its news
breaks, and the NPR show “This American Life” offers
a podcast of its shows to subscribers who pay a small
fee.

One of the newer innovations in podcast feeds is the
vlog, or videoblog. These blogs usually contain a feed
that distributes a video, rather than an audio file to feed
subscribers. Although that would not have been feasible
a few years ago, growing numbers of broadband
internet subscribers has meant that most users are able
to download large files, even video files, relatively
quickly. These video podcasts have been readily
accepted by mainstream news organizations. They have
found that podcasting portions of their content is a way
to share their tape and reach a wider audience. The BBC
currently does this with parts of its news content. Pieces
of the news show that is played over the airwaves is
taken and placed online, along with a link to the content
placed inside the RSS feed. Those who subscribe to the
BBC feed can download the news clip and watch in
from the comfort of their home computer.

In the future, podcast feeds may be used for a number of
purposes besides simply sharing media files. Some
analysts predict that the feed system could also be used
to share software updates, or any of a myriad of other
file types. For now, however, podcasting is dominated
by small audio and video files.

A directory of podcast videos can help anyone find new
and interesting podcasts to subscribe to, and it can also
help podcasters advertise their feeds. Rather than
relying on word of mouth advertising and people
stumbling onto the feed, a directory makes it easier for
listeners to find the feed. Directories play the role that
early search engines did, maintaining a list of a
relatively small group of net addresses that otherwise
would not be found.

After looking through a directory of podcast videos and
finding a feed that is appealing, it can be subscribed to
by using a podcast client. A podcast client is a computer
program that checks the RSS file that stores the
information about the feed and downloads the video
files that the video podcast links to. The file can then be
watched by the user on their computer whenever and as
many times as they wish.

For others, a music podcast may be the chance to
become a dj, and the episodes they share will contain
mixes of different songs, highlighting obscure yet
accomplished artists and taking their listeners on a tour
every episode. These amateurs podcast merely because
they enjoy the activity, as most independent podcasters
do. Yet another type of music podcast, however,
involves the online radio station. While some radio
stations have taken the leap to the internet by offering
streaming connections to their current playlist, others
have accepted the podcast as a way of sharing their
music. Such a style is very similar to the amateur dj, but
brings a level of professionalism that is not found with
the amateur podcasters.

A music podcast may also be a way to sample works by
more well known artists before purchasing. Some
musicians and groups will podcast their new music, or
portions of the new pieces, in order to peak interest in
the songs before release. Fans get to listen to the music
and find out what they might like before purchasing the
whole album. A possibility, however, is that music
podcasts become subscription based, and musicians
begin charging for access to the feed. The online sale of
music has proved its popularity, with Apple’s iTunes
reaching its one billionth paid download recently. A
music group could conceivably offer a feed to its fans
that they could pay for, and regularily update it with
new songs that would be downloaded directly to the
fan’s computers Although this distribution model is not
yet in place, it seems to fit with the over all trend.
Already, some nonmusic groups have agreed to podcast
their files, on the condition that a paid subscription is
bought.

The podcast for This American Life misses the point of
what a podcast is intended to be, the free distribution of
information. The This American Life team is exploiting
the term podcasting, and the credibility and hipness that
is associated with the term in order to boost their own
popularity.

On the other hand, the podcast for This American Life
may be where the rest of the industry is headed.
Although the technology was first adopted by
independent media groups that enjoyed it because of the
low cost of distribution and the close possible ties to
end users, that may change when podcasting becomes a
wider phenomenon. If podcasting is adopted by more
mainstream, corporate entities, the face of podcasting is
likely to change to one where a profit plan is required.
Audible.com’s plan of forcing users to subscribe and
pay for the feeds they want may be the way the
corporate world decides to latch on to and use
podcasting. The advantage of podcasting, direct
distribution of the media files to the user’s home
computer quickly and easily, is not lost if the system
moves to one revolving around profit.

Regretfully, the podcast for This American Life is
probably an example of what podcasting will be in a
few years. As much as locked media files that restrict
distribution may be repugnant to many of the free
information activists that curently dominate podcasting,
there is little to stop those who want to use the system
to make a profit from doing so.

The Howard Stern podcast is probably an example of
some of the problems that can arise with podcasting. Its
new, and very hyped, so everyone wants to be a part of
it. However, the podcast is designed to be free. RSS
feeds are designed to easily distribute files, that can
then be redistributed and shared by the users who
download them. It would be close to impossible for a
podcaster to charge for their content. Either the
podcaster would have a small circle of people who
enjoy the feed, and very few who would want to pay for
it, or be very popular, as Stern is, and have the problem
of paying customers possibly redistributing the content
so others won’t need to pay.

With the change in RSS feeds, ipod podcast took off,
and podcasting became a popular way to share files.
Users saw podcasting as a way to become radio hosts,
or dj’s, and a variety of podcasts began popping up.
Software was written to automatically check the RSS
feeds, extract the links to the podcast episodes, and
download the files. These programs became known as
podcast clients.

By this time, podcasting had moved beyond the ipod,
and they were not simply making an ipod podcast
anymore. Some people had figured out how to use even
the PlayStation Portable gaming console as a podcast
player. It was more difficult that downloading podcasts
to the ipod, since the PSP used a different format for it’s
files, but PSP podcasts began popping up. In addition,
podcasting made inroads to the wider audience of
people without iPods, who simply saw podcasting as an
extremely convenient way to receive news, music, and
entertainment over the internet.

Today, while the iPod podcast type still exists, fewer
people subscribe to podcasts as a way of gaining
portable media files they can listen to anywhere.
Although that is still an attractive part of podcasting, it
seems to be eclipsed by the ease with which podcasting
has become a content delivery system. Now, podcasting
has become tied up with the rising number of audio and
video blogs, where blogging is done not by post, but
through media files uploaded to the blog. These blogs,
and podcasting in general, take advantage of the
shrinking cost of broadband internet connections, and
the rising number of people with high speed access to
offer a picture of the internet rich with multimedia files.

While some podcast software is designed for home user
computers, much of it is designed to be used online.
There are many packages created so that feed
subscribers can view the podcasts they enjoy from
within a web browser. These software packages contain
both the feed reader like the home user software does,
but usually also incorporate a way to view or listen to
the podcasts online from inside the browser. Much of
this software is used at the podcast directories that
maintain listings of podcast feeds.

Another type of online podcast software is the category
of feed creators. PHP scripting is usually used to create
the RSS file that tells the feed readers where to
download the podcasts from. The scripting can either
create a hard copy of the RSS file and write it to the
server disk when the feed is updated, or it can make it
virtually. When the RSS file is generated virtually, it
doesn’t actually exist on the host’s server. Instead, the
address of the PHP script is distributed as the address of
the feed. When the script is accessed, it generates the
file by looking at the recent posts at the site and sends
the results to the feed subscriber.

The Podcast RSS feeds became a hit, and podcast
clients were quickly written to allow people to use the
new encoding. Podcasting became a means of quickly
and cheaply sharing episodes with subscribers. Rather
than requiring subscribers to visit the site that hosted
the files everytime they wanted to know if a new
episode was released, users could rely on the podcast
client to do the work for them, keeping track of
numerous podcast rss feeds that interested them and
downloading the files to be viewed when they wished.

Podcast RSS feeds are now used to distribute a number
of different types of podcasts. Some producers use it as
way to share a comedy or news program that they
produce, others podcast in order to share music files
they create, and some podcast to share video files they
have created and to showcase their work. Podcasting
allows the producers to become radio or television stars
without the large investment in time and money that
wuld be required to do that. Because podcasting has
such a low entry cost, requiring little more than a server
and a domain to host the site and a way to record the
media, thousands of people who otherwise would not
have a chance to work in a media environment have a
chance to do so through their podcast rss feeds.

In this way, podcast RSS feeds allow media publishing
over the internet at a fraction of the cost of other forms
of media distribution, permitting people with much
smaller budgets to compete in some way. However,
podcast rss feeds are also attracting more established
companies and groups as well, bringing people from
NPR radio stations and news organizations like CNN
who use podcasting as yet another means to distribute
their product to end users.