Radio's future can be even better than its past. Making Waves, the new book by Mark Ramsey, can help any broadcaster navigate a world of endless competition. An action plan for the future plus expert advice from Seth Godin, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Jaffe, and many more. Read the Podcasting for Fun and Profit
LoyalEars, a Radio industry loyalty rewards company, has announced a turnkey system for radio stations to sell Podcasts for download by listeners.
For every 98 cent download your station pockets 60 cents.
The details are a bit sketchy, but they can be found here.
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» Radio stations to *SELL* podcasts? from I Love Radio .org
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Loyal Ears,a company that bills itself as "A Media Rewards program", is offering a "turnkey, low cost app that will allow a radio station to be the best friend an Ipod could have."
Is podcasting going to go mainstream media? Mommy! I'm scared!
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» Radio stations to podcast...get ready from ktoddstorch @ business thoughts
In today's Radio Ink, this press release from Loyal Ears. I thought this paragraph says quite a bit:Loyal Ears President Jimmy Risk observed, “Clear Channel’s entry last week into podcasting underscores the urgency for radio to connect beyond the d... [Read More]
Can I ask a simple question:
Why would anyone pay someone to sell podcasts--that little understood and still not consumer friendly technology--to listeners of unique morning show content when they can simply sell them as downloads via the website? And earn 100% to boot?
Podcasts are designed for convenient downloading of things that are updated irregularly. It's best comparison is the convenience of an RSS feed of a blog where you never know when it will be updated (which I do with this here thing all the time). But if I KNOW that the morning show unique broadcast is going to be online every morning at 11am, it's more convenient for me just to go to the site and download it directly.
I just don't see podcasts making any sense for things that are updated at consistent times.
Let me put it this way: If Mark updated his blog every morning at 9am, I wouldn't bother using my RSS feed aggregator. I'd just see if it was after 9am and come here directly.
Posted by: Jim Kerr | March 30, 2005 at 11:07 AM
Jim,
The term 'podcasts' in a radio sense might be a misnomer in that our model is merely an on-demand vehicle. When stations are sending content-for-charge
to listeners, just setting up the charge system is beyond the capacity of most stations. In order to sell audio files via a stations website, code has to be written and an application created. Free podcasts will make use of RSS feed's for auto updating, but the revenue model is a different engine and requires development and technology costs. Have you tried this lately?
As for 'that little understood by the public' remark, I would ask you if you want to be in front or behind the curve. As cumbersome as Clear Channel is, they are in front of the curve and FYI..their initial podcast model will NOT deploy RSS, I'm told. They want the user coming back to the site.
Yesterday you wrote one of our PD's to compliment her on a 'cutting edge' loyalty program.
BTW..that was us too :)
jimmy risk
Posted by: jimmy risk | March 30, 2005 at 12:48 PM
If Clear Channel doesn't use RSS that strikes me as dumb. You can't tell a VHS world that you're going Beta.
Posted by: Mark Ramsey | March 30, 2005 at 12:58 PM
Misnomer it is!
I'm all about on-demand, but podcasting is a bit more involved and somehow the two terms got merged into one. You certainly can have on-demand without podcasting, and you hit that nail on the head: Radio needs the infrastructure to make that work. As you guys provide that infrastructure, you provide a valuable resource. I didn't mean to imply otherwise but obviously did.
As to being in front of the curve...please note the full phrase I stated: "little understood and still not consumer friendly." Being ahead of the curve on anything is just not effective if it's not consumer friendly. I'd rather be the first with the consumer friendly technology than be the first with the technology overall.
What everyone really wants is something that will gather the consumer's desired content, initiate the transaction, and put it on their iPod, computer, or cell phone all in one step. We're getting there, and I think that podcasting is ONE of the ways to do that, but I don't think that it, in itself, is the be all end all.
Maybe this is just semantics at this point: Podcasting may end up to be synonymous with on-demand audio.
Posted by: Jim Kerr | March 30, 2005 at 01:09 PM
Jimmy,
Considering "podcasting" is built heavily around the RSS feed, I think Clear Channel missed the curve:-) They're technically offering MP3 downloads, and nothing more. There's nothing new about that. Part of what is great about podcasting, is the automatic delivery to the end user. It gives them a convenient way to stay in tune with their favorite show. I had a fan that got busy with work stuff, and was paging through his Ipod, and found my latest show waiting for him, which he had forgotten to listen to that week, and he listened to it - heard a tune played by his band, and dropped me an email to say thanks. This is a guy that used to tape every show we would do on cassette, and now, has a better method - he still visits our website on a regular basis too!
If I like a website, I am going to keep visiting it - regardless of what I get, and I how I get it - that's Clear Channel's mission - make the content of the site that I like compelling, and I will continue to go there. Pretty simple stuff.
You can't call what Clear Channel is doing, "podcasting", and both for good and bad, they are going to get a lot of credit for it in the end.
I do find the podcast-by-download system interesting, so kudos to you, Jimmy! Best of luck...
Posted by: Matt Wardlaw | March 30, 2005 at 01:10 PM
I think we've kind of stumbled upon an interesting and fairly important development here:
The definition of Podcasting has evolved from solely being an audio RSS feed to being an all-encompassing word for audio on-demand.
Not sure what the implications of that are, but I'm waiting for Mark to tell us!
Posted by: Jim Kerr | March 30, 2005 at 01:17 PM
Jim,
I look at it as an extra way to attract listeners to your radio station.
If you have a webguy that knows his way around an RSS feed, it's not a ton of extra work to implement on your website with audio stuff that you already have in place.
I think you have a lot of good points, but also think that it is more "consumer friendly" than you might think, already. And it's getting a ton of press and coverage both locally and nationally, so it's a hard thing to miss.
I think the biggest problem, is the term "podcasting". As someone that does not have an Ipod, I ignored the podcasting thing early on, because I thought you had to have an Ipod to participate.....so there is definitely an element of confusion - there is good chance that if you mention it to someone that is not familiar, their reply is going to be "that sounds interesting, but I don't have an Ipod."
It has to be something that is easily understood by your listening audience, and I think you are right that we aren't at the finish line of the thought process, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Matt Wardlaw | March 30, 2005 at 01:20 PM