Podcasting goes primetime
: I had the pleasure of appearing on Brian Lehrer’s show on WNYC today (which makes me feel like I’m visiting Harvard, rubbing elbows with the smart kids) and besides having fun talking about Jon Stewart, I got to push Brian and the station’s programming director — who was sitting there to make pledge pitches — to put up all their shows online as MP3s so their audience can distribute them. Brian properly takes credit for putting up all their shows in archives and nuggetized archives at that. But I said they should be putting them out there as MP3s so the audience can distribute the great stuff — with underwriter or pledge spiels attached. They were both shaking their heads. I think it may just happen.
Brian also talked about podcasting — and they’re planning on doing a segment on it — which is damned nice to see the new radio on the old radio.
: Separately, AdAge (again, and again without links!) has a cover story this week on “The iPod Economy.” They miss entirely podcasting and the idea that the iPod is a new platform for a new medium of anything/anywhere/anytime programming. But even so….
They say that the iPod now supports an industry of 1,000 peripherals.
…but big marketers with their own histories of ingenuity are lining up to ally themselves with the product, basking in the iPod’s marketing glow…
“The iPod is not just a consumer-electronics device, it’s a cultural icon,” said Michael Gartenberg, director of research at Jupiter Research. “…By making strong associations with other very strong brands, it establishes the iPod as a way to get the iPod experience into consumers’ hands.” …
“Apple doesn’t sell an MP3 player, they sell a lifestyle,” said Andrew Green, VP-marketing and design at Griffin. “Buyers of iPods are buying into a club.”
They’re also buying into a new medium, man.
