The iPodder Lemon team has announced the release of a custom version of its podcast client. Now users can create their own podcatcher, preload it with favorite podcasts, and make it available for download from their websites.
iPodder lets users select and automatically download podcasts to play on-demand on iPods, portable digital media players, or computers. "
This new version lowers the barrier to entry," said Martijn Venrooy, the team's user interface designer. "
It's so easy to use now, first time listeners only have to download the software, install it and they're ready to rock."
Custom iPodder clients can be created via the iPodder Lemon Store, with a recommended price of $50. You can pay more or less according to your means, with a minimum of $25 and a maximum of $100. Recently the Lemon team created a unique iPodder client for Warner Bros.' forthcoming movie The House of Wax, which features podcasts by Paris Hilton counting down to the movie's release day.
iPodder has evolved from its basic beginnings as the world's first podcasting software to a mature application. iPodder has been downloaded over 250,000 times since its debut early last fall, making it the world's most popular podcast client.
The application is based on open source software and is licensed under the GPL (General Public License), so users may distribute as many copies of their branded iPodder as they like. Check out the
iPodder Lemon Store.
Just when we grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting than blogging. Being a podcaster myself, I've seen firsthand the business and legal chaos podcasts have created. As you'll see in this column, perhaps they might soon create some political chaos too.
Simply put, podcasting is the act of recording and transmitting digital audio over the Internet to one's computer or MP3 player. The "pod" in podcasting refers to Apple's iPod, but any MP3 player can play podcasts. Using a streaming-media player, you also can listen to podcasts right off the Web. Most listeners do. Researchers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project this month claimed that "
more than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and more than one in four of them have downloaded podcasts."
That seems high to me, and many agree, but Pew stands firm. No matter. Podcasting is here to stay.
Paris Hilton will podcast this month to promote her new movie House of Wax. Air America, National Public Radio and Clear Channel Communications all podcast their programs, or say they soon will. A new SciFi Channel podcast featuring Battlestar Galactica Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore gives a running commentary on each episode. Viewers can download the audio and listen along while they watch. Forbes.com, too, podcasts. Click here to listen to excerpts from its weekly radio show. Meanwhile, podcast entrepreneurs jockey to make money and consolidate power. Boku Communications co-founder Adam Curry, a former personality with Viacom's MTV, wants to coax podcasters into creating shows using Boku's professional-quality audio production tools, which they'll find at podshow.com.
To the extent he can empower podcasters, Curry hopes that advertisers will be inspired to shift advertising dollars toward Boku and its roster of audio talent. Says Curry, "
Madison Avenue realizes there's an entire generation out there that doesn't listen to the radio." Already there's disruption within the podcasting community itself. Most podcasting pioneers deplore commercialization--just as the dot-edu and dot-org communities bad-mouthed dot-com Web sites a decade ago.
Forrester Research has released a new report, The Future Of Digital Audio, that focuses on podcasting and satellite radio. According to the report, 20.1 million U.S. households will listen to satellite radio and 12.3 million U.S. households will use their MP3 players to listen to audio podcasts by the end of the decade.
"Consumers want to listen to what they want, when they want, on the device of their choosing. New formats like online radio and podcasting, where downloadable content is sent directly to an MP3 player, give consumers more programming and ultimate flexibility," says Forrester Research Vice President Ted Schadler. "If radio and music executives can successfully shift their thinking to embrace new audio delivery methods, both industries will benefit from new revenue streams and increased consumer loyalty over the next several years."
According to Forrester, music and radio executives must adopt subscription-based models, on-demand delivery, and ad targeting strategies for radio to successfully maximize its new formats. For example, in addition to rolling out high-definition (HD) radio, broadcasters like Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting should move quickly to both ad- and subscription-supported online delivery and subscription-based programming and services to HD receivers to accommodate varied consumer demand.
The radio industry will also contend with increased ad skipping as the adoption of TiVo-like digital radio recorders (DRR) increases. Improved ad measurement capabilities online and offline will ease some of the ad industry's concerns by enabling it to target specific listeners.
Highlights of the report for podcasters include:Online radio (streaming audio) will continue to grow as portals like AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN increase programming and traditional broadcasters move portions of their programming online, reaching 30 percent of all US households and close to 50 percent of US households with broadband by 2010.
Podcasting, which is the newest entrant into the digital audio mix, will see significant growth by 2010 -- reaching 12.3 million households, as MP3 adoption climbs and broadband reaches 62 percent of households.
A duo of UK radio DJs have launched a commercial podcasting outfit online, offering radio programming for download to digital music players such as an iPod.
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Wes Butters and former Virgin Radio DJ Daryl Denham have set up Podshows, a €73,000 (£50,000) venture that offers half-hour podcasts of radio shows for download for €0.72 (49p) and hour-long shows for €1.45 (99p).
Traditional radio must be listened to at the time of broadcast, and digital radio can be streamed at any time, but one can only listen via a computer, a podcast is an audio file downloadable from the internet and playable on a portable digital music player such as an iPod at any time.
The company offers a Top 40 singles chart show, classical and jazz programming and updates from the Michael Jackson child abuse trial in California.
At launch the shows are only available via streaming, as the company has yet to finalise music licensing with the major record labels
The BBC is extending its podcasting trial by making another 20 shows available on-demand to listeners with digital music players.
The corporation's trial of the format started last year when it made the Radio 4 show In Our Time available for podcasting. This was followed by the podcasting of Radio Five show Fighting Talk and the 1Xtra programme, TX Unlimited.
The three podcasted shows were downloaded as MP3 files some 270,000 times in the first four months of the trial, and the success has led to 20 more shows becoming available.
New shows made available for download include the agenda-setting Radio 4 show Today and Radio Five Live's weekly Mark Kermode film review slot.
All the BBC's podcast shows are currently talk-based to avoid problems concerning music rights issues.
In a separate trial, the BBC is also making various shows available for download through its interactive media player or iMP. The technology allows the download of TV and radio programmes owned by the BBC within seven days of the original broadcast
