AMAZING

Google search hits on podcasting: 109,000 hits as of 7:39 p.m. PDT. That's 15,000 hits since noon today.
7:42:59 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

PODCASTING GROWS UP

The speed with which podcasting has passed into the public consciousness amazes me. It's not just the numbers (today's Google hit total for podcasting: 93,900, about 2,500 more than three days ago).

Within an incredibly short time, podcasting has gone from a concept to the point where there are dozens of daily shows available for download. I currently "subscribe" to five of them through the excellent iPodder and its growing list of links to podcasts and new services.

Now Adam Curry, a pioneer of this new new media (if you can apply the term "pioneer" to something as fresh as this) is arguing that it's time for podcasters to start buying music licences as one step toward making podcasting commercially viable.

...I think I can successfully argue that using copyrighted musical works in a podcast qualifies as a performance and broadcast usage. In fact, there should be no difference in taping a 'show' on cassette tape and selling it on a street corner to taping a podcast and distributing it via rss. These podcasts are creative works that build on existing work. Exactly what licenses are made for, so everyone gets their piece of the action.

I'd love to hear a legal opinion on my analysis, but if I'm right, we have a shot at making podcasting as commercially viable as broadcast radio.