Building A Business from

Podcasting?

Or...

What comes last, the chicken or the egg?

Well, I've just finished listening to Adam and Dave, the mothers of invention, the fathers of all things casting, the "i's" of iPod. http://secrets.scripting.com/2004/12/09#a220

Dave, thanks for the mention of this ole guitar player as a talented businessman.  I think that's like the Asian blessing, "may you live in interesting times".  A well-crafted insult insulated by a glowing complement.  I am awed by your podness and look forward to giving you the business as soon as possible.

Well, its time to weigh in regarding podcasting and business.  For those of you out there who are still searching for a successful business model for blogging... well I've met blogging, and podcasting ain't no blogging...  It's time to stop talking about who came first.  The real question is... who will come last? 

Podcasting is born from anarchists fleeing a religiously controlled production and distribution environment... Or it is just what you get when you mix too-much-time with cheap recording equipment? (Witness sampling and rap)  What caused ipodder to be developed?  A bizarre left-brain right-brain combination of people like Adam and Dave who have found significant success in both technology and entertainment, and intrinsically understand how the technology and the content work. Hey Dave, its not users and developers partying together, its technology and content mating like wild animals...  We need to mate at the DNA level.  And while you are busy copulating, don't forget those business people out there who will actually work to make it happen.  They are artists in their own right.  Listen to them jam.

Why is podcasting cool? 

Because it drips of natural evolution.  Because it is born from the frustration and desperation of a desolate media landscape. Because it opens up the opportunity to be truly creative and acheive the distribution to be, at the same time, truly successful. 

What will make podcasting successful? 

Good tools, open minds, real distribution, easy use, and cool cool cool stuff... aka a business.  If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around for miles, is it heard?  Is it real?  Is it a revolution in the forest?  If one podcast is heard in a sea of millions of radio listeners, is it a new medium?  I

f a podcast is incredible and few hear it, is it successful?  We are here to unabashedly bring this emerging, perculating creative outlet to a hungry global audience.  Let's try not to blow it OK?

In order for PodCasting to be successful, a business environment must be created to let it flourish. A medium must grow and be supported.  The trick is to accomplish this with as much positive anarchy as possible, while building a business model that allows for it to flourish.  If the "casting" concept succeeds, it will be because we have accomplished this.  If it fails, it will be our fault.  The worst of both worlds would be for it to slip through our grasp while we sit on the sidelines discussing what it should be.

Yes, today Podcasting is cool...

Also, and perhaps more importantly,

it is something cool to do on the IPOD! 

Let's face it. 

If the iPOD is to be nothing more than a glorified portable cassette player, then it is doomed to go the way of the 8 track and the walkman. An oddity that turns into a commodity.  Remember the CD?

What Apple did with the iPOD was make the box cooler than what was on it. 

What does that say for the content?

NOW here is the big idea....

Fusion, dude... Fuse the content with the technology.

What our company needs to do is create technology that enables the focus to return to where it belongs.

What podcasting can do is make content king again.  What we can do is fuse the content to the medium by infusing a growing list of functionality to an ever evolving content "metaphor".  We can translate this to any device on any platform.  This is our raison d'etre.. ( or the raisins on our entre?).  Now that's a reason for a newco.

This should be the prinicple goal of our new "were not supposed to be talking about it" company. 

Fusing content with technology and making CONTENT  KING AGAIN! Dude....

Make content cool and it will find its way onto every MP3 and Cellphone in the known universe.   Developers... we need the tools to make content cool! Don't let us down. 

PRODUCERS unite!

I think we are about to see the rebirth of producers as key players in the world of content.  Today, most producers we see podcasting do it because they understand the technology. 

It's not just about who will be the Beatles of podcasting. Its also about who will be the George Martin.

Independant producers have spit in the face of TV and created Reality Television. For a while there, it made regular TV cool again. 

Sports producers laughed at the boring and bloated infratructure of professional athletics and created Extreme Sports... Coooool and undisputedly so.

DEVELOPERS ignite!

Developers, think what you could do to the quality of content if you built tools that opened the world to those who are gifted in the content sense but bumbling idiots in the tech world.  You are the skateboard, race car, fast bike, quad wheeler, builders of the casting world.  Give us cool tools.

Come on, technology... copulate with content! Yeah, feels so good.

CONTENT PEOPLE?

Dream big and find a producer.

SO, LET'S SUMMARIZE...

iPod made a cool box

MTV made TV a cool box.

Get it?  We need our PODTV.

Why it is important?  

nobody loves radio... everybody listens to it.

Would they listen to something better? Duh!!!

Formula music sucks.  Better stuff is out there. Any questions?

Processed talk shows are vanilla and uninteresting?  Next?

Laughing, teaching, talking, training, dancing, you name it. It can be improved.

Let's get busy.

Make it so, developers. 

Are we witnessing the launch of a new medium of expression?   Who cares who said what first?  Who cares who did what first?  The question is, where will it go and how can we make a media company into a new medium company?  Will we still be standing when its over?

Are we to create a company for the next millenium, or merely become a legend that lasts a lunchtime?  Let's make podcasting the launching pad for something bigger. 

so, Chicken or Egg?

Medium or Message?

Box or Content?

I say, cook the chicken and make an omlette. 

WE CAN DO BOTH!!!

Thoughts from BloggerBrain

Feel free to rant

10:05:09 PM