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102 Comments
- faithlessphil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29I love podcasts, but is this really that big of a thing? Radio stations kind of need a lot more overhead and equipment to operate. And they provide at least 16 hours of content everyday. It doesn't seem to be the right comparison.
- deivys, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Its true that radio provides up to 16 hours or more a day of content. However, I have a job, so the most I can listen to the radio is 2 hours a day or less. Now, given the amount of good podcast out there, I can be entertained the whole week listening to the shows I like, when I like, and commercial free. Sounds like a really good alternative for me.
- jesusphreak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16And how many of these podcasts are craptacular ones that run for about 10 minutes and are listened to by 5 people?
Its just not comparable to a 24-hour radio station that has several hundred thousand listeners. I'm really getting sick of the attitude all over the Internet where new technologies/ideas are constantly hyped over other ideas that are doing just as well. A great example is this article and the whole Digg v Slashdot debacle.
I just think everyone wants to feel like whatever they are a part of is the "best". Its a self-reassurance thing really. - whizzbang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Podcasts are great and all but I don't doing one 10 minute show once is equivalent to setting up and running a full radio station!
- dolby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Podcast are good but we need to keep in mind that podcast last for about and 1 hour ( some longer and some shorter) but radio stations (most of them) provide content for 24 hours a day. So comparing podcast to radio station is like comparing apples with green peppers, I doesn't add up. Plus anybody can start a podcast it takes corporations to start a radio station.
- martian, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Too bad there are more people podcasting than listening to podcasts.
- Krazy8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6When there are enough podcasts that they can fill all of the timeslots that all of the radio stations have to then this will be a story.
- larowebr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I write freelance for a serious podcast (as in we do three 45-min episodes a week) and even *I* agree with you. The real indicant should be this: how many podcasts are still around after five years compared with how many radio stations are still around after five years. If the podcast number is even a quarter that of the radio industry, I'd consider that a success. Not this flimsy number where 80% are kids with built-in mics recording on Windows Sound Recorder and posting the xml to their livejournal.
- socket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"What took Radio stations 100 years to do, Podcasting did in just 2 years. Yeah, "Pod People" are taking over!"
If it took hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) and a large staff of experienced people to start up a Pod Cast like it does a radio station there MIGHT be a small handful of Pod Casts today. - Quarks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I agree with you, you just can't compare it.
Podcast didn't do anything like radio in the last 100 years.
That's like saying: "What writers did in hundreds of years, bloggers did in just 3 year." - trogdor282, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10In the words of Maddox:
"Podcast: Someone had the revolutionary idea of taking a compressed audio file and putting it online. Yeah, doesn't sound so sexy when I describe it for what it is, does it you morons? It would have been a great idea if streaming audio wasn't already around for over a decade before the word "podcast" entered the lexicon. Man, I can't stand the word "lexicon." Talking about all these ***** words has made me start using ***** words. I'm so pissed, I just slammed the door shut on some kid's nuts." - farfromsubtl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Lets not forget the incredible signal-to-noise ratio in overal programming quality. While there are some truely superb quality podcasts out there, the unfortunately overwhelming majority is just plain aweful.
- monkeybutler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What a stupid statistic. Its like saying word documents outnumber published books. I could create an original podcast within an hour but if i wanted to get a radio station it would take months.
Podcasting is huge, but the number of podcasts is probably its most damaging trait. There's just so much pure audio crap out there thatits tough for the little guy to emerge and thats why the most popular shows are all corporate sponsored. So unless you're leo or kevin then you've got little chance for success. - WackyT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Anyone else see this as apples and oranges? Radio stations are venues and podcasts are shows. Unrelated and innaccurate.
- sparty1969, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4{Yeah, "Pod People" are taking over!}
Why don't you compare the amount of households that have iPod's compared to Radios? Or ask the average person on the street, "do you know what a Radio station is" compared to "do you know what a PodCast is". I think you will find that "Pod People" are NOT taking over. - socket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You missed my point Mr. Longwindedfornothing. The submitter of the story made it out to be that Pod Casts out numbering Radio Stations is a BIG accomplishment. It's not. I'll be impressed when Pod Cast LISTENERS out number radio station listeners.
- hijinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3this is lame.. its like saying look at all the blogs.. they took surpassed the worlds newspapers.. how many of these podcasts could get advertising money like a radio needs to survive.. i bet 99% of them would be dead if they needed ad money to survive
- theragu40, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course that's the point. Duh. We get it just fine. We're just saying that the fact that they have no setup costs makes them non-comparable to radio stations from a numbers standpoint. If radio stations had the same overhead, setup costs, and lack of a need for advertising, they would be just as prevalent as podcasts. But they don't, and they aren't, and that's why.
- modsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Isn't it just common sense that there are more Podcasts then Radio stations? Any monkey with a mic can make a podcast. I've heard lots of podcasts that wouldn't even cut it on college radio. It's like saying that if you have a video camera therefore you can run your own TV station. Just because podcasts are abundant doesn't mean a) that they are good or b) anyone actually listens to them.
- gregkeene, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Okay, I'm a big Podcast fan, but this is like saying the number of kitchens in homes outranks the number of commercial restaurants worldwide. Both serve food, but they are not equal. That said, I spend more time listening to podcasts than radio. Of course, I probably eat at home more than I eat out too.
- All4not, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This should take quality of the content and quantity of the content into effect. A 1 hour podcast does not equal a station, it equals a weekly show on a station.
Also you should take into effect that podcasts are usually advertisement free or they have less than a minutre of advertising. So a 40 minute podcast may be equal to an hour long radio show.
No digg for comparing apples to oranges. - Wolfboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A podcast is a show that typically runs for a few minutes once a day or maybe for an hour once per week.
A radio station is on the air 12 to 24 hours per day, seven days per week. It broadcasts dozens of shows a day and perhaps a hundred or more shows in a week, .
Comparing a 10-minute daily podcast to a 24-7 radio station is stupid.
When the number of podcasts starts to rival the number of radio shows on the air, then you will have a meaningful comparison.
Note also that many of the most popular podcasts are actually shows from real, professional TV and radio stations and broadcast networks (public radio, TV networks, local TV news), so who is beating whom in the podcast world? - Weenis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2my thoughts exactly. If it was as simple to start a radio station as it is to start a podcast, you'd see just as many radio stations...
The funny thing is that lots of radio stations are doing podcast themselves! The best IMO being Leo Laporte's KFI radio show the he podcasts. - scottym, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hang on just a moment.
I’m all for podcasting, and I’m podcaster myself… but let’s put some things into perspective here.
1: Radio is expensive. Really expensive. Between equipment, licensing, provisioning, marketing, staffing, and maintaining, it takes millions of dollars per year just to maintain a medium market station.
2: Radio is regulated. No matter what country you are in, there are certain laws about what bandwidth you use, what you can play, market restrictions, all kinds of stuff. It’s not easy to just plop down a station wherever you are.
Given these two things, Podcasting really is the “anti-radio radio” artform. There are no regulations, it’s cheap, and it’s worldwide.
You can’t compare podcasting to radio. They are similar in the fact that we are producing audio content, but the similarity really stops there.
Podcasting is fun and relatively easy, and I hope that it gains the recognition that it deserves as an artform, but it’s not radio. Stop comparing the two.
Radio isn’t going anywhere. It may change a little, but it’s not going away.
Podcasting, it appears, is here to stay too. - mzw7lm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I agree in that setting up and running a podcasts overhead in much less than that of a radio station. I would like to see a study of how many podcasts have lasted a year or more. Also, I would like to see if any podcasts have made the jump to radio and how they survived. The other major difference is that podcasts are very talk radio format by nature and over the air stations are a music outlet. Have any podcasts tried to license music to the level that radio stations do?
- tont0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2what kind of stat is this?? these are two totally different things. this is as stupid as saying 'THERE ARE MORE HOME MADE MOVIES BEING MADE PER YEAR THAN HOLLYWOOD MOVIES BEING MADE PER YEAR! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS!'
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2mentor972: I believe farfromsubtl was referring to the quality of the content, not the audio itself.
- Guspaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You need to compare listener-hours. If a radio has 250,000 listeners on average for 24 hours, that is 180 million listener hours per month
With a podcast, if it is one hour per week, with 250,000 listeners, that is only 1 million listener hours per month.
So, podcasts are insignificant compared to radio. The raw number of podcasts is almost meaningless without looking at how many people are listening and for how LONG they are listening. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What a stupid metric for comparison.
Wake me up when podcasts have MORE LISTENERS than radio.
No one cares that there are a million podcasts that no one listens to. Even college radio has more listeners than your average podcast. - phlll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Podcasting will not take over radio. There aren't enough people who enjoy the DIY quality associated with most podcasting compared to professional radio.
quspaz made the point of a podcast having 250,000 listeners for one hour vs. a radio station having the same every hour, but more importantly 99.999% of podcasts will never have more than 100 listeners.
I'm glad that people are seizing the opportunity for new creation, but the vast majority of people aren't trying that hard. When Bobby gets mad that only 2 people downloaded his podcast, he'll get bored and never make another.
That just doesn't happen in corporate media. - hholland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is a silly story, because the number of listeners is still probably much greater in traditional radio. I could be wrong....
- rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah I agree, the numbers of listeners is key. And also a podcast is more like a radio show than a radio station so it's not a good comparison.
- CaughtThinking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll digg your comment for healthy skepticism, but I expect people to gravitate towards quality podcasts soon enough.
It's blogs vs. editorial content all over again. A new form of broadcasting.
Wikipedia vs. Britannica, how many times does the web have to explain this story?
The people will win. - moisie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love podcasts, but...
Of that large number of podcasts, how many will fail after 1-6 episodes? Most of them.
How many, even of the long running ones broadcast all day (or to be generous half of the day) every day? None.
If you numbered up all the individual shows that appear on all those radio stations then it may be a fairer comparison but you'd also have to take into account all those things that are on radio then released as podcasts. Do they count on both lists or just radio or what?
Podcasts have their place - in conjunction with more traditional media. - elook, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Lame.
Blogs outnumber newspapers! The mainstream media is dead! Anyone can make a crappy podcast, and you count it as equal to a radio station. On the left we have apples, on the right, oranges. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2self-promote much, do we? Good job slipping that one in. Care to promote a blog or anything else while you're at it?
- Wolfboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is a radio show that has been on the air for years. It only recently became a podcast in addition to being broadcast.
- Slusy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm a big fan of podcasting, but this isn't really news. When the number of people listening to podcasts outnumbers the number of people listening to radio, then THAT will be newsworthy...
- freonchill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]more podcasts than there are radio stations[/quote]
wow, its like saying there are more grocery bags than grocery stores.
how about more pod casts than shows on the radio, now thats an oranges to oranges comparison - thepaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The tools of production are now in the hands of the people. That's what podcasting is all about, it's simply people making content. Some of it is interesting to a great number of people (TWIT comes to mind) and some just have a handful of people who listen. I was going to write 'like mine at http//...., but I don't want people to think I'm using the comments as cheap advertisement for my podcast. The difference is, it's individuals and not some corporation deciding what I should or should not listen to. As well as governments.
Plus as pointed out by others, there are great podcasts that are tie ins to radio, so both can co-exist. - dvddesign, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Pod People?
"Chief!"
"McCloud!" - TheGooseyOne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thing is there's probably more people making podcasts than listening to them....not true for radio
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm suprised it took someone this long to raise that obvious point. If you're comparing stations that are on the air 16-24 hours per day and reach mass audiences to podcasts that may be a few minutes long, have 50 listeners, and maybe put out six shows then quit - then you're making a completely invalid comparison.
- Thumper13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think there is an issue that isn't raised in the article. I have almost totally stopped listening to the radio. I didn't listen that much anyway, especially not to FM. Now all I listen to is podcasts (I subscribe to about 40) and the music on my iPod. Only rarely do I turn on the sports station. I think a better article would address what iPod's and the podcasting potential is doing to our listening habits. How long will radio live when we all have loads better music in our pockets? Why listen to FM when they play the same crappy music over and over? Will the RIAA come to my house and strap me to a radio so I don't download music?
- everfalling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there's a differenece between a live streaming radio broadcast of a talk show or music and a short prerecorded program you gotta download then listen to afterwards on an ipod. if radio stations made you download their shows in advance, instead of just letting you tune into them live on the fly (even if you missed part of the program), there would be a lot less people listening to radio on their drive to work. also, i'd like to see podcasts give up-to-the-minute traffic reports and have live callers phone into a talk program.
- FRAGaLOT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The topic seems a bit missleading to me. a Podcast is just an individual pre-recorded show that users download. That's a big difference from an actual broadcast radio station that airs hundreds of shows every week. You really cannot compare the two together like this, since a radio station can't just air ONE show a week. And if the point of this story is to scare radio broadcasters, they really have nothing to fear. I think Satalite radio services should be what broadcasters are fearing.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Next time I take some bad X laced with rat poison and go into an epileptic fit and piss myself I'll make sure to check that one out.
- modsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You say 8 million people, but how far does that signal carry? I can get radio signals from places over 100km away. I think your logic is a little flawed. A listening area is huge for big radio stations that can afford the big transmitters. And I think it would be fair to say 1 in 32 could be listening to a given station. Lots of people listen to the radio, given it's on in lots of public places.
- klang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1newsflash: nobody listens to radio anymore.
2 hours of radio and you have heard everything you will hear the rest of the week on that station .. who can take that anymore?
podcasts .. you can listen to them on your own schedule.. I like that. - klang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would assume that
1 radio station != 1 radio show == 1 podcast
and
1 radio station has more than 1 radio show as radio stations have to be sending a signal between 16 to 24 hours a day.
That implies, that the number of pod casts is nowhere near the number of radio stations. Not even subtracting the hours of airtime, where radio stations "just" send music.
digg.com is referring to podcastlikeachamp.com who is referring to siliconrepublic.com who is referring to Brian Greene who wrote a forecast on his blog and has a company that makes pod casts for companies.. this "news item" is so thin now, that it's not even news.
Luckily others point out the flaw in the comparison as well.
Yes, podcasts are the future, they are here to stay .. but it will be a few years more, before they push radio out of the way. The bar for listening to the radio is still so much lower than the bar for listening to a podcast. (a radio vs. a mp3 player + computer + internet access) -
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