Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

What Ails Podcasting?

This week Shel Holtz kicked off quite a discussion with his post "Why Hasn't Podcasting Gone Mainstream?"  I have been participating in the dialogue in the comments on his post, but I think it merits a complete post of its own here.

Shel argues that it is a problem of infrastructure.  He says that watching video online is easy, while audio is comparatively hard. 

One survey found that more than half of all podcast listeners don't use a portable device. Is it because that is too difficult or is it because that's where they want to listen?

I certainly understand the argument that listening to podcasts isn't exactly simple if you want to sync to a portable device, but I don't think that's the answer to the challenge by a long shot.  It is part of it, sure, and I include it among my 10 reasons for slow podcast adoption (below), but ultimately if people want to hear truly compelling content they will work hard to get it.  Just look at the lengths people will go to get Police concert tickets or to buy a Wii.

Here then are the top 10 reasons I can think of why podcasting isn't yet mainstream.

1. It's the Content, Stupid.  There’s some good podcast content out there, but far less than most of us who are directly involved believe.  It is hard to judge one’s own work and that of colleagues.  And lest we forget what works in radio today, let's review: music, talk shows, and news.  Yet how many podcasts fall in to those categories?  Yes, we can (and should) cater to niches, but we have to find a new way to do it.  Personally, I believe the answer lies in uniting text, audio, and video under one roof to reach niches (rather than the silo approach most are using today), but that's something for a different post.
2. Podcasts are too host-centric. Think about how different the content of podcasts is versus successful radio.  Many podcasts tend to be rambling, somewhat self-serving commentaries (my own included from time to time).  Most good radio is interactive between host and caller or host and guest.  Very few survive on the backs of the host(s) alone.
3. Radio facilitates snacking, podcasting encourages dining.  Radio is taken in digestible chunks for durations determined by the listener.  Podcasts are created in durations determined by the creator.  You can’t tune in for the last few minutes of a podcast easily. Podcasts don’t require, but they do encourage, more commitment. There is no serendipity as you must select your show explicitly (usually). And if you are only going to listen to a portion, it will generally be at the start of the podcast which—let’s face it—is not always where most podcasts have their best content.  As with talk radio, the best content often is somewhere in the middle since the beginning is often introductory, housekeeping kind of stuff.  If you don’t get hooked right out of the gate, then you likely will stay away.  Whereas you could tune in to talk radio and get hooked by something 2/3 of the way through that day’s show.  Yes, with radio it is a crapshoot, but there are advantages (and, yes, disadvantages) to that format.
4. People don’t listen to radio when tethered to their computers or similar devices.  They listen when in their cars or on the porch or at the beach.  Only geeks like us have our devices with us 24/7.
5. Average people don’t want to listen to work-related content during off hours.  Employers don’t want employees listening during work hours.  Hence, business podcasts don’t take off beyond a small niche.
6. I can’t have real-time interaction with a podcast, either directly or vicariously.  AM talk radio thrives in part because of timely caller interaction. Podcast comments draw out a discussion that would be better if it were had all at one time, rather than in snippets over the course of several weeks.
7. The mainstream is turned off by the use of geeky terms like podcasting and RSS. People think podcasts need to be listened to on an iPod, even though I recall reading some data at one point that suggests most people listen to them on their computers directly.  Anytime you have to explain the content format to someone, you lose.
8. Podcasts aren’t as easy to listen to as we would all have people believe.  I have to mud wrestle with iTunes on a regular basis to get it to update my subscriptions in a timely fashion and then properly sync them to my iPod.  And I know what I am doing, imagine how it is for casual users. 
9. Flexibility doesn't equal simplicity. The same things that make podcasts more flexible also make it more challenging for the casual listener. Give people too many options, and you will actually see engagement decrease.
10. Royalty problems block music shows. “FM” podcasts (music ones) are obviously hamstrung by licensing issues.

Rather than dismissing old media, in this case radio, as many new media mavens are fond of doing, we ought to study it and learn from it.  Fundamentally, I don't believe in new media per se.  As Christopher Penn commented not long ago (I forget where), "media is media."

The RSS Kool Aid is Great, but Don't Forget Email

Those of us who consume the social media Kool Aid think that RSS is where it's all at.  According to Google: "From your 267 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 11,381 items, starred 60 items, and shared 167 items."  And all of this is possible because of the wonders of RSS.  I am effortlessly able to receive and organize all of this information and digest it in a reasonable time.  It would be much harder to do this by email and impossible to do it by surfing to web sites.

But many of us must remember that we live inside a bubble.  Not one that's going to burst like that Internet economic one did in 2000, but one that sometimes prevents us from understanding the rest of the world.  This is a point I harp on -- partially to keep myself grounded but also because I see far too many people in the Web 2.0 space overlooking the fact that not everyone is like us.

This point was driven home solidly this week when I read the results of Rafat Ali's PaidContent survey of readers.  Below is the breakdown for how people consume the site's information, according to the survey:

E-mail newsletter: 42%
Paidcontent.org website: 34%
RSS Reader: 19%
Mobile Device: 4%

Three-quarters of those who read PaidContent's excellent news and information do so by very traditional means -- email and web site.  Less than 25 percent use more cutting edge tools like RSS or mobile devices.  And this isn't the New York Times we're talking about, but rather one of the leading blogs in the technology and media industry. 

So don't turn a blind eye toward email.  RSS is great, but email remains vital.

Technorati tags: RSS, feeds, email, marketing, subscriptions, blogging, Rafat Ali, PaidContent, survey, research, Google Reader

MLB Whiffs as It Strikes Out at Slingbox

Anyone who knows me understands that I'm a Slingbox addict.  I got the device shortly after they were first released.  I adopted their mobile phone viewer within hours of its availability.  I talk about it constantly.  I evangelize it in bars and restaurants where I can be found watching TV on my cell phone, the phone gracefully propped up on a used wine cork (when available) to establish a better viewing angle.  I incorporate the Slingbox into presentations I do to demonstrate the power of technology to make peoples' lives better (or at least more enjoyable).

Why am I so passionate about the Slingbox?  Because of the Boston Red Sox.  I'm more addicted to the Red Sox than the Slingbox and that little silver box helps me feed that addiction.  I travel for business almost every week of the year.  I had in the neighborhood of 100 flights last year and spend something like 150 days a year or more a year sleeping somewhere other than my own bed (and since that reads awkwardly, if my wife is reading, I want to be clear that I mean ALONE when I'm not with her). 

The restaurants I frequent typically do not have the Red Sox game on.  Usually, they can't even get it easily if they wanted to.  So the Slingbox is my connection to Red Sox nation.  It allows me to watch what I would be watching if I were at home.  I already pay the local cable company for a slew of cable boxes, so it isn't as if I'm trying to skate by for free.  I just want to be able to watch Don and Jerry call the game.

That's why I'm so disappointed that Major League Baseball has decided to lash out at Sling Media, the producer of the Slingbox. (Full Disclosure: one of my brothers recently joined the Sling Media team, but readers of this blog know that my passion for the product predates that.)  Here's Major League Baseball's argument, according to CNET:

MLB.com seems to take issue with allowing Slingbox owners' TV channels to be transmitted over the Internet. "Moving content from one form of transmission to another certainly invites that kind of analysis," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB.com, referring to Mellis' statement. For instance, if a TV signal was converted into a radio signal, it might raise the eyebrows of those broadcasters involved. The Slingbox, he added, "is not a place-shifting device, (it) is a delivery-shifting device."

The argument is absurd.  The Supreme Court has established that consumers can record TV shows.  Once recorded, these shows could then be carried on a video tape or hard drive to an alternate location to view it.  That's effectively what the Slingbox does, just in real-time.  Indeed, the Slingbox goes to great lengths to as nearly as possible replicate the experience of watching the original broadcast, right down to a graphical representation of a remote control to change channels.

In many respects, MLB is ahead of the curve in their understanding and appreciation of new media.  They and their teams have some of the best professional sports web sites and they're offering great new media services like MLB-TV that enables consumers to watch all out of town games online for a low monthly subscription fee.  It appears this is what they're trying to protect, but the Slingbox simply isn't competition for that service.  It primarily helps travelers like me to watch games they would otherwise get to see.  It isn't a way for a Red Sox fan in New York or California to watch games -- they would still need to turn to MLB or one of the out of town sports packages sold by cable and satellite companies to get those games.

Please, MLB, let's drop the silliness of going after the Slingbox and stay focused on continued new media innovation and promotion of the sport -- two things you do well.  Fighting this pointless battle simply depletes resources that MLB and Sling Media could use for better purposes.

Technorati tags: Sling Media, Slingbox, Major League Baseball, MLB, MLB.com, place-shifting, time-shifting, copyright, online video

Information Aggregation: Man vs. Machine

The concept of information overload is hardly new.  But in the age of social media, we're all inundated with so much information a daily basis that it's hard to keep up.  I know I have trouble keeping up with 233 feeds on a daily basis.  I've done my best to organize them into logical folders to help me prioritize since I know some days I can't keep up with everything. 

Like many, then, I rely on aggregators to find information that's valuable to me, especially when I don't have time to do my own hunting for big news or simply serendipity.  But what works better?  Man or machine?  TechMeme or Scoble? 

Automatic Aggregators

I visit sites like TechMeme, Google News, Topix, and TailRank, to find stories of interest in traditional and new media.  In so doing, I see what's being talked about a lot and make sure I don't miss hot topics of conversation.  But while the machines -- or more accurately the algorithms that were created by the likes of Gabe Rivera, Rich Skrenta, and Kevin Burton -- do an excellent job for this purpose, they still have the quirks associated with anything that is computer-generated.  Each has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as a unique focus, but they all suffer from a similar flaw: computers can only follow a fixed set of rules and sometimes the best information doesn't fall into a neat little box.

User Voting

In an effort to balance man vs. machine, sites like Digg, Reddit,del.icio.us/popular, and others accept user submissions of stories, compile "votes" for the various pieces of content, and then use some sort of algorithm to generate lists of popular items.  Personally, I find these sites less valuable than the automatic aggregators because the chosen content tends to be all over the map, without a clear theme or pattern to what becomes popular.  In addition, often what becomes popular does so more for amusement than practical value.  My interest tends to be more in these sites for business than entertainment, so they don't serve my own needs quite as well as they may for others.

Human Editors

Despite my love of technology and my affection for automated solutions to information problems, I continue to find the greatest value in aggregation performed by humans.  The editorial value that an individual can provide in directing me to timely and accurate information still exceeds that which a computer algorithm can offer. 

I began my career almost two decades ago in Washington, DC and there we relied on a daily fax newsletter that summarized key political news in newspapers across the country.  In those pre-Web days, National Journal's Hotline was a "must read" and the only way to digest the latest on campaigns and policy debates around the country.  Even today when we can easily access newspapers from across the nation online, the Hotline continues to play an important role in distilling this flood of information into a digestible form.

Of late, I have also come to rely on Robert Scoble's shared links to help find interesting items that I might otherwise overlook.  He says his goal is to help save time for others.  Like the automated web sites, his offering isn't perfect (I don't share his affinity for cat pictures, for instance), but his interests parallel mine pretty closely and I find a lot of value in it. 

For years, Steve Rubel has offered his del.icio.us links as part of his daily blog feed, and those are also a great resource, though much narrower in focus and volume than what Scoble shares.  Jason Calacanis just announced he's getting into this game as well and is in fact trying to create a broader network of like-minded people that will share a combined feed on del.icio.us. 

Yet these human solutions all have their own major weakness: the human element!  People get busy, have biases, and fall into their own patterns. 

So What's the Answer?

For now, there's no magic solution to the challenge of information overload.  Machines are more timely and consistent, but humans offer greater judgment and more serendipity.

Like many, I will continue to use all of the methods above plus continue to read feeds on my own.  The short-lived SearchFox application once tried to bridge this gap by trying to analyze my feed reading behavior to organize information in a priority fashion.  It was a good start and I was sorry to see it disappear.

In researching this post, I came across an item from Huw Leslie who wrote an excellent item a few weeks ago in which he talked about a product called Particls which is currently in invitation-only beta.  From the way Huw writes about it, it sounds like it has some of the elements I liked about SearchFox, so I definitely want to try it out (anyone have an invite?).

Andy Beard talks about some interesting approaches to the problem, in a section titled "Custom Meme Trackers" in a longer post on productivity.  Stowe Boyd touched on the subject not long ago.  His points on the importance of networks I thought were particularly relevant.  Richard MacManus talks about a recent Forrester report on Enterprise RSS that talks about information overload and how some vendors are trying to solve the problem.

I expect this fall's Defrag conference will touch on some of the issues, challenges, and solutions that impact this arena, but ultimately there's no single answer out there.  The focus on Trust/Attention/Relevance should prove illuminating to this subject matter.

For the entrepreneur who finds a good way to address this problem and smartly combines the best of man and machine in an aggregator, however, fame and fortune await.

UPDATE: Eric Rice has a great post that talks about some of these issues, as well as others: "Lately, I’ve been paying attention to an onslaught of new applications and how they fit into my normal flow of must-read-every-bit-of-information-that-exists-EVER..."

Technorati tags: TechMeme, TailRank, Google News, Digg, reddit, Scoble, Steve Rubel, Jason Calacanis, Topix, Gabe Rivera, Rich Skrenta, Kevin Burton, Andy Beard, Forrester, information overload, Particls, Huw Leslie, Stowe Boyd, SearchFox, del.icio.us, aggregation, aggregator, RSS, National Journal, Hotline, Richard MacManus, defrag conference, attention, trust, networks, social media, RSS reader, productivity

Pushing the Envelope: A Vision of the Future of TV News

Dave Winer offers an interesting post on his vision of the future of news on television.  He sees a time when viewers get to control their personal view of the news.  By providing preference information, they would see the kinds of stories they're most interested in. 

He suggests it would become a "river of news," much like some RSS readers offer currently for text-based information:

I could see MSNBC including stories produced by CNN, and sharing revenue with them. The goal is to get the best news experience tailored to the interests of specific users.

Certainly thought-provoking, but I have a hard time seeing competing networks offering each others' video on a regular basis.  Nevertheless, the whole post is worth a read because it will make you think.

Technorati tags: television news, tv news, Dave Winer

If You Own an iPod, You Probably Listen to Less Radio

Podcasting News points to a new Abritron report that covers the portable media space:

While Arbitron’s analysis paints a fairly rosy picture of the state of radio, their stats confirm several industry trends that may cause concern for traditional radio broadcasters:

• More and more people are getting portable media players. The percent of Americans that have portable media players grew from 22% to 30% in the last year.
• Many portable media player owners listen to less radio. Arbitron reports that about a third of those that own iPods or other portable media players listen to less radio as a result.
• Podcasting is one of the few audio platforms seeing significant growth. Awareness of podcasting has lept ahead of HD radio, and its audience is catching up with Internet radio’s audience.
• The audience that traditional media is losing to Internet media tends to be young and affluent.

Technorati tags: Podcasting News, Arbitron, radio, podcasting, portable media

The Changing Face of the Music Industry

An interesting confluence of news and events today brings us information on declining CD sales at the same time that many in the blogosphere/podosphere are advocating an effort to "Bum Rush the Charts."

First the news. The Wall Street Journal reports that "compact-disc sales for the first three months of this year plunged 20% from a year earlier."  The newspaper describes this as "the latest sign of the seismic shift in the way consumers acquire music."

The evidence from the WSJ is stark:

One week, "American Idol" runner-up Chris Daughtry's rock band sold just 65,000 copies of its chart-topping album; another week, the "Dreamgirls" movie soundtrack sold a mere 60,000. As recently as 2005, there were many weeks when such tallies wouldn't have been enough to crack the top 30 sellers. In prior years, it wasn't uncommon for a No. 1 record to sell 500,000 or 600,000 copies a week.

Podcasting News takes this one on an says "While the music industry blames it on pirated music, there are more important reasons that CD sales are down."  Among the other explanations: the technology is 25 years old, people can buy just the songs they like rather than a full album, and the fact that other media are playing a larger role in individuals' lives.

But this all takes on an even more interesting flavor when you see the online effort today to drive an independent music song to the top of the iTunes charts.  Here's a more complete description of the campaign:

We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.

Now I don't go in for the whole anti-establishment angle, but I did do my part and bought the song today just to be part of the experiment.  It will be fascinating to see how successful it is.

Certainly a tectonic shift occurring in the music industry right now and definitely something to keep watching.

Technorati tags: Bum Rush the Charts, podsafe music, iTunes, music industry, Wall Street Journal, Podcasting News, podcasting, record labels, music labels, CD sales

The Differences Between Blogs, Podcasts, and Video

Mitch Joel has been talking recently on his podcast, Six Pixels of Separation, about the difference between audio and video podcasts.  Then I heard John Furrier of PodTech talking about it on a podcast with Heather Green of BusinessWeek.  And it all got me thinking.

Relative Value.  I think John made an interesting point when he said that he felt that there was a difference in the viral nature of various forms of social media vs. their engagement level.  He said that video and blogs are more viral than podcasts, but that podcasts result in higher engagement than blogs and video has higher engagement than either.  On the other hand, blogs are best at SEO value. 

I would also argue that web video has the potential to be more mainstream than podcasts and potentially even blogs.   Consumers I think will be more willing to embrace this medium than the other two because it has a greater potential to be fun and engaging.  Podcasts are likely to remain more of a niche tool -- though a valuable one because of their power to connect with an influential audience.  And blogs will continue to gain traction, though they lack some of the entertainment potential of video.

Format Differences.  Mitch and others have pointed out that it is much harder to watch video than listen to a podcast.  The number of opportunities to watch are smaller than the number to listen.  In addition, video and blogs require greater attention from the audience, in most cases, whereas podcasts are more passive and support other simultaneous activity by the listener.

This suggests that podcasts can be longer than video and blogs must be kept relatively brief.  To overcome those time/length limitations, they would need to be truly exceptional -- even indispensable -- content.

Interestingly, I find that for web video, I am more likely to engage in ones that have nearly as much value from listening as from viewing.  Interviews, panel discussions, event speakers, and the like are more likely to get me to call up a web video.  I need not watch 100% of the time to still extract value.  On the other hand, if I am going to watch a web video in its entirety, my limit is somewhere around 5 minutes or so.

Monetization Potential.  John thought that podcasts would be the most difficult to monetize, with video being easier because advertisers like to be able to show their products.  It is an argument that makes sense, though monetizing video still hasn't proven to be a wildly successful endeavor.  I do believe it is coming, however.  Blogs have certainly demonstrated some ability to be monetized and that trend will likely continue.

Conclusion.  Different forms of media serve different purposes.  Content creators should make sure that they deploy the correct medium for the goal they wish to achieve.

Technorati tags: PodTech, BusinessWeek, John Furrier, Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation, blogs, podcasts, video, web content, Heather Green

Blogs I Read: MicroPersuasion by Steve Rubel

I had intended to begin my series about Blogs I Read by focusing on the smaller ones -- the ones written by those who are not A or B list bloggers.  And then I realized my blog reading heavily favors the big guys.  So I need to make a better effort to find new voices.  I do that now through feed aggregators (especially the Todd And Power 150 list and RSS feed which I have blogged about before).  So I am being exposed to them, but not in the same concentrated way that I do with some of the bigger players.

So instead I decided to focus on some of the mainstays of my blog reading "diet."  These are the bloggers who have been in my RSS reader for as long as I can remember.  It will be a mix of PR/marketing and VC/technology business blogs. 

So I begin with MicroPersuasion by Steve Rubel.  This is one of the handful of blogs I recommend to newcomers to the blogosphere.  For those interested in blogging themselves or just understanding the medium better, I find Steve to be a good read.  He rarely misses important stories for the intersection of PR and technology and he often makes good points.

Of course, I don't always agree with him.  Regular readers of this space will recall that I have differed with him on many occasions.  But I agree with him often as well.  Any blog that I find myself saying "Amen!" after every post is one I will probably stop reading because I like blogs that make me think, not just ones that reinforce my existing views.

The only major beef I have with MicroPersuasion at the moment is that it is my sense that Steve has become a bit more conventional since his move to Edelman one year ago from the smaller CooperKatz.  But that could just as easily be that blogging has become more common so it becomes harder and harder to have a truly unique voice all the time.

Technorati tags: MicroPersuasion, Steve Rubel, Blogs I Read, media consumption Diet, power 150, todd and, Edelman, CooperKatz

Blogs I Read, Books I've Read, Podcasts I Listen To, & Other Media Consumption

I'm starting a new series of posts later today about my media consumption habits and recommendations.  I am frequently asked to recommend blogs, podcasts, books, and other media sources that I find interesting and useful. 

In part, this series was inspired by a post I read this morning by Daniela Barbosa.  She, in turn, had been responding to a call from Jeremiah Owyang to other bloggers to discuss their media consumption "diet."  But it is also something that I had been planning to do anyway, this just got me going faster.

In some of the forthcoming posts, I plan to discuss broad categories of media (like magazines and newspapers) and cover what I read regularly and why.  But for the sources that I use the most (especially blogs, podcasts, and other online/social media) I will do posts specific to the source.  I hope to explain why I consume what I do and touch on the strengths and weaknesses -- purely as I perceive them -- of each. 

Hopefully this information will prove valuable.  I expect it will be an ongoing effort, though there will be an initial burst of activity as I come out of the chute.  Obviously those blogs on my blogroll will likely be featured, but I will touch on others that I add along the way.

To give readers some perspective on the (roughly) prioritized order in which I consume media, here you go:

• Web (including blogs, podcasts, and other online media)
• Email
• Magazines
• Books
• TV
• Music
• Newspapers
• Radio
• Movies

I plan to spend some time on the tools I use for consumption as well as the sources, so stay tuned for that in the near future.

Technorati tags: Media Consumption Diet, mediaweek, blogs, podcasts, books, email, magazines, tv, music, newspapers, radio, movies, online media, social media, Jeremiah Owyang, Daniela Barbosa