Podcasting is missing half a million in Europe

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We as podcasters may be missing half a million or more audience members, and we don’t even know it.

Here’s the thing I noticed all over Stockholm, and other European PodCampers confirmed in other countries – there were an awful lot of people listening. They had headphones jacked into devices all over the place.

FEW of those devices were iPods. Of the ones that were MP3 players, the iRiver T series seemed to be the player of choice.

For every MP3 player I saw, I saw 10 mobile phones being used as media devices. Mobile phones that were spinning up music, content, and everything primarily from telco carriers.

I also learned that there are an awful lot of handsets equipped to be able to listen to podcasts – most of the Nokia N and E series phones supposedly can – and that the only thing missing is a way to get the listener to subscribe easily. Right now, asking the user to key in an RSS feed is far below optimal, but if we can figure out a way to get one click subscribe working on those handsets, then podcasts can join the music on headphones everywhere.

If you had the opportunity to have your show – audio or video – on half a million more devices, to half a million more listeners, would you? And how much would that be worth to your show?

Comments

14 responses to “Podcasting is missing half a million in Europe”

  1. Kevin Kennedy-Spaien Avatar

    Well, Christopher, I’m frequently impressed by your coding skills… are you taking a collection? Suggesting we pool resources to put up a bounty?

    Michael Bailey has some vacation time coming up. maybe HE can crack this nut.

  2. Kevin Kennedy-Spaien Avatar

    Well, Christopher, I’m frequently impressed by your coding skills… are you taking a collection? Suggesting we pool resources to put up a bounty?

    Michael Bailey has some vacation time coming up. maybe HE can crack this nut.

  3. Mike Wills Avatar

    What can we as podcasters and developers do?

  4. Mike Wills Avatar

    What can we as podcasters and developers do?

  5. Daniel Glifberg Avatar
    Daniel Glifberg

    How about designing a good J2ME application that runs on most modern phones with the capacities to do just this. Subscribe to and download your desired podcasts. Don’t hesitate to involve me in a more detailed discussion on this topic.

  6. Daniel Glifberg Avatar
    Daniel Glifberg

    How about designing a good J2ME application that runs on most modern phones with the capacities to do just this. Subscribe to and download your desired podcasts. Don’t hesitate to involve me in a more detailed discussion on this topic.

  7. Alex Williams Avatar

    The key may be with the carriers. What are the thoughts on Melodeo’s service? They have launcehd a service in Denmark through the carrier, TDC. I expect they are in talks to expand to Sweden, too. Melodeo: http://www.melodeo.com/news.html

  8. Bill Deys Avatar

    All users have to do is subscribe to one feed using a service like CastRoller (http://castroller.com/) or PodShows “Collections” then they can manage their subscriptions through a web browser. It’s not quite one click but it is way easier then typing in multiple feed URL’s.

  9. Alex Williams Avatar

    The key may be with the carriers. What are the thoughts on Melodeo’s service? They have launcehd a service in Denmark through the carrier, TDC. I expect they are in talks to expand to Sweden, too. Melodeo: http://www.melodeo.com/news.html

  10. Bill Deys Avatar

    All users have to do is subscribe to one feed using a service like CastRoller (http://castroller.com/) or PodShows “Collections” then they can manage their subscriptions through a web browser. It’s not quite one click but it is way easier then typing in multiple feed URL’s.

  11. Ava of Avahosting Avatar

    That would be worth a lot to me to have my show listened to by 1/2 a million more subscribers .. maybe enough to switch over to the way they are doing it! Sometimes we americans forget that there are other ways of doing things. Life is about adaptation.
    I’m ready to try something new!
    That’s how the internet is. Always something new and exciting!

  12. Ava of Avahosting Avatar

    That would be worth a lot to me to have my show listened to by 1/2 a million more subscribers .. maybe enough to switch over to the way they are doing it! Sometimes we americans forget that there are other ways of doing things. Life is about adaptation.
    I’m ready to try something new!
    That’s how the internet is. Always something new and exciting!

  13. Johan Myrberger Avatar

    I have listed a couple of options here: http://thekillerattitude.com/2007/09/podcasters-please-get-into-my-mobile.html

    Especially the first one might be a good way forward?

  14. Johan Myrberger Avatar

    I have listed a couple of options here: http://thekillerattitude.com/2007/09/podcasters-please-get-into-my-mobile.html

    Especially the first one might be a good way forward?

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