GigaOM

Satellite Castaway

The big news of the day, as I’ve already posted, is that SIRIUS is embracing podcasting. The announcement is good for both formats, satellite radio and podcasting, because it raises awareness from the general public. I’ve had a chance to let the ne…

Get Ur Geek On

Special “they’ve got a face just made for podcasting” edition. Are you tired of all those “professional” talk radio personalities who have jobs spewing vitriol? Do you spend your days ranting into a microphone about how Michael Savage is a a raci…

Anyone who creates content, podcasters included, needs to make a conscious decision about what rights they exert over their work. Hopefully most podcasters will be sure to choose a Creative Commons License for what they publish. Likewise, I hope larger entities like Sirius will be sure to respect those rights.

It’s looking like Adam’s show is going to be from his own stable of podcasters, who are under contract with Podshow. The KYOUradio thing has its own contract arrangement, which gives exclusive broadcast rights to Infinity.

I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that copyright is implicit on pretty much anything that is distributed these days, and so commercial entities would be liable if they broadcast a podcast without permission. I haven’t seen anyone planning to do so.

Here’s the problem with Podcasts on the radio. It’s the same problem with the Current.TV business model. Podcasts and other citizen’s media efforts are all about “infinite” selection for every conceivable interest. By taking select Podcasts, editing them, and then broadcasting them, you are replacing the tyranny of a few guys in Hollywood with the tyranny of popular public opinion. Citizen’s media is not about what’s most popular, or what Adam likes on any given day, it’s about what everyone likes individually.

This merely represents a new type of America’s Funniest Home Videos, not a quantum leap forward for podcasts. And if this is the saving grace for the podcast business model (ie, how to make it profitable), then podcasts are in trouble. But it won’t, podcasts are build upon the concept of abundance. Broadcast radio is not.

What I want to know is why he went with the satellite radio company that is hemorraging cash. My guess is it is because Sirius is willing to throw tens of millions of dollars at anything, with no regard to the bottom line. All this does is move Sirius one step closer to going bankrupt and getting bought by XM. When that happens, Adam can put his Sirius money in the bank and go to XM, where all the listeners are.

There are other podcast networks, like ours, that were around before Adam’s, that have more shows than Adam’s, and won’t be selling out to radio like Adam’s. That’s not to say Adam’s won’t be successful, I’m sure it will, and it is a legitimate path, but there are other paths to success for podcasting. We wish him lots of success.

It’s great to have the Podcast show on Sirius since it is the growing listners much faster then XM. It is showing all about podcasts and lets people know what it is. Plus if you do listen to podcast you it’s a great way to find new content!