More about the Future of Podcasting

Here is the location of the articles:

http://www.ktoddstorch.com/business/the_future_of_podcasting/index.html

And best of all, here is the lineup of contributing authors:
Michael Butler of The Rock and Roll Geek Show
Michael Geoghegan of Reel Reviews
Mark Ramsey of Radio Marketing Nexus
Tim Bourquin of Podcast Brothers
Dave Slusher of Evil Genius Chronicles

Todd's done an amazing job here.

What I plan to speak more about during my SXSW panel session is how corporations can benefit from Podcasting. And one topic that hasn't gotten much attention is 'how' to create a Podcast. I'm sensing a lot of confusion there, and that's understandable, as there can be a lot of technical elements you have to include to get a Podcast done efficiently with some amount of production polish.

Adam Curry, bless his heart, makes it all sounds so easy at times. God, I love his show, because he's so open and I learn so much about what's going on in this new industry. But when I have people call me about how to do what he does, their eyes quickly glaze over with confusion and fear about how they could do that themselves.  They just want to know if they can use a $10 mic from Radio Shack and plug it into their 4-year-old laptop and have it sound like Adam's. Then they want to know about editing, mp3 compression issues, and RSS feeds and ... there are many little pieces to get your head around.

You have to remember that Adam has a great deal of commercial radio experience.  He's got a fairly expensive microphone, he understands audio production and he does more show prep than he lets on. If you listen carefully you can tell he's been thinking about the topics beforehand and is ready to go with his live production process. Everything is queued and ready to go live - except when it's not - but that's part of the beauty.  Sure, he's trying hard to break down the overbaked, overused and over-the-top radio DJ image  - thank goodness. Aren't we all tired of that maddening monotony served up 24 hours a day across the nation? Adam has the chops to figure out how to create something less formal and more authentic and still have that polish and presence in the sound quality.  He also brings a personal energy that keep you interested as a listener. And he's fearless about pushing the boundaries of creativity and informality in his audio productions.

Anyway, the beauty of Podcasting is there are no rules, basically. You can do it any way you want, with any gear you want, provided you know how to hook it all up.  You can make it available to anyone you want, anywhere in the world, almost instantly.   Over time, though, I think there will be greater success for those who put some thought into their production process, and spend time learning enough about audio to get consistent and at least a semi-professional sound quality from their productions. I  can image that's what sponsors are going to want for those of us looking to pay the bandwidth bills.