Podcasting is the Word

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Podcasting is the Word

This is Celia Hirschman, with On the Beat for KCRW.

In this ever changing environment of technological advancement, it's fascinating to now watch the field adjust to the players, instead of players adjusting to the field. We're generating our tech advancements in daily and weekly cycles, unlike decades past, where new developments were marked by years. For most consumers, once the telephone answering machine hit the market in 1960, the concept of postponing real time events was born.

Since then, we've become a society obsessed with controlling time. From the way we raise our children to the way we handle our businesses, and even the way we care for our health and exercise, most people manage their activities on a time clock.

So, the real areas of growth in the 21st century will be products and services that create access, convenience, and portability. What's the next stop on the technological bullet train? Pod casting.

Pod casting is latest development in the rapidly growing field of portability. podcasting allows radio listeners to choose the exact time they want to listen to a program, by down-loading the show onto their portable player. All that's required is free podcasting software, easily available online, a high speed modem, a computer and an Ipod or MP3 device.

Let's say you want to listen to KCRW's To The Point as you ride a bike along the Venice boardwalk at sunset. Up until recently, it would have been impossible to do it, because you couldn't download the radio show, much less replay it at 6pm on your ipod. podcasting gives you the option of creating appointment listening at your convenience. With high speed internet access available everywhere, and MP3 players and ipod sales growing faster than ever, radio stations around the country are beginning to podcast specific shows to consumers. WNYC in New York City has already begun podcasting one of their shows on the web, and KCRW will begin podcasting their KCRW produced talk shows in the coming weeks.

The only legal podcasts to date are talk radio, as music downloading creates an entirely different set of issues for broadcasters. Music will be the real growth industry in podcasting, of course, but current licensing agreements currently preclude stations for using music on the broadcasts. A station might own the rights to the show and talent, but the music played on a podcast will probably not be covered for downloading, or on-demand listening. Rapidly evolving technologies like podcasting defy many of our newest intellectual copyright laws, so radio stations will need to work with the US legislature to try and to accommodate this new growth industry.

But once that problem is solved, music podcasting will blossom. In fact, podcasting will do for radio, what Tivo has done for television. Like Tivo, podcasting allows the listener to pause a program, fast forward thru the commercials, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Of course, music podcasting will create another set of headaches for record labels. If you can repeatedly listen to a song with access, convenience and portability, and no cost is attached, will you still want to go buy the CD? Labels, once again, are forced to ponder that question and seek counsel from their lawmakers.

Regardless of the outcome of this debate, podcasting will surely live on. And as podcasting becomes the next stop on the digital superhighway, our worlds will certainly be more interesting from it.

This is Celia Hirschman with On the Beat, on KCRW.

Podcasting is the Word

This is Celia Hirschman, with On the Beat for KCRW.

In this ever changing environment of technological advancement, it's fascinating to now watch the field adjust to the players, instead of players adjusting to the field. We're generating our tech advancements in daily and weekly cycles, unlike decades past, where new developments were marked by years. For most consumers, once the telephone answering machine hit the market in 1960, the concept of postponing real time events was born.

Since then, we've become a society obsessed with controlling time. From the way we raise our children to the way we handle our businesses, and even the way we care for our health and exercise, most people manage their activities on a time clock.

So, the real areas of growth in the 21st century will be products and services that create access, convenience, and portability. What's the next stop on the technological bullet train? Pod casting.

Pod casting is latest development in the rapidly growing field of portability. podcasting allows radio listeners to choose the exact time they want to listen to a program, by down-loading the show onto their portable player. All that's required is free podcasting software, easily available online, a high speed modem, a computer and an Ipod or MP3 device.

Let's say you want to listen to KCRW's To the Point as you ride a bike along the Venice Boardwalk at sunset. Up until recently, it would have been impossible to do it, because you couldn't download the radio show, much less replay it at 6pm on your iPod. Podcasting gives you the option of creating appointment listening at your convenience. With high speed internet access available everywhere, and MP3 players and ipod sales growing faster than ever, radio stations around the country are beginning to podcast specific shows to consumers. WNYC in New York City has already begun podcasting one of their shows on the web, and KCRW will begin podcasting their KCRW produced talk shows in the coming weeks.

The only legal podcasts to date are talk radio, as music downloading creates an entirely different set of issues for broadcasters. Music will be the real growth industry in podcasting, of course, but current licensing agreements currently preclude stations for using music on the broadcasts. A station might own the rights to the show and talent, but the music played on a podcast will probably not be covered for downloading, or on-demand listening. Rapidly evolving technologies like podcasting defy many of our newest intellectual copyright laws, so radio stations will need to work with the US legislature to try and to accommodate this new growth industry.

But once that problem is solved, music podcasting will blossom. In fact, podcasting will do for radio, what Tivo has done for television. Like Tivo, podcasting allows the listener to pause a program, fast forward thru the commercials, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Of course, music podcasting will create another set of headaches for record labels. If you can repeatedly listen to a song with access, convenience and portability, and no cost is attached, will you still want to go buy the CD? Labels, once again, are forced to ponder that question and seek counsel from their lawmakers.

Regardless of the outcome of this debate, podcasting will surely live on, and as podcasting becomes the next stop on the digital superhighway, our worlds will certainly be more interesting from it.

This is Celia Hirschman with On the Beat, on KCRW.

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