Apple Ups The Podcast Ante

Interesting article in the July 3 issue of The New York Times about the new version of Apple's iTunes and its podcasting capabilities. The interesting dilemma for marketers: As more and more audio content goes free, what happens to the paid variety? Ad (not to mention entire business) models will evolve as well, with content owners and marketers taking advantage of the technologies in exciting new ways.

Traditional media players like ABC and ESPN (aka Disney) are jumping in instead of waiting to see how things fall out. And so are marketers (see my post on Purina).

But before pundits go apoplectic over the fall of ad-supported media, note that podcasts don't necessarily mean the end of media as we know it. Audible, which sells audio content from the Wall Street Journal, The Times and other big-name content brands compares favorably to no-name content from no-name personal podcasters. Audible's stock is up, not down, since Apple's podcasting announcement. It enjoys market capitalization of $412 million, and sales are reaching $62 million, up 80 percent over the last year, according to the Times. The company is moving toward the "subscription" distribution model made popular by podcasting, where content is automatically distributed to users. And the company even postulates about the rise of ad-supported podcasting.

Some may laugh. But people said the same thing about the Internet in the early 90s, and were proven wrong. A telling sign: When Apple framed its podcasting announcement as "the next generation of radio," Audible announced it has it’s own revolution in podcasting: Profit.