I recently did an interview with Tim Blangger, a columnist with mcall.com. He asked me about what’s new in podcasting. My responses to his questions now appear in his June 8th column.
One thing – I responded to one of his questions about iTunes. I said that “it is great.” I don’t recall saying that, however, maybe I did because I was giddy or something.
On the one hand, yes, iTunes is great because it has done alot to help podcasting. Its podcast directory helps people find podcasts. The iPod enables people to download fresh content and spice up their stale jukeboxes.
However, is iTunes really that great?
Apple did what they do best. Took something technical and made it easy for everyone to use. There were lots of others who had tried (still trying) and failed to make the make the impact that Apple did; (Microsoft, iRiver, Creative Labs).
Is podcasting being associated with iPods such a bad thing. I mean if there are tens of millions of iPods out there and a million of everything else, is that a problem. Isn’t the whole idea to get the most exposure for your podcast?
It’s great and it’s bad.
It’s great because in a short space of time podcasting was catapulted from geekdom to mainstream – well kind of. It’s so easy to use if you are iPod and mac based, but the reason I say it’s also bad is because it has caused a lot of people to just associate podcasting with apple and the iPod.
It is still the best way to manage podcasts, but it isn’t perfect for everyone.