The iPod Revolution

I just bought a new 5G Video iPod (see my iPod with Video Review). Audio quality and convenience is great, video viewing is not too bad. Sure, it's a shiny new toy for listening to music, but, it's actually more than that these days. That's because it's the beginning of the "podcast" revolution. Podcasts are really nothing more than audio (or video) content that people or companies have created and are distributing freely (like broadcasting, except you listen to it on your iPod). What's significant is that now podcasts are aggregated in one convenient place, iTunes, and that there is a mass market of tens of millions of iPod and iTunes users that will soon rival the reach of the U.S. television broadcast market. I already get much of my news from podcasts. I listen to ABC news and NPR shows on my iPod, I listen to investing shows on my iPod too. I even listen to Ebert & Roeper on my iPod.

I think this is the start of something big. Sure, radio and television will be around for a while, but, over the next few years, I predict that podcasting will rise as a new media distribution outlet that will significantly eat away at radio and television viewership. Podcasting lets you get exactly what you want and lets you timeshift (listen or watch WHEN you want) AND spaceshift (listen or watch WHERE you want). The audience is out there now, the devices are good enough for audio and not too bad for video (probably in a year or two really good video podcast devices will be out there), and great content is starting to appear.