I've gone a year without putting a podcast up over here, where I've been paying $10 a month. Every month when I see the email telling me they've billed my credit card, I've felt a little pang. Why don't I podcast? And if I don't podcast, why don't I cancel my account? For one thing, if I cancel, my 87 old podcasts will disappear. That was something of a deterrent. But I've just canceled, and the disappearance is coming, so download them while you can. I'll still have my old digital files, but they will become unavailable in a month or two — along with all the many spam comments — buy wow gold cheap wow gold buy cheap wow gold — that I haven't been bothering to delete.
I started podcasting in September 2005, and for a while, I felt that it was the coolest thing. I'd eagerly podcast twice a week, but those days are over. What happened?
1. Podcasts are not searchable. Unless you make a transcript, they seem to fall into oblivion. You can't see them.
2. YouTube! It undercut my interest in podcasting. It's free, it makes you part of a lively website, and I can embed the clips in blog posts — so it has more to do with the blog (which is the main thing for me).
3. Bloggingheads. Involvement in this project extracts a lot of my talky material. It's the same idea of taking subjects I've blogged about and expanding and digressing. And, like YouTube, it gives me the feeling of being in a lively place — and by contrast, my podcast page looked lonely and desolate.
4. I really did love the idea of developing an audio style that was eccentric and funny, but after 87 episodes, it just feels too obscure to energize me.
If you liked the podcasts, thanks for listening. You've already noticed the year's silence. This is just the announcement that I've pulled the plug.
ADDED:
1. I still like to listen to podcasts. I subscribe to rushlimbaugh.com so I can listen to the radio show in the evenings and without commercials. I go for a walk or clean the house at the same time. Useful. I'm also very fond of Skeptoid. Don't judge it by the new episode, though. That's unique... but hilarious.
2. This post made me realize how important it is to keep my blog on the free and extremely well-established Blogger. You might think it's no big deal to pay for your server, as I paid Libsyn to host my podcast. But are you thinking long term? If you stop blogging regularly, will you have to keep paying to keep your archive on line? If so, how long will you do that? Have you provided for payments to continue after you die? Or don't you care? I do!
August 10, 2008
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21 comments:
Your disuse and eventual abandonment of the pay podcast website is an object lesson of an economic concept the name of which eludes me at the moment. By giving all your reasons, you've inadvertently provided the material necessary for an econ student to do her term paper.
Because of the free and better alternatives available, I'm betting that that podcast site will have to offer it's basic services for free including a free email and storage of your old podcasts. So hold your breath for awhile. Since you (and your family) are photogenic you can do better elsewhere. The ugly and homely will be the ones hurting if the faceless podcast website goes belly up. I also like to see you swirl a glass of burgundy from time to time. It's so sexy!
I confess, I only listened to the first two.
Podcasting is only good if you have a regular radio show, and miss an episode. Your diavlogs are so much more interesting, IMO.
Still, thanks for the memories.
Cheers,
Victoria
I enjoyed the podcasts, and have missed them over the last year. I vastly preferred them to the videos, because I could listen to them while out driving or walking around. The videocasts require me to hang about by the PC, and that tries my patience.
And I kind of miss the silly jingle.
Ten dollars a month does seem awfully steep. What are they doing for the money, besides providing file storage?
If you've got the audio files, it seems like you could put them in an archive on your own website.
Ruth Anne is tweaking me for writing "but they will become unavailable in a month or too." Now, I've corrected it.
Bill, Bloggingheads is available in audio podcast form.
87!!
I didn't know you did 87 podcasts!
So, perhaps a marketing problem, as well?
I usually play the videos--they're right there on the page!--but I seldom watch them.
TO: Althouse
RE: Podcasting
There are always these little 'traps' in most thinks you do on the internet....
...unless you do them with an honest and trustworthy group. And THOSE are hard to find/fund.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. Wait for someone to come up with a podcast capability that YOU can manage for yourself.
P.S. Personally???!??!?
I prefer text. It's much easier to find for reference purposes.
You forgot #5: Instapundit doesn't link to your podcasts.
Hey no offense but I only seem to find my way over here when Glenn links ;)
Ten dollars a month does seem awfully steep. What are they doing for the money, besides providing file storage?
It's not just the storage, it's the bandwidth.
I too subscribed for a while. The only reason I stopped listening was I couldn't hear Ann half the time because the audio levels went up and down. I listen to podcasts at work by connecting my iPod to a speaker system and I got tired of reaching over every couple of minutes to adjust the volume.
I like podcasts that encourage listener feedback by audio. Adam Curry has a good setup, people send him clean audio files containing questions or comments, and he replies to them.
I never liked the podcast or video format for blogging or anything like blogging. People who read blogs tend to read lots of them and I know I do a lot of skimming. Video is far too time consuming and linear for my tastes except for where video is the essence of the information such as a spectacular short event caught on video. Even then I like having a good summary of what I'm about to watch and how long it will take.
It's like the difference between window shopping and having some sales person give you an uninterruptable five minute pitch about the particular product they want to sell you. No matter how wonderful and interesting that person and/or product might be, I tend to react like a cat being dragged into a bath tub full of water.
Kevin, actually he did.
Lou Minatti: It's not just the storage, it's the bandwidth.
Okay. But bloggerheads and hulu.com manage to serve up video as well as audio. What are they charging content providers? Or, in the latter case, are the ads enough?
I was never into audio. Am totally a type type. Long live the written word!!! You type, girl!!!
Perhaps you type slower than you speak, but I read much faster than you can talk.
I like podcasts because videos and blogposts are difficult when youre out walking or driving but I totally agree about the searchability aspect. If you like a part you have to remember which podcast and how far in. Sort of a pain.
Althouse: "But are you thinking long term? If you stop blogging regularly, will you have to keep paying to keep your archive on line?"
Good point. However, what percentage of your blog would you say is just out and out ephemeral? Or is your blog your way of staking out your immortality? ; - )
What is a podcast? Do you like broadcast from a pod or something?
What is a pod?
I predict that bloggingheads will either disappear or radically change its vlog style. Many of them are too long by half.
The podcasts I've subscribed to on iTunes seem not to have staying power. Even TikiBarTV seems to be quite intermittent now and it's funny and delightful. Go figure!
Hi, Roger.
I care very much about the archive. I've always written this blog -- in the moment as it seems -- with the idea of building the archive. I've always thought of the blog as an art project, and as the posts have built up the number of words that you'd find in a thick book and beyond, the idea of the work as a whole has mattered tremendously.
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