Adam Curry responded to the missive launched by Keith and the Girl… check it out here.

One thing that amused me is the continuing name calling and dissing that is going on here… Keith and the Girl see Podshow as the big brother with evil plans to steal podcasters’ intellectual property (um, a little overblown) and Adam Curry’s tsk-tsking that speaking negatively about Podshow will somehow ruin podcasting (um, a bit arrogant)… it’s all amusing to me. Truth be told, a little controversy seems to rally up some numbers , so maybe it’s not all bad.

WARNING… sports analogy dead ahead… the NBA was at its zenith when the Lakers and the Celtics were going at each other… the NHL enjoyed some better ratings when the Red Wings and the Avalanche had some epic battles… baseball currently has the Yankees and the Red Sox. A rivalry might not be so bad for the industry. I’ll note that my hit totals have shot up since I blogged about this!

UPDATE… I just listened to the latest KATG and I have to say some of their criticisms do have some traction. It’s hard to evaluate Podshow’s latest download claims, but their “download requests” numbers are probably the least effective way (I think) to measure success. How many times does your podcatcher request any given feed per day? Per hour? Others disagree. Unfortunately, we also have no idea if the Podshow numbers include downloads of non-Podshow feeds. That being said, I really think that Keith and Chemda are stuck in a pseudo-radio advertising paradigm… perhaps because that’s the only metric that advertisers are interested in using for podcasts right now.

The rivalry continues… Keith and the Girl vs. Podshow.
I won’t bother going into the history of it… there are other places to check that out. Apparently Keith is now suggesting that all of Podshow’s programming tracks in a total of 12,000 downloads per day. (That would be not a lot… in fact it would be shockingly small considering the major dineros podshow has raised from venture capitalists). Is Keith’s claim a joke? An educated guess based on Alexa rankings? Who knows… this is an ongoing beef that may or may not be good for podcasting.

Sometimes a good rivalry can make for higher ratings and better entertainment… sometimes it’s pro wrestling. To be continued…

I am a big fan of Liberated Syndication (AKA libsyn)… while far from perfect, the guys that run this company provide a great set of services for podcasters. They’re now finally going to be able to devote full time energy to the company… I think that will be great for everyone involved. Check out their announcement:

Dear libsyn users,

It’s been a while since we’ve written, hope you all have been well. Last October we announced that we were becoming a public company. That move is now complete as we have merged Webmayhem Inc (the parent corporation of Liberated Syndication) with Wizzard Software Inc (OTCBB:WIZD) and formed Wizzard Media in the process. We wanted to explain what this all means to you.

The great news is, libsyn is here to stay and is only going to get better. We have now an even stronger foundation, and in addition to providing funding and corporate infrastructure, Wizzard Software brings some pretty exciting things to Podcasting, and in turn, to you the libsyn user. Wizzard is bringing a decade of industry leading experience in voice technology- that’s voice to text and text to voice. There are lots of cool things we can do with this technology. A press release was issued this morning announcing the deal- (http://www.wizzard.tv/press_mar_01_2007.php).

The best news for everyone is that the days of 4 guys with day jobs trying to run a podcasting company on the side are over- we are 120% committed to nothing but libsyn now, and our team continues to grow. Yesterday, we (re)launched the Libsyn Soundoff- (http://soundoff.libsyn.com) our blog/podcast which will be updated daily to provide everyone an inside look on the goings on at libsyn HQ. Part of the show will be technical, part will be feedback and ideation on the upcoming libsyn developments. Our launch episode was yesterday– we wanted to talk about this deal, but without doing the public press release we had to hold our tongues. This will all take some getting used to, but it will be worth it. We’ll talk a bit about it today.

All in all, we’d like to thank you for your continued support and for being part of the history of libsyn. You have helped us build this network. We look forward to the exciting years ahead.

love-
the libsyn squad.

Feels like it’s been ages since I posted about podcasting… iTunes to the rescue!

Apple has finally carved out some website real estate for the iTunes Podcast Spotlight. This allows folks to check out a handful of new or notable shows from the safety and comfort of their own browser rather than the scary, scary iTunes interface. Revolutionary? Nah. Will it mean more eyeballs? Absolutely.

Thanks to Rob at Podcast411 for the pointer… check out his blog and his podcast. A must read and a must listen (respectively) for the hobbyist or semi-pro podcaster.

One of my very favorite clients (ok, they’re all my co-equal favorite) has broken through on the iTunes directory… Hip Tranquil Chick is currently featured in the iTunes Self Help section, and is also rated #4 at the time of this post. To see Hip Tranquil Chick make its way into the top ten is a real thrill, and a great accomplishment for Kimberly and her show. Congratulations!

Many people ask me what it takes to make the top ten on iTunes. The honest answer is consistent, good programming… barring a contact with the good people in Cupertino, I suppose. My first podcast, Supreme Court Watch, was featured and ranked in the top ten political podcasts for most of its run, but that was a different time (all the way back to 2005!) with far less big media competition.

The great advantage to a podcast that is featured on iTunes is exposure. Massive exposure. Once a podcast achieves top ten in any given category, it seems to stay there so long as new shows keep coming. The top ten list apparently (although not officially) measures new iTunes subscriptions… so, people browsing the iTunes directory tend to see those shows first. This leads to more new subscribers for the featured shows, which can cement the show as a fixture in the top ten. Getting featured on iTunes is huge.

So, bottom line… focus on quality and regularity. The ratings and accolades will follow!

The desire to have something…anything to get one closer to having an iPhone just went to the bizarre. Palm OS smartphone owners were given the opportunty to slap an iPhone interface on their soon-to-be-recycled phones. Dubbed the iPhony, this was an interesting way of slapping a dress on a pig (my apologies to all pigs for that dismissive remark). Of course Apple shut down the iPhony in about 27 nanoseconds given that the graphics were likely thieved directly from Apple’s home page.

Barring any new revelations on the iPhone’s podcasting support, let me categorically state that there will be no more posts on it here… the iPhony means the iPhone has officially jumped the shark… for now at least.

The internets are all atwitter about tomorrow’s big MacWorld keynote from Steve “boom!” Jobs. The worst kept secret in Cupertino is the announcement of an Apple branded cellular phone. What intrigues me from a podcasting perspective is that this little device… the MacPhone… the iMobile… the iBoom!… whatever… will likely allow one to download content straight out of the air. If one of the rumors is correct, the phone will be as much a mini computer running some version of Mac OS X on it with iTunes. Podcasters suddenly have another option to get their shows out there… consider the roadtripper who is tired of his playlists and wouldn’t dare hit up talk radio unless on a dare. At the next rest stop, our intrepid traveler surfs his phone for a podcast or two for the next 150 miles. No wires… no desktops… simply put, the future.

Boom!