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iTunes, Podcasting, and Paranoia

July 30th, 2005 Posted in Blogging/Podcasting

Steve raises a good point: Apple isn’t Long Tail friendly to podcasters.


As I browse through the podcasts on the iTunes Music Store at the podcasts I notice something really important is missing – The Long Tail. While each album listing points me to others people have purchased, the same metadata is missing when it comes to podcasts. We should be able to see a link that says "people who subscribe to this podcast also subscribe to…" Take a look at the images below and note the differences.



Maybe I’m just feeling a little paranoid this evening, but honestly, I’m beginning to wonder these days if Apple isn’t actively trying to push out the small time podcasters. Apple either launched a basic to the point of simply bad strategy, or a brilliantly executed ass kick to the amateurs. Over the last few weeks since iTunes 4.9 launched, the home page of the iTunes Music Store Podcasts pages have transformed to include far more "professional" podcasts than non-professional. If this trend continues, we’ll have to really dig soon to find anything that’s not from a major network.



Think about what Apple hasn’t done, and give me your feedback – are they horrid strategists or are they brilliantly evil bastards?


  • Poorly designed RSS extensions
  • A spec document for those new extensions that is barely one step above the back of a cocktail napkin
  • A total lack of feedback system for the RSS feed submission in iTMS
  • A total lack of a feedback system for the "Report a problem" process in iTMS
  • An unclear, and non-transparent system of MP3 caching
  • A non-existent explanation of what the update schedule/process is
  • A non-existent explanation of what the content moderation process is

Now, if Apple’s goal is to simple focus in on a handful of the largest content providers (i.e. networks and studios, for instance), why bother building all those things? After all, with only a handful of large content providers, they’d likely have account execs and tech teams assigned to each. Making updates and changes could be made instantly with a call from the content provider’s account exec to the Apple account exec.



But here’s the real point of doing this – you can get professionals to pay for placement. Right now, Apple only makes indirect money off of the podcasting phenomenon through the theoretical increase of iPod sales inspired by a desire to jump on the podcast wagon.



Amateur podcasters aren’t going to pay for placement within iTMS, but CBS might. Or Weblogs, Inc. might.



Who knows, maybe I’m just being paranoid, but can you blame me? Apple has always treated the enthusiast community like shit, why would they stop now?


This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 at 2:26 am and is filed under Blogging/Podcasting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • Gavin Impett
    Uhhhh.....


    You're joking, right? You are just now figuring this out?



    There is a reason Apple has about 2% of the desktop market, it's called anti-competitive, monotheistic, business practices.



    For a detailed account of Apple's business model, see Isaac Asimov's Foundation.



    You a priest, my son.



    Cheers,

    Gavin Impett



  • Jake and Steve,


    I think what we have seen in iTunes is a cleaver promotional stunt to drive publicity and iPod sales higher. The other agenda at play here is one of building value on the podcasting page for major content providers to pay for placement. Apple used the "Indie" podcasters to kick start all of this and thus can now sell placement of major media podcasts on the "Podcast" home page. Since Apple cannot sell subscription podcasts, then it must make money in other ways besides selling iPods.



    I also think that "Indie" podcasts will stay in the directory as it would be bad PR for them to remove them. The directory of "Amateur" podcasts will only grow in the directory area. But I think the separation between ?Amateur? and ?Professional? podcasts will widen over time. This separation is demonstrated by the lack of linkage between being listed in the podcast directory and having a podcast dedicated page.



    It is clear to me that if your podcast is not in the top 100 then you will not be found in iTunes unless the listener knows the name of the podcast and do a search or the subscriber finds that page from clicking on a link from your show website.



    Rob Greenlee

    WebTalk Radio


  • If that was Apple's goal, wouldn't it have been quite a bit simpler to simply not list the "amateur" podcasts?
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