You Can’t Handle The Truth About Podcasting
Posted on 10:20 am by Paul ColliganFirst, please watch this embedded clip from YouTube to put you in the proper mindset.
You can’t handle the truth!
Son, we work on an Internet that has limits. And these limits can’t be changed with men with vc funding - no matter how much you’ve got.
Who’s gonna stream to millions at once? You? You, Hulu?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You praise streaming and you curse the Podcast. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not admitting what I know: that streaming, while sexy, simply can’t scale.
And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, is the future of media online…
You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want portable time-shifted media. You need portable time-shifted media - without the restrictions that simply won’t scale.
We use words like streaming, drm, walls … we curse these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ‘em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under tens of millions of dollars in funding without ever facing the truth, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!
I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you tell me how your plan on streaming to millions of users at the same time. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think our future is!
As much as I just enjoyed watching 30 Rock on Hulu a few minutes ago, …
Streaming won’t scale.
DRM won’t scale.
Devices that dial home with my watching habits won’t scale.
Oprah tried, and fell flat on her face, and then released everything she had via Podcast.
Did her impact change? Did she make any less money? Did they sell less copies of that “New Earth” book?
Do we have something to learn from Oprah?
Yes, we can track everything - but at some point it all falls apart. I point to the USSR and East Germany as recent examples.
Yes, we can stream video right now but it is simply nothing compared to a few million people watching American Idol on a Wednesday night. If you want the numbers television provides on our glorious Interweb then, dear friends, you’re going to have to find something that scales - something that “works.”
Podcasting can scale.
Without the need to call back home, without the need to worry about where every 1 and 0 is located, without the need to own it all, this can work. Podcasting can scale.
Streaming can’t.
DRM can’t.
You can’t handle the truth about Podcasting.
Thoughts?
Technorati Tags: bit torrent, podcasting, oprah, time-shifted portable media
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8 Comments »
April 23, 2008
Jason Evangelho said:
Preaching to the choir, Paul! A nostalgic and geeky side of me would have loved to see you reading that post aloud, with the sneer and venom of Nicholson, rather than the clip itself
Despite what anyone wants to believe, Podcasting is still in it’s infancy, and it’s power is in the dedicated fans that latch on to their niche topics.
Preach on…
April 23, 2008
Supplementguy said:
Good Stuff Paul… When people don’t understand something… Must people Run AWAY! The Few that Dare to understand end up with all the money… Think about it! Dare to understand My FRIENDS!
April 23, 2008
Chris (Amateur Traveler) said:
Preach it brother!
April 23, 2008
Dan Sawyer said:
Well said!
April 24, 2008
ShellyBlog » Pod is a Dirty Word, Again (Pingback)
[…] In the wider world of downloadable media, it’s another “podcasting is dead” headline to chew over and refute. Paul Colligan weighs in with a spirited and somewhat melodramatic defense of podcasting as an independent media form. Maybe that’s what the beleaguered folks who believe in podcasting (for business and/or pleasure) really need to hear right now. As for me, I’ll squirm a little uncomfortably, because my Libsyn referrer list shows a fair number of people find my podcast through PodShow. I sort of wonder why that is. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
April 28, 2008
Chris Brogan... said:
I’m struggling to write something large and valuable here, but I can’t, because just like I felt after speaking after you at Podcast Academy, man… you’re a tough act to follow. Great post, Paul. Keep fighting out there!
April 30, 2008
Brother Wolf said:
Scale ability is the holy grail of modern business world.
Preach brother! Preach!
May 1, 2008
Pod is a Dirty Word, Again | Podcast Pundit (Pingback)
[…] In the wider world of downloadable media, it’s another “podcasting is dead” headline to chew over and refute. Paul Colligan weighs in with a spirited and somewhat melodramatic defense of podcasting as an independent media form, particularly when compared to streamed content, or DRM-reliant offerings. Maybe that’s what the beleaguered folks who believe in podcasting (for business and/or pleasure) really need to hear right now. As for me, I’ll squirm a little uncomfortably, because my Libsyn referrer list shows a fair number of people find my podcast through PodShow. I sort of wonder why that is. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]