Next door at Corante's Between Lawyers, Dennis Kennedy follows a post from Cory Doctorow, asking: "Where do all the iTunes songs come from?"
In a few years, perhaps we'll ask a similar question when the podcasts start hitting a volume pace: Where do all the iTunes podcasts come from? If the math shows that very few songs on an iPod are from the iTunes music store, than what chances are there that any tiny percentage of podcasts will be from some iTunes equivalent?
There won't be 60 million podcasts that have been purchased. There may not even be an iTunes service that allows you to charge for a podcast. And even if there is, most podcasts won't cost a dime. So, where will they come from? How many podcasts will people have on their iPods that they have purchased?
Here's an excerpt from the Gear Live web site where the iPod math quetion is discussed:
"While talking with Tiffiniy Cheng of Participatory Culture earlier today for our next Gear Live Podcast, she mentioned the website put out by them called iTunes Per iPod. Essentially, it aims to show that while many people walk around with iPods filled to the brim with their favorite tracks, barely any of them are from the iTunes Music Store. Granted, the data is a bit outdated as it is from April 2004, I think it is safe to say that the data probably hasn’t changed all that much. Based on their calculations, in April 2004, if you divided the number of songs sold on iTunes by the number of iPods out there, you would find an average of 21 iTunes songs per iPod. Now I understand that many people rip CD’s that they have purchased legally to their computers as well, and this accounts for a percentage of the music on iPods - but I will go out on a limb and say that is a small percentage as well. Gotta love Bittorrent."
The smallest iPod holds 1,000 songs. The largers ones hold 10,000 songs. There is plenty of room for podcasts that feature the spoken word.
So, I ask again, where will the podcasts come from? How many of those podcasts will be ones that people have purchased?
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
1. Andru Edwards on June 16, 2005 01:24 PM writes...
Actually, the largest iPod - 60 GB iPod photo - now hold 15,000 tracks. After talking with quite a few people, it has become apparent that Podcasts are QUICKLY taking up the empty space on many, many digital audio players.
Permalink to Comment2. Jan van der Reis on June 16, 2005 09:22 PM writes...
Big visions are NEVER shared by multitudes, and there will be a lot of paid podcasts. But it takes a little longer than ten months to get this done.
Remember KAZAA? Nobody paid
How many songs has ITunes sold? 430 Mio Songs Sold
Wait for podacsting , I say it's coming....
Permalink to Comment3. Nick Coster on June 16, 2005 09:35 PM writes...
All of my music is ripped directly from CD's and fills half on my iPod Mini. (I can't even buy iTunes music because I am in Australia).
But not that I have started loading up podcasts the space is filling up, even with a strict habit of deleting listened to shows.
I think that it will be a while yet before a feasible paid subscription model appears. While the choice of content is so large and growing a request for payment will present a barrier to use that will drive away all but the most desperate fans.
This might work where the content is in the form of lecture notes or other transcript where the content is very specific and timely. The price has to be justified by the expense of getting the data from somewhere else.
Permalink to Comment4. jim tunney on June 17, 2005 09:49 AM writes...
Reading these blogs is scary. Theyre all messed up. iTunes and podcasting go together perfectly and there will be tons of podcasts freely chosen filling millions of iPods. Sometimes I wonder if these blog writers won mp3 players. It seems they write these lame blogs with year old info and expect people to listen. Shuffle holds 120 songs approx. FWIW... and its good for podcasts.
iTunes is the perfect podcast client.
Apple iPod bashers.. first, get your info correct, then get over it. You can also listen to drm songs on an iPod without too much hassle too. iTunes for songs is just a small small part of the mix.
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