I can’t see this taking off.

Once podcast producers begin using proprietary formats, DRM and consumption tracking software they will see a large drop in demand for their podcasts. Users don’t want or need to deal with this kind of stuff.

The next thing that needs to be addressed is this obsession with guaranteeing that someone has fully consumed a podcast. Do advertisers know if someone sees an add in a magazine? Does everyone watch all the commercials in all the shows they watch on TV? No and no. So why should the standard for podcasting be any different?

1. Some background. When we first started exploring podcasting in 2004, we felt for mainstream mass consumers to realize the benefits of digital subscription delivery (RSS) the new podcasting medium had to closely mimic old radio and television in three significant ways.
a. It had to be a completely passive experience. Shows would get downloaded on a periodic basis, ala Tivo recording, for time and space shifted consumption.
b. The content had to be of repeatable quality produced on predictable schedules.
c. The content had to be free. How many paid subscription services can an individual consumer handle?

2. From our conversations with media companies who produce content of repeatable quality to large audiences we heard:
a. They needed a way to extend their “profitable” content business before they could get excited about podcasting
b. While subscription fees and paid downloads have been popular with digital consumers, content owners who pour lot of sweat to produce these shows can get excited about making their content available for free to consumers, while being paid by advertisers
3. We know in our deepest gut this new medium is all about the consumer. It has to be. We designed our plug-in to media players (ex. iTunes) to work similar to Macromedia flash for the browser. The plug-in provides an infrastructure for podcast media players similar to cookies for the browsers. Just as web browser cookies provide consumer convenience functions beyond advertising, our plug-in will do the same as extend new consumer benefits of our service.
4. We do collect data - basic anonymous demographic information (age, gender and zip). We do not know who the listener is. We have no identification information - no name, email or other registration data. We could know for example - “50% of the listeners to a particular show are male”. Do you “have to” provide this anonymous basic demo data? Currently not. But this is not a decision we are making. Our content partners will make this call. We provide them a way to make such collection mandatory, or not.

5. Will there be ads? How many? Again, we do not make these decisions. Our content partners will make this call. We provide them a simple way to extend their RSS feed with information indicating number, frequency and insertion point/style of the ads. The content providers dictate categories of acceptable advertising. We intend to extend this control to the individual consumer who can also guide advertisements in their own content.

5. In the end, we do not want to be party to any technology or service which compromises the consumer. It does not make any business sense. This new exciting medium is all about the consumer.

I am happy to see your analysis. I am sure we will be in conversation as we launch new services in our mission to bring great content into podcasting, free of consumer fees.

Your first link is missing a ‘w’. The ‘Podbridge’ link in the first paragraph is linking to ww.podbridge.com

Thanks for the great content.

This doesn’t provide real metrics, it provides metrics on the subset of the population that wants to use it.

So why should I, as a listener, install the podbridge spyware?