Kiptronic,  a fast growing web enterprise which is best known for their unique podcast marketplace and podcast monetization through targeted ad insertion platform, announced that they raised $4 million in venture capital funding.
The said funding was …

Once podcasters get a whiff of any real money the quality will improve as people will work to supplement their day job income with an initially small but potentially significant secondary source of income.

Also, widgets (the breakthrough technology of 2007) will be a critical to spread podcasts via rss readers/podcasts to an always on “in-box” on the desktop.

They won’t go away - any more than blogging will. The bar is higher for quality in a podcast, so it’s not a vehicle that will be as pervasive, but there’s no reason in the world that citizen-journalism can’t be audio, video AND text.

Kiptronic’s on to something here.

Will video ads sell for an order of magnitude higher than audio ads?

Radio is still a $22 billion industry.

I agree that audio/podcasting on the desktop is doomed. http://foneshow.blogspot.com/2.....sktop.html . But on the mobile device there’s a huge market if you can get the friction out of the delivery system. http://foneshow.blogspot.com/2006/11/friction.html

Just wait for ‘podradio’ to come around (read: internet radio to your mobile music device). That will be changing the game of radio forever. My guess is that it will be year 2010’s big thing.

My $.02

The article is about a podcast advertising network that raised $4 million. The article does not mention, nor does it imply, that the podcasting market is growing. It does not mention or imply that people are clamoring for audio podcasts. No claims of a “killer app”. Oh, and nothing in there about video. Hey, nothing about any of that shit in any of the comments either. Oh wait, except for some useless, off-topic, sharp-rocks-in-rancid-vagina comments by some whore named Alaska.

I won’t dignify your ridiculous drivel by a specific reply, but I will say this. Ben’s comment above, as well as Kiptronic’s own site, states they are working on a video advertising solution as well. You think maybe they can flesh that out with 4 mil to play with? Hey, since video is the killer app and all, you think maybe offering an advertising service for both audio and video might be a good business plan? You think maybe with a little research on your part, you might not have came off sounding like a retarded 14-year-old on one of the most popular blogs in the world, and set yourself up to have your ass handed to you by a lowly, boring podcaster?

Oh, when you reply, be sure to leave a link to your own video site. The killer app one. Whore.

All we are saying is there will always be a market for podcasts.

Your opinion is not indicative in the growth of podcasts. While video is growing quicker at the moment, it is senseless to say one form of media is superior because it is apples and oranges.

That sure is the killer app folks! People sure are clamoring for that! To do drudgery and listen to boring chit chat. Oh wow you guys sure convinced me.

Hate to disagree with you bro, but there will always be a market for podcasts. The reason being podcast (like radio) engage only one sense, listening (sound). This allows the person to do other things while listening…read, work, excercise.

One cannot both watch a video and read at the same time. To say that podcasts are “boring” is just juvenile as the conversation has nothing to do with which is more exciting. Podcasts and video are just different forms of entertainment for different senses.

“People consume media visually and not with boring podcasts. To say that oh wow I’m taking interviews with Digg and Craigslist guys is poorly justifying your existence.”

I don’t need to drop names to justify my existence — and that isn’t what I’m doing. What matters is that the control of media has shifted, and has allowed creative content producers a crack at delivering media people are interested in. This is what excites me about podcasting, which combines both audio and video content (and I’m not focused on audio alone, by the way.)

Having an opportunity to interview the Craigslists and Diggs of the world is a unique and inspiring experience. Regardless if it’s audio or video, the content and knowledge gained are priceless.

I happen to love video, but as one person mentioned earlier, audio is a lot more consumable than video. You cannot watch video while driving, biking, or doing any activity which requires your undivided attention. What we should all be grateful for is that for those who wish to participate in the media landscape, can now do so without great expense or red tape. That’s freedom.

No duh podcasts will be around indefinitely but it will only be marginalized as time goes on as online video melds closer with offline video. Only few stars ever break out immensely beyond their locality, ie. Howard Sterns, but that view can be said for any stars, a breakout star is a breakout star no matter what medium.

People consume media visually and not with boring podcasts. To say that oh wow I’m taking interviews with Digg and Craigslist guys is poorly justifying your existence.

Podcasts are boring. The killer app is video.

And you should see the valuations we got!

Your mom’s a spammer.

I’ll be interested to see how this company’s offering stacks up against anything eventually coming out of google. my guess is that unless they offer something substantially earth-shattering, they won’t get the tractiong necessary to compete with google.

Just yesterday, CNN published a great article on Grammar Girl. She produces a series of podcasts which have been downloaded more than 1.3 Million times since July 2006. She is the third most popular podcast on iTunes. Podcasts aren’t going anywhere — and I don’t mention this due to the fact that I am a social media producer responsible for several podcasts myself.

Even with my own Interviews Podcast, which features in-depth interviews with folks such as Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Digg’s Kevin Rose, Carnegie Mellon’s Dr. David Farber, etc., I’ve realized 100K downloads to date. Executives, decisions makers, high-end consumers, students, etc. are tuning in. People are downloading these interviews to their iPods and listening to them on walks, lunch breaks, flights, and anywhere there’s an opportunity to listen to content people are interested in.

The only thing preventing more podcasts from realizing a larger audience is exposure. It takes luck, hard work, press, and word of mouth to be successful. Personally, I believe I can achieve 1 million downloads per month when factoring in the content I’ve published to date. However, again, only consistent visibility will drive people in large numbers to the interviews I’ve produced with Southwest Airlines, Cisco, Webaroo, Intrado, Engage, Craigslist, Digium, etc.

“If you build it, they will come” — I’ve already built the platform and brand. I’m simply waiting for more people to discover the content. The rest is history.

-Amit
http://www.ipatrons.com

Per Shokal comments above - “dmac” he actually meant dMarc - which a company Google purchased last January for a couple hundred million. That company does automatic ad insertions for the radio industry. And it has been speculated that part of the reason Google made the purchase last year was to get into podcasting. To date nothing Google has said “publicly” would indicate that is something they are actively planning on doing.

Kiptronic has a deal with Libsyn, which means they have access to over 5,000 podcasts. However not all podcasts on Libsyn want advertising on their podcasts.

If you want to hear an interivew I did with the CEO of Kiptronic and some of the founder of Libsyn from an year ago here is the link.

http://libsyn.com/media/podcast411/411_060121.mp3

They talk in greater detail about how they work together. Just audio - no video - sorry.

Yo.