Live Radio to Podcasting Comes Full Circle

I think it is very interesting that podcasting is going towards live radio at new sites like BlogTalkRadio.com. I watched a Scoble show episode with Alan Levy, CEO of BlogTalkRadio.com recently and it was like this concept was totally new online.

While I like to see this coming to life again, it is just not new and is a new as old idea. I think that seeing people getting all excited about this development is funny as it is only new to people who are new to the online radio space and don't have an understanding of the history of online radio.

The thing that is new about BlogTalkRadio.com is that it is free to have a show on the network. The earlier companies charged a fee to host a show on the network. I am sure that BlogTalkRadio.com will put these earlier companies out of business with a no fee business model.

Just visit WorldTalkRadio.com that I consulted with 4 years ago and you will see what I mean. You can also see WSRadio.com.

Melodeo Launches "nuTsie": Get Your Entire iTunes Music Library On Your Mobile Phone

Melodeo is proud announce a new mobile and web service called nuTsie beta, this currently FREE mobile music service allows consumers to get their entire iTunes library on their mobile phone and via login on the nuTsie.com website. The nuTsie free public beta (available immediately at http://www.nutsie.com), allows anyone to easily shuffle through all of their iTunes music and playlists in hi-fi quality on their mobile phone or on the Web.

Here is a fun video Melodeo has produced that simply expains "nuTsie".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=apIogJrGTRw

nuTsie allows users to access all of their favorite iTunes music on a wide variety of today's most popular phone models, with no expensive device upgrade required.

nuTsie is built on Melodeo's proven high-quality, low-bandwidth mobile streaming technology that has been hardened and tested with Melodeo Mobilcast service, which is currently launched with wireless carriers around the world.

This new nuTsie service really means consumers will never again have to hassle with synching their phone to a computer, downloading music or dealing with limited storage capacity on their phone. Read more about the service.

nuTsie does not download actual iTunes song files, so there are no storage issues, sideloading hassles or piracy worries. Instead, nuTsie works by referencing a consumer's iTunes library and playlists and then making the same track titles available for streaming from nuTsie’s servers via the Web and mobile phone.

nuTsie combines Melodeo's innovative streaming music technology with an enhanced “radio rules” shuffle algorithm that ensures artists, record labels and music publishers are paid for every use of a song. nuTsie is also the only non-Apple music service to play "Fair Play" music purchased by download from iTunes.

The nuTsie service can also be accessed via a browser on any Web-connected computer. Consumers can listen to their iTunes music just about anytime and anywhere with nuTsie.

You can also follow updates to the nuTsie service by checking back here and by visiting the nuTsie blog.

Get more info about nuTsie.

What happened to the Podcast Industry?

I have been involved in on-demand portable downloadable digital media since 2000 when I first posted mp3 file downloads of my WebTalkGuys Radio show. The term podcasting has seen huge media attention that drove new content and listener growth in the first two years (since 2004). This massive amount of media attention inspired many new content creators, because they saw an opportunity for fame and fortune that was mainly fanned by MTV TVj Adam Curry (PodShow and Daily Source Code).

You must give Adam credit for driving the massive amount of attention to Podcasting, but was the hype overblown? I think looking back now it was very overblown and the expectations that Podcasting would kill radio now seem totally absured. Yes, when was the last time Adam Curry and podcasting was mentioned in the media? It is safe to say that the media and general podcasters burned out on Adam Curry and his podcasting hype. He even recently lost his Sirius deal to broadcast podcasts. He is seen now as a negative influence on the world of podcasting for many reasons related to his efforts to commercialize podcasting and to take credit at the expense of others on the Podcasting page at the Wikipedia.

I still have faith that on-demand portable downloadable and streamed digital media will continue to grow and develop, but it will happen at a DRM free level.

The news around Podcasting the past few months have been less then positive and have shown a real falling to earth. We have seen many commercial entities around podcasting fall to earth under the weight of open and non-commercial influences. In the news today of Audible's Wordcast (commercial DRM'd podcasting service is being shutdown and last weeks news of ODEO being sold, Loomia changing it's business model away from podcasting are signs of an industry in a less inflated market and one that is getting more real by the minute.

If you want to go back in time and read some of the discussion around commercial podcasting then start here with a post made by my WebTalk Radio co-host Mitch Ratcliffe, that fueled this later discussion. If you scroll down the page to the comments, you will see a few thoughts of mine back then.

Sure the hype is down and it is not as exciting to be involved in podcasting, but that is ok with me because I am here for the long-haul and I have seen this since it started. I still think that on-demand portable downloadable and streaming digital media is the future of all of our media consumption.

The term Podcast and iPod is an evolutionary step in the process to huge global adoption of consumption via mobile devices of all kinds.

Melodeo Mobilcast Debuts Mobile Podcast Listening in Denmark with TDC

Today Melodeo Mobilcast announced the launch of the first on-demand mobile music, podcast, and radio listening service in Denmark with wireless operator TDC. Melodeo's Mobilcast is immediately available to more than 2 million mobile customers in Denmark with TDC.

"Mobilcast customers in Denmark with TDC will be able to listen to on-demand music and radio shows from popular sources such as Virgin Radio, Podhead.dk and DR, as well as thousands of independent programs from all over the world."

The on-phone content catalog of podcast feeds and categories are localized to the Danish language. Melodeo is doing most if not all of the localization to local language and offering mostly Danish podcast content.

The biggest benefit to users is that you don't need to download any mp3 files to be able to listen to mobile audio podcasts. You will be able to get access to the content right away when it is published via streaming to the phone.

"Mobilcast provides wireless customers with on-demand access to more than 150,000 music and entertainment programs including radio shows from popular sources such as NPR, MSNBC and CNN, as well as thousands of independent programs from all over the world. Mobilcast customers enjoy a wide selection of music, comedy, news, sports, and other entertainment programs. Mobilcast is immediately available to more than 44 million wireless customers on two continents through distribution deals with Alltel Wireless and Cingular Wireless in the United States, Rogers Wireless in Canada and British wireless operator 3 in the UK. "

I cannot recall is I posted about our below joint venture deal in China;

"Melodeo also recently announced an investment from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group in China Access Media Solutions, the Chinese joint venture operating company started by Melodeo and Access Co. Ltd. in early 2006. The companies are working together to further develop and distribute world-class solutions for securely delivering mobile music and multimedia entertainment to wireless customers throughout China and other Asia Pacific marketplaces.

Melodeo's Mobilcast mobile entertainment service is compatible with the majority of handsets on the market. For more information, or to check your phone's compatibility, visit http://www.mobilcast.com/"

Appears Bluetooth Stereo Not Ready For Prime Time

The dream of getting rid of the wires from mobile phone music and podcast listening headphones is still alive, but is going through some technology development growing pains right now. I have been reading blogger posts giving reviews on the current available Bluetooth stereo listening devices and the verdict so far is not good. Stay Tuned as the verdict will only get better.

The MobileBurn blog post said this:

My first experience with a set of A2DP Bluetooth stereo headphones was Motorola's HT820, which was included with the Motorola Q that we received back in May of this year. I was quite pleased with the experience overall, and was very happy about finally being able to lose those wires. But back then there were few devices available with A2DP support, so I had kinda just assumed that all A2DP headphones would work with all A2DP devices, just as pretty much all Bluetooth headsets work with all Bluetooth phones.

With that naive thought in mind, I decided last month that we should do a roundup of A2DP headphone here at MobileBurn. We matched up four pair of stereo headphones with four A2DP devices. The headphones in question were the BlueAnt X5, the Motorola HT820, Nokia's BH-601, and the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970. Our test phones were the newly released LG Chocolate for Verizon (VX8500), a pre-production MOTOKRZR K1 from Motorola, Motorola's Q Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone, and the Sony Ericsson W710i Walkman phone.

The results of our testing were quite depressing. No headset worked properly with all of the phones, and no phone worked properly with all of the headsets. Because of the nature of the testing, it is hard for us to determine whether the phone or headset is the cause of any particular problem, though a few issues seem consistent enough across the board that we can level blame.

Here is another article source on Stereo Bluetooth from PocketPCMagazine.com

I still keep the dream alive that stereo bluetooth will be a reliable replacement for all those pesky wires.

"Podcast" Name Not Globally Used

I came across this very interesting blog post at all-podcast-secrets.com that talks about how universial around the world the term "Podcast" is used to describe the process of creating and distributing audio and video via an RSS feed.

"In German, Spanish and Dutch, several alternatives were offered. For example, the Spanish initially toyed with translations like “audioblog” and “radioblog”, but ultimately settled for the English term “podcast” although it is difficult to pronounce for Spaniards.

In French, the Canadian state of Quebec prefers the terms “baladodiffusion” and “baladiffusion” which is difficult to translate into English, but which means something like “broadcasting for walkman”. These terms can be heard on Public radio in Quebec. In France, one of its many official language commissions has recently tried to impose the term “Diffusion pour baladeur” but no one uses it. Nice Try Big Brother!

And in China? Podcasting is called 播客. Say what?! Don’t worry. It looks “worse” than it sounds. The word is pronounced “podcast” and it means “users who broadcast”.

There is one place where the term has been localized, and that is South Africa. In April 2005, the term “potgooi” was introduced into Afrikaans, and in fact, Afrikaans podcasters prefer it to the term podcast.

Thanks to Glen Verran, Fabio Bacigalupo, Bertrand Lenotre, Jose A. Gelado, Jack Gu and Jean Scholtes for contributing."

Seems the state of podcasting on a global scale has finally started to get some interest online. I am very glad to see it happen and hope to be a focal point for fostering this discussion as Mobilcast is expanding very fast across the globe.

More folks in other countries are jumping into the conversation that have been up till now dominated by USA based conversation on this topic. It is also interesting that this growing conversation seems to have a strong mobile phone component to it.

The other interesting development is the formation of the World Podcast Forum to address podcast and mobilcast issues world wide.

I am working hard to make local language content catalogs for each country. Podcasting is not all in english. This is a point that needs to be reinforced that podcasting is not just an english opportunity.

Rob Greenlee

Growing The Podcast Audience

It is the job of every content provider, directory and distributor that has an interest in seeing the podcasting space grow. I think the industry is on the verge of a move to mobile and Microsoft is on the verge of doing something with RSS media enclosures.

I also think it is easy to think podcasting has flat lined with Odeo going up for sale, but like streaming media was 5 or 6 years ago the podcasting industry is going through change. We are coming into a time of consolidation, as we will see players in this space merge with each other this year. I believe that we cannot bank on the iPod for our long-term growth and major media is really beginning to drive our listener growth.

We need to start thinking about listener ease of access and use. How are we going to reach the most listeners as possible and grow the list of quality content being made available?

I have been working at Melodeo Mobilcast for over a year now and have been a webcaster and podcaster for a long-time with my own WebTalk Radio podcast. I think mobile phone access to all audio and video podcasts through applications like Mobilcast is the growing future for content distribution and listenership. I think this is the bigger message is that it will make less sense over time to call mobile phone listening "Podcasting".

I know that I am biased in my view on this as I work for Mobilcast, but I also have an inside view on what is developing around the globe as we roll out Mobilcast. I just got back from 3GSM in Barcelona, Spain and I saw first hand high interest from mobile carrier operators around the world for mobile podcast distribution and growing adoption numbers.

Mobile distribution for content is happening now and is not just a dream. It will only grow over the next 5 years and I do believe the devices like the iPhone and other multi-media capable mobiles will play a large roll in us reaching the mass market with frequently updated short form audio and video content delivered by RSS enclosures.

Rob Greenlee

New Mobilcast Video Demos - Mobile Phone Podcast Listening Software Video Posted To YouTube

I have created some new comprehensive video demos of the mobile phone podcast listening application called "Mobilcast" and Melodeo.com. The other videos document the process to make a Melodeo.com website playlist sync to mobilcast on your mobile phone. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do work for Melodeo Mobilcast.

I have wanted to to make this below demo for a month now and I finally got to it. The demos will give you a great feel for how our application works. Give it a Watch.

To get Mobilcast go here



Here is a direct link to this YouTube video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=T1BHuQ5RbLU

I have also created a few other videos below as well that are posted to my Windows Streaming Media Server. Feel free to share these links around.

- Here is the same as above 5 minute Mobilcast Video Demo in a Windows Media Stream.

Windows Media Stream (300K stream).
Watch - http://www.mytalkradio.com/melodeo/mobilcast-demo-5min.asx


- This video shows you how to use Melodeo.com to setup your "My Favorite" podcasts and have the same favorite podcasts available in the same "My Favorites" folder inside the Mobilcast Mobile Phone Podcast Listening Application.

Windows Media Stream (750K Stream)
Watch - http://www.mytalkradio.com/melodeo/melodeo-mobilcast-link2web-4min.asx


- This last video will show you how to enter your "My Favorites" link code into mobilcast.

Windows Media Stream (340K Stream)
Watch - http://www.mytalkradio.com/melodeo/mobilcast-webtomobile-on-phone.asx

See Mobilcast Video Demo Posted at YouTube

Here is a video review of 3 UK version of Mobilcast. This will give you a good demonstration on how the podcast application works and the on-phone podcast catalog. Give it a watch.



I am planning on making some videos of mobilcast myself of all the different mobilcast client versions as the content and catalogs are all unique.

Rob Greenlee

Audio Horoscopes Available in Mobilcast?

Is adding daily updated audio Horoscopes to Mobilcast a good idea? Many here at Melodeo think that adding Horoscopes will boost daily usage of Mobilcast.

What do you think? Should we add it to our default content catalog?

The podcasting source is at http://www.theastrologer.com

Rob Greenlee

Mobilcast Top 50 at Cingular

Melodeo "Mobilcast Top 50 Podcasts" for November 2006 at Cingular:

1 - NPR: All Songs Considered
2 - Bubba Bohacks Joke of the day
3 - American Comedy Network Daily
4 - Bill Maher's New Rules
5 - IndieFeed: Alternative / Modern Rock
6 - ABC News 'Desperate Housewives' Minute
7 - NPR: Hourly News Summary
8 - MSNBC News Headlines
9 - The President's Weekly Radio Address
10 - Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
11 - Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? - All the News that Isn't
12 - KenRadio's World Tech Roundup
13 - NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
14 - CNN News Update
15 - CBS News Podcast - Wired Magazine
16 - IndieFeed: Folk/Americana
17 - New York Times Front Page
18 - Dane Cook Podcast
19 - InfoWorld Daily Podcast
20 - AP Top 25 College Football Poll
21 - MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews
22 - KNPR Commentaries
23 - i HIPHOP i-POD and The Nets number 1 Hip hop and Rap station
24 - :MSR: COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDTABLE on MySportsRadio.com
25 - CBS SportsLine.com - Daily Show
26 - NBC News - Today Show
27 - MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann
28 - AP CelebrityFocus
29 - MSNBC Business News Headlines
30 - 4QRadio.com - Online Metal Radio
31 - NPR: Story of the Day
32 - KQED's Perspectives
33 - Rap City
34 - NPR: Sports with Frank Deford
35 - Science Channel Features
36 - Greys Anatomy Official podcast
37 - The Official LOST Podcast
38 - IndieFeed: Hip Hop/Rap
39 - MSNBC TechWatch
40 - Ebert & Roeper
41 - NPR: Technology
42 - MLB Radio Daily
43 - Cato Daily Podcast
44 - Music4iPods.com - Hip-Hop/R&B
45 - New York Times Sports Update
46 - NPR: Health & Science
47 - IndiePodcasting.com - Indie Music for the Masses - Rock/Pop
48 - CBS Entertainment News Podcast - Entertainment Report
49 - The RantCast Show
50 - Country Music Cast

Get Mobilcast on your Cingular or Alltel phone at Melodeo

Rob Greenlee