I know this may seem like a conspiracy theory to you guys, but the other day we realized something at the office.

The iTunes Store on the iPod Touch… well, it has no podcasting section.

Anyway, after a bit of discussion, we kind of began wondering– is Apple flushing podcasting? I mean, they definitely don’t profit off it, so with limited screen resolution on the Touch, it makes sense that they’d kick it off. But is this telling us something more? I’d love to know what you think.

Filed by Julien at 8:38 pm under trends, podcasting
11 Comments

You see brilliance, I see a bottleneck.

Mitch shows us this Information R/evolution video, from the people who made The Machine is Us/ing Us. He says it’s a “drop everything” video– but me, I see a loss of control.

With increasing amounts of information, only larger infrastructures can handle indexing it– with where you’re being sent controlled Google, del.icio.us, etc., leaving the power in the hands of the few, not the many as we intended it.

With blogs, with Stumbleupon, with Digg, we keep the power. With structures that ask us our preferences, we can keep our human dignity.

When everything is miscellaneous, nothing is fathomable… and machines can become G-d.

Filed by Julien at 12:51 am under trends
1 Comment

If you’re irritated about the way influencers seem to be jumping from one web app to another, you aren’t alone. Dave Slusher just renounced ‘the search for the newer and shinier,’ and I suspect many others will follow after Facebook becomes passé.

What Dave doesn’t realize is that it is in the nature of early influencers’ attention to be transitory. The reason they jump from one app to another is precisely because they are early influencers, and people pay attention to them precisely because they try things before anyone else.

In fact, I could even go so far as to say that, if they stop trying the new and shiny, attention to them will dwindle.

What Slusher has done (by unsubscribing) is exercise the power he does have, which is attention. If attention is what causes these web apps to become popular, it is also the thing that causes early influencers power to expand– attention is the very nature of power on the web.

So if you’re waiting for your web app to get picked up by Scoble, Arrington, or anyone else, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Even if you are the new Facebook, it is in their very nature to drop the old as the new and shiny comes along.

It happens in Hollywood, it happens in electronics, and it happens on the web. One day, you and your app, your weblog, or your podcast, will be over.

Start working on your next thing NOW.

Filed by Julien at 6:52 pm under strategy, business, trends, podcasting
6 Comments

We may talk like revolutionaries, but we still worship our old masters at the end of the day. Prove this to yourself– next time you meet a podcaster, tell them your show is on the radio, and watch their stance on your work change dramatically.

Being syndicated on Sirius changed my life, but not in the way you’d expect. Adam mentioned my show every Friday, which raised my profile immensely. Every new media fanboy I told the Sirius thing to suddenly thought I was huge. In all that time, I met two people with Sirius receivers.

Once you examine the whole picture, you can’t help but notice the cracks. Satellite radio is hemorrhaging money, audience, and credibility, yet we still put them on pedestals. The ROI of podcasting may not be proven, but the competition’s is, and iTunes is now the 3rd largest retailer in the US, with nowhere to go but up.

It’s about time we stopped looking up to people in radio, and started treating them like the dinosaurs they are. Our position may not look strong today, but as the pile of content producers gets bigger, it pushes us to the top. All we have to do is keep our balance once we get there.

Filed by Julien at 12:56 pm under strategy, trends
9 Comments

Everybody’s sending me Facebook invites. I’m going straight to Virb instead. See you there in 6 months.

Filed by Julien at 12:11 pm under trends
11 Comments

My 150th show, done from the balcony of a hotel room during SXSW 2007. The state and future of the web and of media personalities, my position within the structure, and where I hope to be. It all came out.

This was a great show to do.

Filed by Julien at 1:30 pm under community, travel, music, trends, hip hop, podcast
14 Comments

Twitter, yesterday, was the 653rd most visited site on the internet. Think about it. (Source: Alexa.)

Filed by Julien at 2:29 pm under trends
4 Comments

I recently had a shift in thinking, previous to which I would refuse to blog anything ‘big’– this, on the principle that my readers would previously find it elsewhere. No longer though.

That said, here’s this awesome video I came across a second ago. By the time you rea this, it may be across 5-10 other blogs you read– or not. Either way, its statistics are shocking.

Filed by Julien at 11:42 pm under video, trends
6 Comments

What made this happen? I’m going to hazard that it was:

1) Ease of registration and use
2) Call to action, i.e.: “What are you doing right now?”
3) Community interaction

Filed by Julien at 4:43 pm under trends
5 Comments

I suspect it’s about time I got involved in video.

Something weird is happening here at SXSW. Videoblogging is well-represented here, but podcasts, definitely not. I don’t see any huge podcasters either on panels, or in the audience. 2007 is definitely about video, and if you’re here, you see it clear as day.

Is audio over?

Podcasts will always have their place, but I do think audio is/was quick to be replaced as the exciting medium. We’re already in such a visual culture– it seems inevitable.

Radio is still a huge industry, and podcasts will be too– this, despite all of the options for television, film, and other visual means of communication. If you love audio, there is still a place for you in podcasting. But the opportunity, I think, isn’t as huge as it was.

As a business, I suspect that getting into video would likely be smarter than simply having a podcast. That said, some ideas are better expressed via audio than video. So, making a decision based on the audience you want or have is wiser than basing it on what’s hot right now.

I suspect that, in the future, the MVPs in this space will simply be media producers, not just podcasters or vloggers. Having some hands-on experience in both will likely be very helpful in the coming years– especially for those who, like me, live and breathe web media.

Filed by Julien at 4:30 pm under video, trends, podcasting
5 Comments