Introduction

[Alan Bold]

Hello all,
I'm new to this site so i just wanted to introduce myself and let you know about my business. The company is called Astral Voices and it specialises in Podcast production & consultancy. I've worked in IT for 20 years and after moving back to Edinburgh after living in Paris/London i thought that i had the skillset to branch out on my own. I chose podcast production as a business idea as it is a technology that i think is fantastic & would offer future growth being relatively new. I would love to know what everyones thought are on podcasts and which are your favourites.
Wishing you all a productive week.
Alan Bold - Astralvoices.com

[jeremy Middleton]

Hi Alan,

I think you are right, the estimates I have seen future stats for people downloading podcasts, this will increase by around 600% by 2010. Podcasting is a great way to capture your customers and prospects undivided attention for around 20 minutes, which is around the average podcast time due to the average commute being around 20 minutes. So by the sounds of it it is 20 minutes.

Good luck with the new business

[James Moss]

Hi Alan,

I think your spot on. I read recently that in the near future if information isnt portable its dead.

From what I can see the way forward is within Podcasting, Bloggs and online communities such as this.

I believe any information or services business will need podcasting as a media to reach out to customers and if I had your IT skills I would certainly be thinking seriously about following your footsteps.

Maybe Podcasting will become the new Blogg?

Good luck

James

[Kelvin Jones]

OK... I'm a podcast freak.

I listen to roughly 1-1.5 hours of podcasts per day... in fact, I'd say that 97.5% of the time that I'm listening to my ipod, I'm listening to podcasts.

Favourites include:
SmallBizPod - quite a good show focused on small businesses, you should check it out
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders - from Stanford University... always have some interesting people on it
In Business - podcast of the great radio 4 program
Mind Your Own Business
The .net magazine podcast - geek chat
The Lost Initiative - yep, I'm a fanboy of the tv show

I think that podcasting is a fantastic area to get into. I expect it to explode in a few years time just as blogs have done, as marketing departments realize the potential in this medium.

[Alex Bellinger]

Hi Alan, very best of luck with the podcast production business. I'm sure it'll prove worthwhile and financially rewarding.

I've had some experience of podcast consultancy and production for clients, so if you ever want to share experiences or pick my brain, please do.

Cheers

Alex

[James Moss]

Maybe we should have a chat my friend

[Doug Benzie]

I have just recently got into Podcasts, and that's what brought me to this site!

I can definitely see a lot of large corporates communicating with their employees through Podcasts (and maybe they'll start letting you put i-tunes on your computer).


I don't know if these are done already, but some ideas for potential Podcasts could be...

- University/College Review Podcast (for those considering universities/collegies and the various courses on offer)
- Career podcasts (could incorporate some job advertising/recruitment activity, which can be quite a lucrative market)
- Regional 'What's on Podcasts' (Basically advertising events, but with the difference that the audience are actually looking for things, could have regional variations)


The podcasts I currently listen to are:

Wake Up To Money
Manager Tools
HBR Ideacast
MBA Podcasts
FT Digital Business Podcast

and of course SmallBizPod!

[Madelaine Kirke]

I am fast becoming a podcast addict - smallBizPod is my favourite. I listened to all the back numbers and always listen to the new ones as soon as they appear. I listen mostly while walking the dogs. One I listen to is from a publisher. Essentially it is an extended book review. I'm still not entirely sure how most of them can be part of making money though. For example, the Scotsman has one - the content varies - Alexander McCall-Smith reading excerpts from his books, Short stories from a Scotsman competition.. and interview with Franz Ferdinand. I'm not about to start buying the paper though since I live in England.

I'm sure podcast production is a growth industry but might it not be another dot.com "oh, whoops!"? A great Success but no profit? (genuine question, not snide remark)

[James Moss]

Podcasting as I understand it is a medium by which you reach your clients / audience.
The money is in generating awareness, traffic to a website, brand image, promotion of product or service.
Podcasting companies could easily become highly profitable as organisations large and small start taking up the medium however you would need to be right on the cutting edge.
The dot.com issue is no longer an issue as there are huge amounts of money made on the internet, it wasnt that the market or opportunity where unsound but more than due to greed and impatience many investments where made without basic wisdom on costs and revenue. In short they made huge punts believing they could float successfully even before profits where being made.
The timing was out and they where after making a quick buck so serves them right! :-)
Just see how many Internet firms are making huge amounts and being bought up by Google and Microsoft.
The biggest risk to podcasting is a new technology which eclipses the MP3 player.

[Kelvin Jones]

My sentiments exactly.

Any company that manages to foster a community, then has the possibility to leverage that community.

For example, let's say that Mr. Bellinger decided to put on a small business conference or write a book, he would already have a large community of entrepreneurs to reach out to.

A new technology that eclipses the MP3 player would not necessarily be a risk to podcasting as I believe podcasting has become more of an abstract concept than tied to a particular technology.

In the U.S., people can subscribe to podcasts on their TIVO player enabling them to watch or listen to these podcasts on their TVs. That doesn't even touch an MP3 player.

Podcasting now refers to the ability for people to subscribe to a feed of rich media content that is delivered to them automatically. Whether that is delivered in MP3 format or some future technology, the desire to digest content in this manner will still be there.

[Alex Bellinger]

Interesting one this. Madelaine 'where's the profit' is a very fair question when it comes to podcasting and one that many have struggled with. I make no profit from SmallBizPod as sponsorship money is invested in developing new content, a bit of marketing, bandwidth bills etc. But as Kelvin and James have said if you can build a large enough audience then you can charge sponsors more, for example, and turn a profit.

I'd never consider charging listeners to listen as I always want to keep the podcast as a free audio resource. However, I've been thinking of selling CDs of the first 50 episodes once I get there. Might make a nice Birthday gift for the entrepreneur in your life? What do you guys think? Would anyone buy them when they could just download them and burn them to CD?

Other than that, I think there will be money to be made in podcast production and consultancy. So Alan will be fine and I'll have a sideline to keep the wolf from the door. It's already becoming a very crowded market, however.

And thanks btw guys for the kind comments about SmallBizPod. Much appreciated, but I honestly don't mind criticism too!

[James Moss]

Alex to be fair i dont think theres much if anything to criticise Its interesting, informative well produced and of use.

For me the only suggestion or request Id make is keep up the good work and be creative.

[Kelvin Jones]

I think a CD/DVD of the best bits would be a good idea.

Listening to TWIT Episode #97, they had the guy who created Ask a Ninja... he commented on the fact that "people like to own stuff", talking about the merchandise that people buy.

Ask a Ninja is more popular culture that SmallBizPod, but I think the point stands.