podcasting -- rarely a quality product

There are two types of podcasting.

1. making your own "radio shows" where you play DJ, as an alternative to setting up a Live365 account with all of its 24/7 support and/or otherwise incurring the wrath of the record industry by distributing pirated material -- podcasts right now are too independent so they don't yet show up on record industry radars.
2. a blog in audio because talking is easier than typing

the former is merely the latest generation of making a mix tape for my friends -- its merely using the internet to do what back in the 80s required giving tapes to your friends, and in the 90s required giving cds to your friends, all the while staying smaller in distribution than napster 1.0 did, so the record company legal shills generally ignore it, having bigger fish to fry.

the latter is often rambling, even if its of the interview variety, and editing a ramble down to a listenable product requires time to edit (bloggers never edit, in general) and with that the tolerance of hearing your own voice (most people don't like their own voice and rarely go back to such productions just because of the cringe factor).

the result?  unless you know the podcaster, podcasts will not be worth the download in 99% of the cases.  even if you do know the caster, consider that unlike skimming a blog entry, its impossible to "skim" audio and still know that you got the point.  people read at their own pace; people have to listen at the pace at which the recording was made.

in this age of information overload, people need to feel in control of their inputs.  podcast-blogs restore control to the blogger at the expense of the audient's sense of control.  very quickly, people will find they simply don't have the time to listen to everything they've been asked to listen to and still find the time to listen to and/or watch that which they already wanted to listen to before the podcast was made.

the podcast blog will die a silent death, very loudly i'm afraid.