6% of U.S. adults are listening to podcasts

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Jeff Jarvis pulled a couple of stats from the latest Nielson report on podcasting. 6 percent of U.S.adulst (9 million people) have downloaded podcasts inthe last 30 day. The most successful podcasts are getting two million downloads a month. It has occurred to me that the same people (in my world) that pooh-pooh such reports, are the same people that insisted “this Internet thing” was nothing more than hyped-up fad that would soon fade. If you want to understand why people are creating and listening to podcasts, read The Long Tail.

We are turning from a mass market back into a niche nation, defined now not by our geography but by our interests. (Pg. 40)

A co-worker recently observed that most of the podcasts he has listened to were boring. That’s like saying most of the books in the library are boring. I think that will change for him as he finds more and more podcasts dealing with things that interest and entertain him. It’s no longer necessary to watch/listen/read boring stuff. For the first time in recorded history, it’s possible to find all thing things (and only the things) that interest you. I’m sure glad I didn’t miss this.

Rupert Murdoch paid $580M for MySpace

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This is the best piece I’ve seen on MySpace. Written by Spencer Reiss for Wired Magazine, the story offers fascinating insights into the social networking site. All the smart kids thought Rupert Murdoch was insane for paying $580 million for MySpace (it’s now worth about twice that).

MySpace reaches more kids each day than MTV sees in a week. Think of it as
“an 80 million-screen multiplex where YouTube videos are always showing. Or an infinite radio dial where the DJs spin only the records you want to play.”

MySpace’s ultimate value to News Corp.: the power to make hits. A Net-fueled word-of-mouth machine.

Rupert Murdoch is 75 years old. And, like my daddy used to say, sharp as a mouse turd.

iTunes video

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Reno 911Tonight I purchased (and watched) my first TV show from iTunes. I somehow missed the first episode of Comedy Central’s Reno 911 (Seaon Four) but there it was on iTunes for just $1.99. I’m sure the cable channel will show the episode again (many times). But I wanted to see it now and I wanted to experience watching a TV show on my Mac Book (I don’t have a video iPod).

Took about 2 minutes to download the file and I found it to be very watchable on the small screen. I might just purchase every episode for the convenience of having them on my Mac Book to watch whenever/wherever. This is where it’s headed folks.

Blogger motivation

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“The ease and appeal of blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world. A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family.”

— Pew Internet & American Life Project survey on what motivates bloggers [via Micro Persuasion]