When Steve Jobs Speaks

Yesterday, while making his keynote presentation at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the new version of iTunes will make podcasting mainstream.

Keep your eye on this man. He is definitely someone who understands people. He understands what people want (or *will* want), and he understands how to give it to them.

Radio could use a Steve Jobs or two (or fifty!)

During the height of Napster, Steve Jobs said people would be willing to pay for music online if it was easy to do. Today the iTunes Music Store owns 82% of the online music downloads market, having sold over 430 million songs.

430 million! Is the thing even two years old yet?

He's the same man who brought us the iPod, which now has 76% of the portable mp3 player market and has become a cultural phenomenon. Apple has sold over sixteen million iPods thus far.

Now, Steve Jobs says that podcasting will go mainstream. He said that some have described podcasting as "TiVo for Radio" - meaning you can listen to prerecorded broadcasts (a.k.a Rush Limbaugh). He said some have described it as "Waynes World for radio," because with almost no equipment, just about anyone can create a broadcast 'show'. But he describes it as the hottest thing going in radio." Download shows, subscribe to shows, create shows... etc.

QUESTION: Does this mean more competition for radio? Yes, and no. Anything that takes people away from their radios is competition. But podcasting offers a superb way to turn casual listeners into fans.

I don't know what the legality with podcasting music - like a nightly top 5 countdown for example... But you could certainly create a promo of hooks from the countdown and podcast it as a way to tease the next night's countdown. Hell, it wouldn't hurt to run that promo once a daypart too :)

Got a recurring morning show bit? Podcast it after it airs as a way to tease the next installment.

I won't be surprised at all if reality TV shows start podcasting a "what happened last episode" type podcast. I think they should also stream that - with video - on the web. It just makes sense.

When Steve Jobs says podcasting will go mainstream, I listen. Hopefully you do too.