Transition State: From Curiosity to Phenomenon

Adam Curry's main role in podcasting was the popularization of the medium. His Daily Source Code podcast, a part-music, part-The-Man-Evangelizing-the-Medium, became something of a phenomenon in late 2004 and early 2005. Curry became podcasting's first star. He campaigned for ordinary people to "take back the media," something that later contributed to skepticism about his motives.

But first, the medium needed a name. Blogger Ben Hammersley, grabbing a portion of the name of the leading digital audio player, the iPod, had used the term "podcasting" in an article in The Guardian newspaper to describe Christopher Lydon's interview series in January 2004. It was on Curry's ipodder-dev mailing list, though, that the word was applied and it stuck, when Dannie Gregoire suggested it in September of that year. Variations on the theme appeared. Blogger Doc Searls described podcasting as Personal Optional Digital casting in an effort to describe the listener's essential role in choosing what flows to the device. "Pod" and "casting" were merged.

With a catchy handle, Curry put his MTV experience to work. His program combined mash-ups, remixed music, and an ample dose of promotion of the podcasts he enjoyed. Podcasters sent Curry their shows in hopes of hearing them recast on Daily Source Code and subscribed to hear it. Curry was funny and cool, the audience feeling gratified when they heard themselves or peers. It was a perfect storm of subscription-driven programming. And the thing about it was that much of the programming Curry featured was very good. A huge reservoir of talent was waiting to be heard.

Connections were important in another way that was helped along by Curry, who introduced http://iPodder.org, a directory of podcasts organized by theme. It was supplemented by many other directories, notably Podcast.net, PodcastAlley, and ultimately, iTunes, the Apple entry into the community. Podcasts, as with anything on the Net, had to be discoverable to lend to the success of the small producer. Contrary to the mass media that survive on blanketing the world with ads for their programming, the podcaster lives and dies on being found through directories and searches.

As the number of podcasters and listeners rose and the number of Google hits for "podcasting" climbed from the hundreds to the millions, the medium became a ripe target for commercial interests. Adam Curry was the first to capitalize on the momentum, launching a company, PodShow, that promised to promote podcasts and, in order to help podcasters earn a living, placed ads in programs. At the same time, Apple Computer came a-courtin' and signed Curry to help promote the integration of podcasting into iTunes. At launch, podcasting on iTunes was headlined by Curry, who appeared dressed in some kind of ‘60s hipster-cum-metrosexual getup that looked like it had been stolen from a ‘70s Blacksploitation movie. Finally, Curry did a deal to produce a "podshow" of podcasts for broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio, which continues to this day. He was the showman who would toss gas on the fires of podcasting.

It was about the time Curry began to gain fame for his podcasting entrepreneuring that he had a falling out with Dave Winer, who in various blog postings claimed to be the real father of podcasting. For about a year, the two of them barely talked, according to reports, while Winer bickered with Curry in his blog and Curry, it appeared, mostly ignored him.

The boiling pot that was the Curry-Winer or Winer-Curry feud, depending on the partisans whom you were reading at the time, erupted again in December 2005, when the fact that someone using an Internet Protocol address (the network address of a computer connected to the Internet) that Curry owned had been editing the Wikipedia entry on the history of podcasting to remove contributions of others than Curry. In fact, Curry or someone working for him had repeatedly removed references to a number of contributors to the evolution of podcasting. Curry pretty much completed the immolation of his populist credentials when PodShow, his production company, introduced a contract for podcasters that was interpreted by many to require producers who worked with the company to assign all rights to their podcast to PodShow. Moreover, the producer reportedly had to agree to make all future productions they might do to PodShow on the same terms. As entertainment and publishing contracts go, it was straight out of the studio system of the 1930s and 1940s, when film stars were, albeit, pampered slaves, but slaves nonetheless. PodShow has been working to clarify and repair its contract terms.

These fireworks were peripheral to what was really happening to podcasting. Combining easy distribution with inexpensive production technology had suddenly put anyone with a good idea and a little marketing savvy on the map, able to be found by audiences. Advertisers quickly followed, though at first the approach to support of podcasts looked more like the National Public Radio model, where sponsors turned over a fee to the podcaster without regard to how many people might listen. Ad networks have only begun to form around podcasting at this writing, still largely on the sponsorship model, but as with the Net and television and radio before it, economically rewarding podcasting will eventually move from sponsor models to become a thoroughly measured medium.

That's not to say that podcasting is or ever will be all about the Benjamins. Rather, when someone wants to make a living on his talent, through podcasting audio or video, it will look more like the media we know today — the Web and television. Stars will come and go, making huge impressions on the public consciousness, as Jerry Seinfeld or Yahoo! did in other television and Web portals, while lots of moderate successes will change the basic landscape of choice available to the public. At the same time, a subculture of "free" podcasts offered by individuals and groups who just want to be heard will complete an alternative universe of audio and video that is available at no cost, though it may be sponsored a la NPR.

Media becomes democratized when anyone can take her shot at any kind of audience she seeks, regardless of how she bends or breaks the form and economic models. The what-it's-not factions, regardless of their special tweak of the definition of podcasting, are actually doing more harm than good when they place limits on the uses of a medium. Podcasting exploded onto the scene, morphing past all limits. We're not talking revolution, which does have its doctrines, but rebellion, the struggle of individuals to overcome the definitions laid upon them by the world. And, yes, some of them will become rich doing so.