Podcast Marketing | Podcast Submission | Podcast Syndication » Podcasting

Steve Jobs Hates Your Podcast. And Your YouTube Video, Too.

James Lewin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:03:51 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Remember when Apple was the king of tools for creating your own media and it was hyping podcasting and user-generated media?

When Steve Jobs bragged about the company hitting milestones with its iTunes podcast directory? When it added podcasting support to Mac OS X? And when podcasting was a selling point for Garageband?

It looks like the thrill is gone, baby.

At Apple’s Sept 1st iPod refresh event, Jobs rubbed a lot of new media geeks the wrong way when he called new media content the “amateur hour”.

People want “Hollywood movies and TV shows,”Jobs said at the event, adding that “they don’t want amateur hour.”

People don’t want to have a selection of hundreds of thousands of podcasts to listen to. People don’t want to watch Diggnation or Ask A Ninja.

Social networking site Facebook isn’t really the #2 site on the Internet.

Video publishing site YouTube isn’t the #3 site.

And blogging site Blogger isn’t the #8 site.

Arguing that people aren’t interested in amateur and indie content on the Internet is ludicrous.

The cat is out of the bag on this one, Apple. And no content deal is going to put it back in.

What do you think?

Is Jobs right about people not wanting the “amatuer hour”? Or did Steve Jobs forget to turn on the reality distortion field last week?

via Rob Greenlee

Microsoft Finally Does Some Intelligent Marketing For The Zune

James Lewin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 03:02:14 +0000

The Zune has been the whipping boy of new media since the portable media player’s introduction, because Microsoft made the mistake of taking a iPod wannabee and throwing a bunch of marketing money at it.

The Zune has improved a lot, since then, but it still hasn’t made an impression with buyers. This is largely because Microsoft botched the brand introduction of the Zune, establishing the brand as the biggest tech failure of the last decade.

Now Microsoft has finally done something intelligent with their Zune marketing: they’re putting them on international United Airlines flights:

United Airlines has just given the media player a new lease on life thanks to a partnership that will place Zune HDs into the hands of patrons. Reportedly, United will host around 500 Zune players on extra-long flights between the U.S. and Australia and Hong Kong.

The deal will provide those Zune players with pre-loaded content that can’t be found anywhere else (think pre-release movies), but details beyond that have yet to be made public.

This isn’t a huge deal for Microsoft – but it’s a smart one.

Take a bored, captive audience and give them Zunes loaded with content and you’re going to get a lot of people giving the Zune an open mind.

The next thing Microsoft should do is send free Zunes to the top 100 podcasters in the Zune podcast directory, along with a cheat sheet on getting started with podcasts on the Zune. If it gets 10 of them talking about the Zune, expand the program to the top 500 podcasters.

Then do the same thing with the top 100 new media blogs. Apple press ignores blogs, so it’s one place where it should be easy to one-up Apple.

Send another to the top 100 video bloggers on YouTube!

What do you think of the United Airlines Zune deal? And what do you think Microsoft needs to do to get people to give the current Zunes a chance?

Enticing Purchasers – Closing the Sale

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Compelling customers to take the final step from browsing to purchasing is not always an easy transition. Marketers and entrepreneurs who have studied purchasing habits have found that the following enticements can help encourage potential customers to take the final step to purchase...

Closing the Sale - Enticing the Purchaser

Student Senate

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The student senate is now podcasting.

Three Things About Ping That Will Make You Say “WTF?”

James Lewin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:29:24 +0000

The iTunes Ping social music network was easily the most interesting announcement out of Apple’s special music even, last week.

But after using it for even a short while, most people are unimpressed or puzzled – with Fortune asking “Can Ping Be Saved?” and PC World calling it “Not so hot”.

Here are three reasons Apple’s Ping will make you say “WTF?”:

Apple left the musicians out. There aren’t any musician artist profiles to follow in the Ping music social network.

All we could find was these 14 musician profiles:

Lady Gaga
Yo-Yo Ma
Katy Perry
U2
Jack Johnson
Linkin Park
Shakira
Coldplay
Mark Ronson
Taylor Swift
Dave Mathews Band
Diddy
Linkin Park
U2

And, yes, Apple lists U2 and Linkin Park twice to pad the list.

No Jay-Z, no David Guetta, no Vampire Weekend, no Sade, no Black Eyed Peas, no John Mayer, no Alicia Keys……

Worse, Apple won’t let you create an Artist page for your band or your podcast or even stuff that you’re already selling in iTunes.

WTF?

Apple left the social networking out. You can’t connect with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc…..

Ping isn’t a social network – it may be the most un-social network of al social networks. If you try it, you won’t be able to find your friends if their on there and you won’t be able to invite them unless you’ve got their email address handy.

You can’t even post your status.

WTF?

Apple Ping doesn’t protect you from spammers and scammers.

Every social network has problems with spammers and scammers – but Ping doesn’t do anything to protect you from them.

Thousands of fake user profiles are being created on the site, many in the name of famous artists, and their being used to promote phony iPhone deals and worse.

If you follow one of the dozen artists that are on Ping, you’ll have to wade through the spam to find comments from real fans.

WTF?

Bottom line – Apple hasn’t created a social network for iTunes yet – they’ve made it easy for spammers to scam you on Lady Gaga’s Artist profile.

Unless Ping gets a fast update, it’s going the way of Apple’s last closed music platform – iTunes LP.

Remember that?

How to Subscribe to An RSS Feed

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

There are generally two different kinds of tools that allow visitors to subscribe to RSS feeds. These tools are known as aggregators, or RSS news readers. As the content of an RSS feed changes, the RSS reader/aggregator will update itself automatically and display the new RSS feed items.

There are two types of aggregators -- desktop aggregators, and web-based aggregators...

How to Subscribe to an RSS Feed

YouTube Adds Free Grindhouse Movie Section, Featuring Slashers, Zombies & Extreme Chickfights

James Lewin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:48:08 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

YouTube has introduced a new YouTube Movies section, which offers about 400 free full-length films.

If you’re looking for YouTube to offer an alternative to Netflix or Blockbuster, this ain’t it.

On the other hand, if you want to take a trip back to the 70’s drive-in grindhouse, you have hit the motherlode!

The selection includes classics like Cheerleader Zombies, above, and Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other grindhouse classics include Blood Sucking Babes From Burbank, Dorm Of The Dead, Satan’s School For Girls, The Corpse Grinder, Extreme Chickfights and the zombie underground fighting film, Fist of the Vampire.

Making the Most Out of Your Podcast

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Mention podcasting and the image of someone sitting in their basement with a computer and microphone, dreaming of becoming a professional DJ, is what comes to mind for many. It may surprise you to learn that this emerging technology is actually becoming a mainstream marketing and communication tool for businesses, with the potential to make significant contributions to the bottom line.

Podcasting is simply the act of making radio-quality audio programs available for download through an RSS feed to a computer, MP3 player or other portable media device. Listeners need only subscribe to a podcast once; afterwards, new content is automatically delivered to them as soon as it becomes available.

complete article

Podcasts A Love Story

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Podcasts are, simply, amazing. This coolest of innovations supply an infinite source of information on any topic you can think of. Anyone, anywhere, has the means to put together their own custom-configured radio station. How awesome is that?

Included in the podcast package comes inspiration, awe and respect for all the pioneers out there who spent and continue to spend hours each week, putting together enough material for a single podcast.

Pocasts A Love Story

10 Steps to Get the Click

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

There are a number of steps a webmaster can take to encourage visitors to click on a link or graphic located on their website. The following steps will help get the click...

10 Steps to Get the Click