The iPod Nano and iPod Touch – 8 Implications for Podcasting and Podsafe Music

Sep 5, 2007

—

Warning: this content is older than 365 days. It may be out of date and no longer relevant.

The iPod Nano and iPod Touch – Implications for Podcasting and Podsafe Music

A few highlights from Apple’s refresh of the iPod line for podcasters and new media makers.

1. The iPod nano now plays iPod video – 320×240 H.264 video. With this, video iPods are much more affordable and in reach of more of the population. At $149 and$ 199, the nanos are priced well – but 4 GB and 8 GB won’t go too far with lots of video.

Want to be the best video podcaster you can be? Get up to speed on video compression utilities to make your video high quality but small file size – tools like TechSpansion’s iSquint and VisualHub can do serious two pass encoding, making good quality at a small disk price.

2. CoverFlow is enabled on the nano. Again, because the nano line is so popular, it will have greater reach than the high end iPod. If you’re not using your show’s logo as cover art in every episode, you’re going to miss out on an increasingly important branding opportunity.

3. The iPod Touch is an iPhone-sized screen. Again, Coverflow means a huge branding opportunity for your show. The iPod Touch also incorporates the Safari Web Browser, which means that the Podcaster iPhone Kit is now the Podcaster iKit.

4. If you’re a video podcaster, YouTube is a required distribution point if you want maximum exposure. Apple has built YouTube browser functionality into two of its products now, iMovie 8 and now the iPod Touch. For maximum distribution, consider looking into a distributor like TubeMogul.com to hit as many video sites as possible.

5. If you’re a podsafe musician and you don’t have your music in the iTunes Music Store, do so immediately as long as it makes financial sense. The iTunes Music Store wireless edition now allows immediate, impulse purchases from the store, and with the holidays coming up, it’ll be even more important.

6. If you’re a podsafe musician, the iTunes Music Store available wirelessly also means a game change for drop cards. Instead of giving someone a dropcard and hoping they follow up, you can gift a song immediately to them – just with their email address. Instant way to build a mailing list at a relatively low acquisition cost!

7. The Starbucks Now Playing selection in the iTunes Wifi Music Store is interesting in its own right, but I look forward to the packet sniffer and relayer that can mimic a Starbucks, letting independent WiFi access points create a Starbucks-like access point. In turn, this could be used to promote independent artists’ music on a public WiFi point.

8. Search is in style again in iTunes. With a smaller interface than a PC and a smaller keyboard, having your podcast, music, or video easily searchable is going to be a Very Big Deal ™. Make your stuff searchable. Complete your ID3 tags on EVERY episode to reap the maximum benefits. If you work with a vendor that puts your music in the store, make sure they are doing a top shelf job with metadata and ID3 tags.

Comments

13 responses to “The iPod Nano and iPod Touch – 8 Implications for Podcasting and Podsafe Music”

Jason Evangelho

September 5, 2007

Chris, these are excellent pointers. I hadn’t thought about Search becoming increasingly more important.

But realistically, does the saturation of portable devices take away the “discovery” aspect of new independent music? Could it also have the same adverse effect on podcasters?

Subquestion: Does this INCREASE the importance of enhanced podcasts now, as a listener could effectively click an embedded chapter link and buy a track on the iPod/iPhone and not just from your desktop?

Sub-subquestion: Is anyone tired of having to constantly keep up with the changes that Apple dictates?

I’m wondering if you see a negative side of this for independent publishers, or a positive one…today has certainly been eye-opening.

Jason @ Insomnia Radio

Reply
Lynette Young

September 5, 2007

Brilliant post Chris. I’m emailing the link to dozens of people that need this info – all written out in an easy to understand and digest format!

Reply
Christopher S. Penn

September 5, 2007

Jason: I think on the whole, the saturation will lead to mob effects – which could be very helpful for marketing your stuff. Quechup demonstrated this ably – if you can get your stuff to a central node on a social network, you can achieve instantaneous rapid distribution, and now with wireless devices like the iPod Touch, it’ll be a ubiquitous effect.

We won’t know on enhanced podcasts, but if this is the case, there are some SERIOUS revenue opportunities available.

On the whole, more access, more devices, more audience, more everything is on balance good for independent media publishers, because it boils down to more audience, period.

Reply
Mike Bellina

September 5, 2007

I think that the features are cool, but as far as the wifi is concerned, it doesn’t help me a bit in suburbia. The only wifi I have access to is in my house and my office. In both cases, I have a MacBook to do the work for me. For the majority of people, a wifi iPod is not going to be a big selling point. It will be the coolness factor.

As with most Apple product launches, the GMOOTs drive the product’s popularity and the rest of us lemmings follow suit. Disclosure: I’m an Apple fanboy and will either get the iPhone or iPod Touch within the next year.

Signed,
Mike GMOOT

Reply
IPod Fat Boy new and on the street | TechWag

September 5, 2007

[…] There are even implication for Podsafe Music and PodCasts talked about here. […]

Reply
Mark Rotblat

September 5, 2007

Great post, Chris, and thanks for the plug about TubeMogul! I just wanted to note that our service is free, and it also allows viewership tracking across sites.
Best,
Mark Rotblat
TubeMogul, Director of Marketing

Reply
Jason Evangelho

September 5, 2007

Chris, these are excellent pointers. I hadn’t thought about Search becoming increasingly more important.

But realistically, does the saturation of portable devices take away the “discovery” aspect of new independent music? Could it also have the same adverse effect on podcasters?

Subquestion: Does this INCREASE the importance of enhanced podcasts now, as a listener could effectively click an embedded chapter link and buy a track on the iPod/iPhone and not just from your desktop?

Sub-subquestion: Is anyone tired of having to constantly keep up with the changes that Apple dictates?

I’m wondering if you see a negative side of this for independent publishers, or a positive one…today has certainly been eye-opening.

Jason @ Insomnia Radio

Reply
Lynette Young

September 5, 2007

Brilliant post Chris. I’m emailing the link to dozens of people that need this info – all written out in an easy to understand and digest format!

Reply
Christopher S. Penn

September 5, 2007

Jason: I think on the whole, the saturation will lead to mob effects – which could be very helpful for marketing your stuff. Quechup demonstrated this ably – if you can get your stuff to a central node on a social network, you can achieve instantaneous rapid distribution, and now with wireless devices like the iPod Touch, it’ll be a ubiquitous effect.

We won’t know on enhanced podcasts, but if this is the case, there are some SERIOUS revenue opportunities available.

On the whole, more access, more devices, more audience, more everything is on balance good for independent media publishers, because it boils down to more audience, period.

Reply
Mike Bellina

September 5, 2007

I think that the features are cool, but as far as the wifi is concerned, it doesn’t help me a bit in suburbia. The only wifi I have access to is in my house and my office. In both cases, I have a MacBook to do the work for me. For the majority of people, a wifi iPod is not going to be a big selling point. It will be the coolness factor.

As with most Apple product launches, the GMOOTs drive the product’s popularity and the rest of us lemmings follow suit. Disclosure: I’m an Apple fanboy and will either get the iPhone or iPod Touch within the next year.

Signed,
Mike GMOOT

Reply
Mark Rotblat

September 5, 2007

Great post, Chris, and thanks for the plug about TubeMogul! I just wanted to note that our service is free, and it also allows viewership tracking across sites.
Best,
Mark Rotblat
TubeMogul, Director of Marketing

Reply
Joe

September 6, 2007

Awesome post as usual Chris. It is pretty surprising at how many producers create podcasts and continually either name them something cryptic or provide little to no information in the ID3 fields. You don’t have to build the search engine, only provide the information for the engines to work their magic.

Joe

Reply
Joe

September 6, 2007

Awesome post as usual Chris. It is pretty surprising at how many producers create podcasts and continually either name them something cryptic or provide little to no information in the ID3 fields. You don’t have to build the search engine, only provide the information for the engines to work their magic.

Joe

Reply