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About podcasts and short videos

Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

Podcasts are having a second life in the current media environment (2020). People are reviving the old habit of listening to stories on different subjects and being close to interesting or "out-of-normal" events in a disconnected-when-I-have time manner. Podcasts are the new way to be informed with specialized info channels, when your life allows it.
If Apple managed to monopolize and to spear-head the streaming music industry with the iPod/Apple store, some new companies are trying to grab the audiences build by niche players in the podcast world  - Spotify, Soundcloud.
    On the same vein, the broadcasting companies are trying to have a second wind from podcasting their shows, by making them free and then getting money from advertising by having millions of listeners.

    I compare the podcast industry with the auto industry of 1920s: many attempting to break the ice, a few with an effort to monopolize the streams. My prediction is that it will be an aggregator (Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud) that will manage to attract the listeners and drive innovation in offering more than content, more than what we consume today.

    If you look at the evolution of services (like radio, broadcasting, video distribution, phone service) you can see gradual improvements over the years.Unfortunately, with podcasts and videos, they will always be on the passive way of consuming entertainment. There is an evolution, still, but it is not in the channel itself, but in the way, the user's selection is employed to make the whole experience as pleasurable or content as possible: the aggregator job is to smooth navigation based on past selections. When something indite will spring into my attention?

    Radio, in 21st century, is split in two big branches:
    1. leisure radio - mostly music and people with a big laugh on their face
    2. news radio - concerning subjects and issues from daily life (mostly broadcasted in a large region)
    With podcasts, and videos, the user is selecting the media, the type of subject, the sub-genre and she just want to connect with the subject in general.There is an echo in postings or comments for each form of entertainment and even that becomes a form of add-on to the content. Gathering together people with interesting views after consuming any type of art is one benefit of the media aggregators.



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