There is a podcast episode called The American Life. You can download these shows and listen to them whenever convenient. A site called audible.com is used by the creators of The American Life to distribute the episodes to subscribed users to listen to. They call their episodes podcasts, but they are not in the normal sense. Basically, a typical podcast is set up online and has an RSS feed attached to it that is updated on a regular basis. People can then subscribe to the feeds and there are the links of both sound and video. They are then downloaded to be watch at the user’s discretion.
However, this is not what is offered by The American Life and the web site audible.com. What is offered is listeners have to pay a fee to audible.com to have access to The American Life episodes. The episodes are downloaded directly from the audible.com web site. The RSS file that is created is actually specific and different for each user, allowing that user to go through and pick episodes to download.
Not only that, but the files that are downloaded can only be viewed by the user with the subscription. They have put limitations on the subscription and it is only tied to one user and they have their unique RSS feed. No one else can view, it cannot be shared, it cannot be sent to anyone else, and the end user agreement that is typical for most other podcasts does not apply here with the audible.com web site and The American Life show.
Essentially, they are not offering a podcast and they have started using podcasting that has always been a free and easy way to file share, as a way to try and boost their popularity. The American Life creators missed the entire point of podcasting and by doing so could be the beginning of the end for podcasting.
The rest of the industry could see charging for podcasting as yet another way to make money and exploit the shows and music. Since podcasting was originally used by independent people and media groups as a fun way to create entertainment and share it, without spending a lot of money or having a large overhead. As more large corporate groups get into podcasting and take it to a very mainstream level, podcasting will no longer be fun or free. Instead it will become yet another source for big business to get their hands into. This in the long run, could destroy podcasting all together except for a few small groups that continue to participate. However, those could be wiped out also if web sites like audible.com decide to charge users and creators to view and offer podcasts.
The benefits of podcasting such as simplicity of delivering episodes directly to users will be lost completely once corporate America decides to get involved. As quickly as podcasting became popular and fun, it will be destroyed and yet another obsolete way for people to share files and information.
