I’ve been trying to figure out how to invest in Podcasting. I have a bunch of exposure to it via my investments in FeedBurner and NewsGator (hint – coming soon – maybe even this week). However, I don’t listen to Podcasts much because I’m a reader, I’ve never been a talk radio guy, and I couldn’t figure out when to listen to them.
Until recently, I was a running purist – no music on my runs (I found my iPod too bulky and I thought I should just enjoy nature.) Well – on a long run – after about an hour – I’ve had enough of nature, all the random thoughts have cycled through my brain, and I’m ready for some music (or talk radio). So – I’ve started running with my iPod Shuffle recently (quickly becoming an indispensable running tool). I started with music, but figured I’d try listening to Podcasts to try to understand both the phenomenon and the dynamic.
I had a crossover moment today on my run while listening to Dick Costolo’s interview on Venture Voice (which is great BTW – I love working with Dick and this interview (part 1, part 2) is a great 40 minute investment for any entrepreneur.) I suddenly got why people listen to this stuff and realized that if I was bored, I could simply skip to the next, tune out for a while, or take my headphones out of my ear and just enjoy the run. So – I’m hooked – and will start listening to Podcasts while I work out.
I’ve been paying attention to the various areas that are being focused on by VCs, including creation, subscription, hosting, and search / discovery. I’m really struggling to see how it’s different from features that are quickly being rolled into other services, other than the nuances associated with dealing with audio (and video for vLogs) vs. text. We’ll see.