Mike [08.28.06 01:43 PM]

I'll take a shot at answering a question posed in Evan's first sentence, all be it a little late: what does it all mean? I think something is being overlooked here. When you think of podcasting sites, I'd bet libsyn isn't the first one that comes to mind yet their site gets the traffic ranking, Why?



Simply because they have the most successful podcast around as a client, Keith and The Girl. So why isn't another podcast hosting company going after Keith and The Girl, and throwing sponsorship dollars at them? Maybe to a degree Podshow was on to something before they chose to sign every show under the sun regardless of talent. They clearly have helped Libyn rise to the top of the podcast food pyramid. There is no reason they couldn't do that for another company like Odeo. Another company would be insane not to take a chance by making a run at Keith and the Girl in order to dramatically increase their market share.



While it may make sense for some podcasts to pay money in order for the show to be hosted by someone like libsyn, in the case of a wildly successful show like Keith and the Girl they should be the commodity that these hosting companies are clamoring for. If Viacom and Clearchannel bid for talent there's no reason these podcast hosting companies, the 'Stations' of Internet radio shouldn't be doing the same. They may not realize it yet, but there's a certain level of exposure out there that comes with carrying one of these big podcasts and right now they're benefitting from it without incurring a cost, and that needs to change.