Will Podcasting and Digital Downloads Keep Pace With the Trends?

I believe that the initial hype and enthusiasm around podcasting is on the decline. Podcast discovery is one of the biggest problems that podcasters face. Getting easy access (one-click subscriptions) and the ability to find what you are looking for needs to be addressed before podcasting will blossom as a long-term digital media platform. There are so many podcasts available now that the quality of the content is declining and finding quality podcasts is getting harder and harder. ITunes is about the best options for finding podcasts that I’ve found but even that is limited. I strongly believe that if the content is too hard to find, people won’t bother to use the delivery channel even if that channel seems to be the coolest thing around.

While ITunes still trumps any other digital download site for it’s design, content and user experience in my opinion, it’s sad to see that the networks are pulling many of their shows off of ITunes and moving them to their own hosted sites where the can sell advertising space and control the downloads. The experience on each individual networks site is inconsistent and I find it very annoying that many of them offer only streaming media options to watch their shows rather than the ability to download and watch in a viewer rather than a website. So will podcasts and digital downloads continue on the same path or is there something new on the horizon…

What’s next for digital channel delivery? User experience is the key for any new technology and targeting the delivery channel for the individual user is a must. Finding a niche that captures the users attention, delivers a seamless experience, is widely available, quick, easy to find and cost effective is what every company dreams of figuring out.