"It is a pity that we know so much about Christ, and yet enjoy Him so little."

- Charles Spurgeon
Podcast Forecast

Tony Morgan asks if podcasting is dead.

Interesting points to consider.

I was a latecomer to the podcast phenomenon (as I am with nearly all new technologies and innovations), and I still am not the podcast fiend some of my friends are.

I subscribe to probably 10 podcasts, but only listen to 1 or 2 a week. They are mainly sermon podcasts.

What is your subscription to listening ratio?

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Comments on "Podcast Forecast":
1. David Marcoe - 09/29/2007 2:29 pm CDT

7 videocasts for me. No regular podcasts.

2. David Marcoe - 09/29/2007 2:55 pm CDT

To add: Asking if a particular genre/medium/thing is dead is, nine times out of ten, one of the most pointless navel-gazing questions a person can ask. As soon as someone declares something dead, that something has a nagging habit of experiencing a revival. And in the case of something which has only become popular with in the last two to three years, it is sort of ridiculous to ask so soon.

3. Daniel Ross - 09/29/2007 3:46 pm CDT

I have had to trim my podcasts simply because I'm a neat freak who doesn't like unlistened to podcasts sitting around for weeks. I still probably subscribe to 9 or so (my church's - which I have to put up anyway, Element - which I'm WAY behind on after all the old ones went up, Mars Hill - Seattle, Resurgence, ESPN's PTI, The Onion Radio News, RELEVANT podcast, NPR's Fresh Air and The Switchfoot Video Podcast.)

I had to cut some good ones though because I was experiencing media overload and had to drop out a bit.

4. Bird - 09/29/2007 4:03 pm CDT

I subscribe to five or six and listen to two or three regularly.

It seemed to me that Tony Morgan was comparing and contrasting Podcasts to blogs. To me that's like saying the internet is dead because the telephone offers this or that. Apples and oranges.

5. Milly - 09/29/2007 4:18 pm CDT

I listen to Jared.

Podcasts aren't dead, we at our church are looking into that future and how it affects our technology ministry.

6. Jared - 09/29/2007 5:02 pm CDT

I'm glad y'all are listing the ones you subscribe to. I meant to ask that in the post but forgot.
Anybody else perusing: Please tell us what podcasts you subscribe/listen to.

I didn't even know there was a Resurgence podcast. Thanks, Daniel!

Here's what I subscribe to:

Ask Pastor John (Piper)
Bellevue Community Church sermons (my church)
Defining Moments (Willow Creek Association)
Desiring God Sermon Audio
Element (me :-)
Mars Hill Church Sermons (Mark Driscoll)
Midtown Fellowship Church (an X-er church here in Nashville)
North Point Ministries (Andy Stanley)
The Passion Podcast
Sesame Street Vodcast
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
St. Paul's PCA (somewhere in Florida. I subscribed originally to listen to their series on Philippians, which was very good. ahven't listened to them since)
Willow Creek Podcasts (sermons)

I listen weekly to Mars Hill and myself. :-)

And then I listen to other sermons that I download individually. The rest of the subscriptions generally go unlistened to. :-/

7. Warren - 09/29/2007 9:44 pm CDT

I actually listen to a bunch -- mainly music, a couple tech podcasts, a few audio dramas, and some preaching. Last count had me over thirty, but I'm probably over 40 now. I drive a lot for work now, so I have time to listen to probably 75% of them regularly, and end up catching up on the rest when I can.

Of course, I produce a podcast myself (http://pewpodcast.podomatic.com), so I tend to think that podcasting's boom period is probably over, but it's not dead yet (not even pining for the fjords). Part of the reason that so many podcasts disappear is that the people producing them think they're going to make money from them, and when they realize that's not going to happen they quit. I realized a while ago that podcasting is a hobby, and I'm not planning on making money on it any more than I plan on making money playing golf or bike riding. And I've spent a LOT less on podcasting than I have on golf.

I think podcasting is going to go on, and get stronger as more "old media" companies start to use podcasting to augment their services.

8. salguod - 09/29/2007 10:14 pm CDT

I listed to every podcast I subscribe to, without fail. I have a perfect 100% podcast listening success rate.

(In case you haven't figured it out yet, I subscribe to exactly zero podcasts. Wouldn't know how to if I wanted to.)

9. Warren - 09/30/2007 8:22 pm CDT

How to subscribe to a podcast.

In case you want to know.

10. Daniel Ross - 09/30/2007 8:30 pm CDT

The Resurgence podcast has some heavy-duty stuff on it. i haven't really listened to it in a few months because I'm not smart enough and I have to concentrate REALLY hard if I listen to it. :-)

11. De - 09/30/2007 8:54 pm CDT

I'm with Salguod - I listen to exactly 0 podcasts.

I find that I really have no time to listen to anything these days. I think I fill up my podcasting or mix-listening time surfing the web :-)

12. TheCalvinator - 10/01/2007 12:36 am CDT

I have subscriptions to (some of these I just recently subscribed and downloaded all old episodes):

Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church Weekly Sermons (I've listened to 1)
Element (haven't started listening yet)
The Gary DeMar Show (have listened to 2)
The Official LOST Podcast (Listen to it within a couple of days of release)
PotterCast (Listen every week, but skipped a lot of the "Live" pre-DH episodes)
Rushdoony Podcast (listened to 5)
They Might Be Giants Podcast (listen within a few days of release)
WordMP3.com iView (They haven't released one since March—I've listened to all but 2 of them)

13. DLE - 10/01/2007 3:35 pm CDT

Everything Morgan notes wrong with podcasts is pretty much dead-on.

I can see a reason for a podcast for something like "A Prairie Home Companion," but beyond that, it's too ponderous to listen to most podcasts, particularly by amateurs.

For me, I can get 99% of what I need to know from scanning text. You can't scan a podcast. As noted, amateurs make it worse since they tend to be long-winded once they are freed from the tighter nature of the keyboard. Now you've got even more stuff to wade through to get content.

Someone should read Guy Kawasaki's comments about PowerPoint presentations or anything written by Seth Godin about content. Podcasts suffer from the same overkill as Powerpoint, while not delivering much useful info (at least not as useful as a handful of to-the-point text).

I guess if someone is a riveting speaker a podcast might capture the power of his/her voice, but most people aren't good speakers, so forget that.

Lastly, bandwidth=$. A podcast consumes hundreds of times more bandwidth than simple text. In other words, it's a waste of money.

Text rules. Podcast drools.

14. Scott - 10/02/2007 1:03 pm CDT

Actually you can sort of skim podcast. I saw something on Lifehacker about cranking up the speed on your MP3 player to 1.25 speed. You likely wouldn't notice the difference, but you'd cut your listening time down.

I subscribe to:
Net@Nite - Leo Laporte and Amber Macarthur talk tech.
Writer's Almanac (a short Keillor 'cast)
NPR: Shuffle - The best of things like All Things Considered and other NPR news shows.
NPR: All Songs Considered
Christ the King's sermons (Pres. Church) - My church's former pastor's new church.
Daily GizWiz - Leo Laporte and Dick Dibartolo (Mad magazine writer) talk about a gadget a day.
Escape Pod - Short Sci-fi
PseudoPod - Short horror
Heaven - Podcast novel
I Should Be Writing - Writing podcast by the author of the above.
Coolness Roundup - Tech 'cast
Jack Palms II - Novel podcast.
Car Talk
Ray Gun Radio - Short "Christian" sci-fi
Scott Sigler - The daddy of podcast novels.
This Week in Tech - Another Laporte tech cast, this one a large round table.
Windows Weekly
WNYC's Radio Lab - Very cool NPR 'cast
7th Son - Podcast novel.

With a 30-45 minute commute each way I carve out a lot of listening. At work I listen to the NPR and tech 'casts. Also when I work out/mow the lawn.

This doesn't count the tech cast I do on Talkshoe and a religion and a political 'cast I do with a friend at BlogTalk Radio.

So needless to say I hope it's not dead.

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