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I admit it. I love talk radio. I listen several hours a day. I have listened to talk radio as a part of my non work time for over 35 years. Over the years I have listened regularly to talk hosts of the left, center, and right persuasions.
The greatest change in talk radio over those 35 years has been the podcast. Now, if I cannot listen to a program real ile, I can catch up by listening to a podcast. Sometimes when there is a good interview or a good call in guest, I can reference that podcast in blog posts or e-mails or even Facebook. Well, for some programs ...
For some radio stations, radio networks, the purpose of podcasts is to serve as a means of making more money. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News Radio, George Noory, Bob Brinker, are all profit center organizations. If you want to listen to their podcasts, you must pay. KABC New York, the Cumulus stations here in the SF area, Armstrong and Getty, John and Ken, hosts syndicated by Talk Radio Nework, one can access their podcasts for free.
For those who charge, I wonder how much extra profit they make over those who provide their offerings "free" (the freebies usually play an ad prior to starting the podcast proper).
Beyond that, as someone who spent a fair number of his childhood and teen years in the public library, I found great benefit to the availability of "free" information. Further, I like to punch up my blog posts and e-mails with podcasts to support my points as well as offer additional perspectives to the conversation.
So the question is, from your perspective, should podcasts be free or for sale? More importantly, why?
I admit it. I love talk radio. I listen several hours a day. I have listened to talk radio as a part of my non work time for over 35 years. Over the years I have listened regularly to talk hosts of the left, center, and right persuasions.
The greatest change in talk radio over those 35 years has been the podcast. Now, if I cannot listen to a program real ile, I can catch up by listening to a podcast. Sometimes when there is a good interview or a good call in guest, I can reference that podcast in blog posts or e-mails or even Facebook. Well, for some programs ...
For some radio stations, radio networks, the purpose of podcasts is to serve as a means of making more money. Rush Limbaugh, Fox News Radio, George Noory, Bob Brinker, are all profit center organizations. If you want to listen to their podcasts, you must pay. KABC New York, the Cumulus stations here in the SF area, Armstrong and Getty, John and Ken, hosts syndicated by Talk Radio Nework, one can access their podcasts for free.
For those who charge, I wonder how much extra profit they make over those who provide their offerings "free" (the freebies usually play an ad prior to starting the podcast proper).
Beyond that, as someone who spent a fair number of his childhood and teen years in the public library, I found great benefit to the availability of "free" information. Further, I like to punch up my blog posts and e-mails with podcasts to support my points as well as offer additional perspectives to the conversation.
So the question is, from your perspective, should podcasts be free or for sale? More importantly, why?
The material is intellectual property so the owners are completely at liberty to charge for it or make it free. If people want the convenience of listening whenever they want to then I see no issue with charging for the privilege. There are costs associated with retaining the material and making it available to the public after broadcast.
The material is intellectual property so the owners are completely at liberty to charge for it or make it free. If people want the convenience of listening whenever they want to then I see no issue with charging for the privilege. There are costs associated with retaining the material and making it available to the public after broadcast.
absolutely right. take limbaugh for instance, yes he makes money off these podcasts, but by the same token is costs him money to make these podcasts available for your perusal.
but let me ask you this in a different way, suppose you were the one with information and wanted to get it out to the people, and lets say it isnt a radio broadcast, but rather say a book. would you give it away? remember even the programs that put their podcasts out for free to the end user are not doing it for teh fun. you noted that the free podcasters usually have a commercial at the beginning of the podcast, thus they are also not giving it away for free, but rather they are just not charging the end user.
so in essence there is no difference in what any of the podcasters are doing, just the way they are doing it. limbaugh and others are charging the end user, where as the free ones are charging a sponsor. either way they bot make money.
absolutely right. take limbaugh for instance, yes he makes money off these podcasts, but by the same token is costs him money to make these podcasts available for your perusal.
but let me ask you this in a different way, suppose you were the one with information and wanted to get it out to the people, and lets say it isnt a radio broadcast, but rather say a book. would you give it away? remember even the programs that put their podcasts out for free to the end user are not doing it for teh fun. you noted that the free podcasters usually have a commercial at the beginning of the podcast, thus they are also not giving it away for free, but rather they are just not charging the end user.
so in essence there is no difference in what any of the podcasters are doing, just the way they are doing it. limbaugh and others are charging the end user, where as the free ones are charging a sponsor. either way they bot make money.
In answer to your book question, I would have no issue if a public library purchased it and lent it out to patrons. If every public library in the nation were to purchase a copy, that would mean a pretty good payday for me
I sometimes think that the free market people would just as soon see all public libraries disappear, forcing the poorest among us to choose among food, rent, and books.
In answer to your book question, I would have no issue if a public library purchased it and lent it out to patrons. If every public library in the nation were to purchase a copy, that would mean a pretty good payday for me
I sometimes think that the free market people would just as soon see all public libraries disappear, forcing the poorest among us to choose among food, rent, and books.
key word there is purchased. which means you would get royalties from the sale of the book. in fact most libraries dont purchase just one copy of a book, they purchase several.
Truth is, podcasts don't make much money for most programs. For example, ESPN has loads of podcasts from their personalities, but they still haven't figured out how to make much money from them. Even though some of the more famous ones have sponsors like Subway and Stamps.com, they claim that they still don't make much money.
I don't know why podcasting isn't very profitable...but they're still working on ways to make a buck off of them.
I can't keep up with this forum, so I'm not going to try to get into podcast audio, too.
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