Categories: Articles

Podcasting – I Can't Believe This Content Is Free

After working out this morning and driving in to the Twist Image offices, my head was spinning with stuff I needed to remember and check-out while my Blackberry had a new note file that was locked and stocked with a list of websites, applications or Blog postings that I had never heard of. This is what happens when you are able to customize and choose all of the content you listen to via Podcasting.
Maybe it’s that PodCamp Toronto 2007 is in the air (coming up next week – February 24th and 25th, 2007) or maybe it’s the ability for me to choose this content, delete it, fast-forward or listen while working out, working or while in the car, but I am very much in love with Podcasting today.
I know it’s Valentine’s Day (I’ve taken care of that part of my personal life), but I am very much in love with listening to Podcasts and what better way to express that then on Valentine’s Day?
Listening to For Immediate Release, Inside PR, some amazing CBC Podcasts, In Over Your Head, Across The Sound, certain ones from IT Conversations, The Podcast Academy and the usual suspects (just take a look to the left of this Blog posting under Pod Roll) makes me just shake my head in disbelief that all of this targeted, fresh and informative content is one hundred percent free.
It blows my mind.
Do you think this can last forever? Do you think that Podcasts will always be free?
One thing I realized today is that I don’t care if they stay free forever. I am willing to pay for Podcasts. I think the content is so rich that I would have absolutely no issue with paying for it. I would welcome the idea of a subscription model via iTunes.
Just like when people first started sharing music online (not legally) and iTunes started the whole $0.99 concept, everyone thought this was insane: why would anyone pay for something that they can get for free? They would pay if the quality, ease of use and service was there (also if there were no spyware or computer viruses). I would too.
So my Valentine’s Day wish for you is that you’re able to find something that makes you feel half as good as Podcasting does for me. Not a day goes by that I am not learning and growing because of something I’ve heard in a Podcast.
That is a very powerful concept.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.