iTunes, uTunes We All Tunes for iPods

Q: Dear 100HRB

How does one get their own podcast on iTunes?

Sincerely,
Pod Dweller

A: Dear Media Prima Donna:

Wait, your asking questions now? Well as the 1/2 of 100 HRB has already made clear readers (and contributors) should, "answer their own D$#@ quesiton(s)". But this 1/2 (who happens to be pulling the load) is far kinder, gentler, more handsome and manly. A true man doesn't curse (hopefully this will be catalyst enough to get the other 1/2 to post on his own blog).


But I digress. First let us define what is a podcast. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past five years you will know that a podcast is a video or audio series that is downloadable from iTunes and plays on either your MP3 device or computer. You can subscribe to podcasts so that new episodes are automatically downloaded on your iTunes player. Some are free and some have a fee associated with them. Podcasts do not play under shuffles. They are treated as separate than music files. Considering that Apple sold 1.2 billion iPods this year alone, distribution through iTunes seems the way to go. But it all depends on what you want to do.

So you think that you have some wonderful content to provide for iTunes Podcasters? The first thing you need to do is create recordings. As large as Apple company is they do not support the creation of podcasts from content owners. A simple and free download for audio recording software is Audacity. If you are creating a video podcast you may want to look into Quicktime 7 Pro.

Once you have created your recording you will need to host the file on a web-server with an RSS feed. If your podcast is apt to be wonderful you had better have a lot of money. Supporting many downloads to your Podcast requires a lot of server space. Server space costs a lot of money. WBEZ Chicago Public Radio pays about $104,000 per year just to pay for server space which enables millions of users to download the free This American Life podcast. I can think of many good podcasts (Fair Game) that went under simply because of lack of funding.

Finally, you need to submit your RSS web address to the iTunes Store. Apple would like to make this sound very easy but in actuality this submission is more of an application. To become a content provider you must complete the iTunes Online Application. So fill out the application and wait for a couple of years until some poor intern actually fields your request. Once you are a signed content provider you can set the price of your Podcast. Just beware- since iTunes is a behemoth distributor their share of sales is 30 cents for every dollar spent. Even Hollywood labor unions have fought with iTunes for a greater royalty when actors, directors and writers works are downloaded from iTunes...the union lost. iTunes lives and breathes by one-third of the buyers who account for 80 percent of revenues, according to Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. So it isn't as though you can charge a lot otherwise demand will go down.

If your podcast is picking up speed faster than you can support server space you may want to outsource your server. In addition, you may want to procure the services of Podcast marketing specialists like Podtrac or comScore.

iTunes reports having over 100,000 requests for content to be distributed by them each week. I think what you will find is that getting your stuff out there is easy. Distributing it in such a way that it rises above the billions of other content is the difficult part (just ask 100HRB). Marketplace International, another great podcast, did a study and found that everything on iTunes has a market. Meaning, every piece of content distributed by iTunes has been downloaded or purchased by someone. So at least you know you will have one person interested in your podcast.