Tuhat sanaa

Two recent studies suggest significantly different levels of interest in podcasting in the years to come in the US and UK, reports the BBC (Podcast numbers cut through hype).

The British Market Research Bureau recently found that "Among adult internet users, 17% have downloaded a “podcast” in the last 6 months (rising to 28% among 16-24 year olds) and 24% are likely to download a podcast in the next 6 months".

The Bureau went on to say that “The findings suggest that up to 7.9 million adults could be downloading podcasts in the next 6 months, which represents a massive opportunity for advertisers and media owners alike” (BMRB: A quarter of all adult internet users will listen to a “Podcast” in the next 6 months).

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On a more down-to-earth-experimental note, I'm testing if the music taste aggregator Last.FM could be used to track podcast popularity as well.

As those of you who've downloaded the little plugin and allowed the database to index your music listening have found out, getting music recommendations is fun and sometimes quite rewarding, too. I started this little group to experiment with the function of tracking listening - if it can keep note what music I like and make relevant suggestions, perhaps that could also work with podcasts. Please join in if you like to help aggregate the charts.

But surely there must be services doing this already - if you do know of a site that does a good job of tracking podcast listening and sharing recommendations, please leave a link in the comment field and share your experiences!