The modern podcasting climate has changed considerably since its mainstream launch in 2005. Many podcasting giants have risen and fallen within the period but still the technology trundles on. The issue that many people have now is not maintaining a podcast, but actually creating one and successfully launching it.

When the iTunes Podcast store opened its gates in June 2005 the online world exploded with podcasting fever. It wasn’t too long before the technology caught the eyes of the big players within the old radio and television industry, from that point on independent podcasts were doomed.

The independent podcast circle used to be a buzzing pace full of enthusiasm and community. Perhaps I’m painting an idyllic image of the past, as one often tends to do with hindsight, but my point is valid nonetheless. There was talk of commercialising podcasts, in order to maintain them and break even, but making millions wasn’t on the agenda. There was a time when I was a big advocate against the commercialisation of podcasts, but that time has passed and I’ve joined the dark side. Commercialisation of podcasting has, if anything, improved the overall quality of content available.

Something changed after the Summer of 2005. Suddenly it became very hard to launch a podcast and gain the amount of an audience as one would have achieved in June. There wasn’t an issue of over-saturation of the market at all, the issue was that big corporate companies started to move in.

The BBC effectively killed independent podcasts when it started to regurgitate its own radio content. The BBC didn’t come up with new content for podcasts, they recycled the shit that came out of the mouth of Chris Moyles in the morning to turn it into what they called a podcast. “The Best of the Chris Moyles show” quickly became one of the biggest podcasts on the web, the BBC saw the success of this and soon began to recycle the rest of their shit from across their radio network. Soon the market was flooded by other broadcasters doing the same.

Take a look at the front page of the iTunes Podcast store today and you will not see a single independently produced podcast. It’s either crap recycled from the BBC, or other network providers, along with one or two “celebrities”. If fun, independent content is becoming hard to source from the world’s number one podcast store the industry is doomed.

Small little networks and communities used to exist that would serve as directories for independent shows, but they’ve long since died out. The Britcaster forums closed their doors way before I even found a slight moderate success with The Podzone. Mevio are no longer promoting the independent content that’s hosted on their network. They’re plugging the shows that they produce, they’re not even supporting the independent producers with promotion on their front page or channels.

If the big old media networks are tainting what was once hailed as he saviour of high quality entertaining content, what’s the next step? Podcasting was created by pioneers who were frustrated with the blatant commercialisation and dumbing down of mainstream content, it’s sad to see it go the same way as radio.

The only way that we shall see the continuation of podcasting and the saving of independent content within that is for a new network to be built. A united front against all of the shit and trollop that is being pushed out and into our ears by old media companies. If there is one thing that could possibly save podcasting, it’s Twitter. Someone just needs to come up with a way to make the two work together.

We need a community, a new directory, a fantastic piece of software and integration that will save the independent podcast industry before it really is too late.

Chris Leydon.

So the iPhone has invaded European shores, big woop.

Normally, as I’m sure that you’re aware, I would jumping through hoops at this announcement, but this time I’m not. I personally think that the iPhone is a wonder of modern technology and is a fantastic product, in fact if I was in the US I would have one by now. But that’s the problem, I’m not in the US, I’m in the UK.

The UK iPhone is a huge let down for me, I was determined to buy one back at its birth in January 2007. However I am now not going to touch one with a barge pole. It’s not that I can’t afford one, because I can, I’m just not sure that it’s a substantial investment to be making at the moment.

Apple have a notoriety for announcing fantastic products and releasing them in the US first. Usually by the time that said product comes over here it’s due for a revamp, no doubt that this will happen to the iPhone. But that’s not my problem either, I can handle having a first generation product, even if it is about to be upgraded.

The issue that I have with the UK iPhone is simply that. It’s the UK iPhone. The iPhone that you pay £35 per month, minimum, so that it doesn’t work for you in 70% of the country. There I’ve said it, I’m bashing on O2 for a bit.

I used to be an O2 user many moons ago, and I still would be had I not switched to 3 for various contractual reasons. Although my love for O2 is very deep I do think that they’ve given themselves a lot of issues over the UK iPhone. The biggest issue is that O2′s UK EDGE network coverage is only 30% of the UK, that 30% happens to mainly be over London. So they give you free access to The Cloud WiFi spots, so what, there aren’t enough Cloud spots for me to be happy. Yes the handset is capable of GPRS browsing, but that’s less speed than Dial Up.

Apple, please do some pay attention. Yes I am willing, and infact I’m having to fight the temptation, to pay £269 for your fantastic product. However I’m not prepared to shell out £35 to O2 a month for something that I can’t use in 70% of the country. This really pains me. I want to give you the money, I really do, but you’re just not there yet.

Give me a call on my trusty Sony Ericsson in January when you realise your mistake and release a 3G handset.

Chris Leydon.

My week started off fairly simply, well I suppose it actually wasn’t. If truth be told last weekend we played a few pranks on our neighbours upstairs, they weren’t best pleased with this and so they retaliated by playing mind games, unbeknown to me, all through Monday. By the end of Monday, after my Film Tech lectures, I was incredibly mentally unstable and under the impression that I was going to be chucked out of Uni. This was not true. In the end our mental game playing neighbours came downstairs to our flat and told us all about the ruse; we weren’t best pleased.

Tuesday was a really good day for me. My first lecture was cancelled, but for the first time since I’ve been at Staffs I finally understood my Audio Processing lecture. It was a fantastic feeling and I’m really proud with myself.

Digital Image Production on Wednesday was as boring as ever but we’ve started on our first term project so I expect there will be some excitement soon. The rest of the day, however, was spent in intimate meetings with my Film Tech partner fiddling about with storyboards and pre-visualisation for our short three minute film. Everything went smoothly and I do believe that we have a really sweet project going on.

On Thursday, after waking up a tad late for Scriptwriting, I boarded a train with my trusty Mac and headed to London, to stay with my family over the weekend, for a party on the Saturday.

The London trip has really been a highlight of my week. I often visit London and so the attraction of going to the capital is usually lost on me, however this time I was attracted by the prospect of meeting up with some family members who I hadn’t seen for a few months, as well as attending the Leopard launch.

Friday was interesting. To begin with I helped out my uncle with installing a new bathroom (despite the fact that he is a sound technician) and then headed towards Oxford street for a bit of shopping.

Of course Friday was the launch day for the infamous operating system Mac OS X 10.5, otherwise known as Leopard. To celebrate this I donned my geek hat and headed to Apple Store UK Number one, the biggest Apple store in the world, situated on Regents Street. I joined the que for the launch at 5 pm, the store was due to open its doors as 6 pm (BST), but already there was a que going halfway around the city block. By 6 pm the que had elongated itself and had ended up looping around the block twice. I’m guessing that it’s pretty obvious that there are a few Apple geeks in London.

I must say that I met some fantastic people whilst waiting for Leopard, and when the time came we were very happy to have our special edition Leopard T-shirts and our hands on the most advanced operating system in the world. For those sad people who are interested in seeing some very blurred photos of the UK launch (they don’t allow cameras in store), I’ve included a link to my Picasa album at the end of this post.

Saturday evening saw me getting rather drunk at a party in the Bushy part of London. The party was for my cousin’s husbands 30th birthday and it turned out to be a rather fantastic evening (again photo’s included after post). I spent most of the evening talking complete bollocks and getting rather pissed with my favourite band of all time, Seeing Scarlet.

And now I’m on a train on my way back to Stafford, some week, and it only gets better from here on in.

Chris Leydon. 

Leopard UK Launch

Last weekend I was kidnapped by my parents and taken back home for a few days, they were only supposed to pop up here with a receipt so that I could change my digibox. Going home was rather fun and it gave me time to think back over al that’s happened over the past few weeks that I’ve actually been at University for. It also gave me the chance to meet up with the fabulous Mr Cooper and record a few more Podzones.

This weeks lectures haven’t been that interesting. Film Technology, however, was quite fun. We were allowed to start experimenting with the Cannon XL1s and we were set a task where we had to create three independent shots and frame them correctly.

In Digital Image Production we were introduced to Photoshop and taught the basics. Needless to say that I was one of the few in this class who left early as we had, had a bit of experience in Photoshop. I did stay for the actual lecture and demonstration but when it came to replicating the demonstration I buggered off.

Audio Production, once again, seems to be a waste of time. I wont go into another anti-Audio Production rant but pretty much the same thing happened again as it has done for the past few weeks.

The Keyone Productions website has been down for most of the week as I’ve been redesigning and reprogramming it. I must say that it is indeed starting to look very good, especially with the new Flash players that I’ve installed. No longer do we need to rely on Google Video.

I’m extremely pleased about the news of Leopard, otherwise known as Mac OS X 10.5, which is basically Apple’s new advanced operating system. It comes out on Friday and I’m hoping to be able to pick one up at the launch party in London’s Regents Street. I’ll take a few photos of the event and post them up on my blog after I’m finished. I know it’s a rather geeky thing to be doing, but who cares?

Chris Leydon.