Wizzard VP Talks About What A Billion Downloads Means
January 10th, 2008
Today’s big podcasting news is that Wizzard Media announced their download totals for 2007, an amazing one billion podcast files downloaded. To put that large number into some context, we talked with Rob Walch, Wizzard’s Vice President of Podcaster Relations (and creator/host of the popular Podcast411).
First off, congratulations - this is pretty stunning news. What do you think this billion-download figure means, for Wizzard Media in particular, and for the wider downloadable media industry in general?
To my knowledge we are the first ones to hit a billion in a calendar year in the Podcasting space (wearing my 411 hat). I am sure there will be others — if not in 2008 then certainly in 2009.
But the bigger news for podcasting is that someone has done it. I believe that hitting that the 1 billion mark is the type of benchmark that big ad agencies will take notice of. Now they’ll understand that podcasting is for real — and that is good for everyone.
So, when we were at the Portable and New Media Expo this fall, some guys were talking gloom and doom — that podcasting was essentially dead. Your news seems to belie that prediction.
There is a lot of misguided talk about podcasting being dead. We just are not seeing it. We continue to see growth in the numbers each month. To us, at least, podcasting keeps growing.
What do you think this bodes for the coming year?
We hope that 2008 will be the year that advertisers stop thinking of podcasting as an experiment, and start thinking of it as a necessity for every campaign.
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January 10th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I never heard the “Podcasting is Dead” talk the way everyone, including Rob, seems to see it. If you listen to the actual talks from those that made those claims, it wasn’t really that podcasting as a media type is dead. It made no claims that listenership was going to decline. Not at all. We are rapidly moving to a place where HOW you receive your media doesn’t matter. Many of us not only distribute our media as “downloadable via RSS”, but also ofter a flash or java-based stream on our websites. You are still creating media, but your listeners may not listen to it via a traditional podcast download. As the proliferation of mobile browsing increasing, it’s not going to matter HOW someone gets your media, only THAT they get. That is ALL those claims were saying.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
[…] That Wizzard Media has hit a billion download requests in 2007 is the news on everyone’s lips these last couple of days. Indeed it is a milestone for Wizzard Media, and is probably worthy of note for those of us in the podcasting world to remember that people do indeed love to download podcasts, and that it is a sharply growing medium. […]
January 11th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Ed - there’ve been a lot of people talking doom and gloom about podcasting for the last year.
We see this backlash against podcasting as part of the typical technology adoption cycle.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Somebody tell me….
What is the “podcast download to listen ratio” so people outside the bubble can share in the excitement here?
January 11th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I need to clarify my comment. It was in reference to Michael Geoghegan’s presentation that essentially coined the statement that “podcasting is dead”. Yes, people have taken the miscalculated leap that the buzz has died some in podcasting (some pointing to Google search stats), so podcasting must be dying.
Either way… it’s great to hear Wizzard hitting a milestone that is worthy of recognition. It will only help to increases awareness of new media as a viable business.