A formula for podcast sustainability

Your Monkey often worries about the sustainability of the podcasts that keep him sustained during his workweek. Sure, he is getting tons of great content for free right now, but how long can it last?

It costs money for the purchase and upkeep of podcast recording equipment, the storage space required to archive past episodes, and the bandwith capacity that is needed to accommodate a high volume of download requests. Plus it is helpful if a podcast has some kind of operating budget to work with.

Sponsorships and in-podcast advertisements will hopefully be the solution. A lot of your Monkey’s favorite podcasts are fortunate to have sponsors, and advertisers should know that these sponsorships make an impact. Off the top of his head, your Monkey can tell you that:

• Stubhub.com is a sponsor of the 60 Minutes podcast
• Alltec Lansing speakers are a sponsor of the Sound Opinions podcast
• InReviewOnline.com sponsors the Filmspotting podcast
• Coverville is sponsored by audioengineusa.com and BlueHost.com
• I Should be Writing is now sponsored by GoToMeeting.com
• The Red Steak Supper Club sponsors the Musicheads podcast

That’s pretty good retention, right?

Many of the latest technological wonders have made it more difficult for advertisers to reach their target audience. Ipods have replaced the radio in the car. TiVos and DVR machines have made it easy for TV viewers to skip through commercials. Print newspapers are losing readers to online news sources.

Podcasts might be a great growth opportunity for new sponsorships.

Your Monkey is more than willing to sit through a commercial break or a sponsorship read to hear some of the great content provided by the above podcasts.

He’s even willing to help spread the word.

Podcast Roundup –Sound Opinions

Your Monkey has mentioned the Sound Opinions podcast before as part of his podcast pantheon, but it is worth mentioning again just because it is so darned good. Each episode is like candy for music-loving Monkeys.

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, Sound Opinions is a rock and roll talk show featuring two Chicago based music critics, Jim DeRogatis from the Chicago Sun Times and Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune. It is broadcast around the country on many public radio stations and is also available via podcast from the itunes music store.  Find a link to the officials show website here.

Your Monkey is one week behind on the podcast (mainly because he likes to save and savor them) but recently caught up with the show featuring the Portland, Oregon band Blitzen Tripper. This show sums up everything that is great about Sound Opinions.

It begins with music news, where Jim and Greg talked about the recent price increases at the itunes music store.

Then came the feature on Blitzen Trapper, in which the band played some tracks from their new album Furr.  Even if you’re familiar with the album tracks, you should check out these performances because they swap out some of the spacier sound effects for simple piano lines. It works.

After that, there were two well thought out record reviews for new albums from PJ Harvey and John Parish and a blind couple from Africa named Amadou and Mariam.

Just a lot of interesting conversation with no pretension.

Here is a Blitzen Trapper song for you. Thank you Conan O’Brien for making this available (or at least not complaining that it is)