Ha alguns dias publiquei um artigo sobre o fenômeno dos podcastas. A coiisa não pára de crescer.

Vejam, BBC NEWS | Technology | Podcasting set for ‘huge growth’

Market researchers and analysts continue to buoy up podcasting’s future with latest figures suggesting a US audience alone of 56 million by 2010.

Podcasts, which are only a year old, are online audio shows by
amateurs and professionals which can be sent automatically to digital music players.

The forecasts come just after Apple released its version of iTunes which includes a directory of 3,000 shows.

The predictions also match those for growing digital music player sales.

Apple said that by providing a directory of 3,000 podcast shows, it was taking podcasting into the mainstream.

The early forecast by The Diffusion Group (TDG) is an indication that podcasting has captured the imagination of digital music player owners who demand to listen to more than just music.

Major international content providers, such as the BBC, ABC News, NBC News, Disney and even Nasa have started to make their programmes – usually ones with no music – available as podcasts to download.

The BBC’s podcasting trial includes 20 radio programmes, such as the World Service’s technology show Go Digital and Radio 4’s In Our Time.

But there are still thousands of podcasts which are being done by ordinary people in their homes, such as the Tartanpodcast, which aims to bring independent Scottish music to a wider audience.

Big future?

TDG said the audience for podcasts last year was around 840,000, but such figures are difficult to accurately measure.

They also tend to focus on the US market, rather than the global one.

It said that by 2010, three-quarters of all people who own portable digital music players will listen to podcasts, a growth from less than 15% last year.