The subscription/download orientation of podcasting is so ridiculous. With music and video you just find what you want and consume. I don't want to subscribe and I don't want to download!
Subscriptions make sense with Podcasts. It's kind of like a season pass for a TV show on iTunes. They tend to be something you follow and want each episode of rather than something you listen to once. I think this is mainly because finding something you like is difficult (good content, good hosts, good length, good production values) so you stick with it when you find it.
You _can_ on some of them but they're still subscribe/download oriented. Which I think is one of the reasons podcasts have remained in the background (also the word "podcast" is tired).
Podcasts can be two people and a mic, or something that a team of talented people make over a year or so, like Serial. You can't put both of these types in the same bucket.
Yeah I agree, it's sort of the 'early adopter' version of where it'll be in a few years hopefully. That said because it's sort of a different medium model, I can see why this is hard to change or move past.
Subscription is available (and popular) on YouTube for video, and the content of Podcasts is generally episodic, lending itself to a subscription model. What about this do you find to be 'so ridiculous'?
Not to mention that most podcatchers I've messed with also allow you to search for content and listen on demand as the file is downloading (which is all a stream really is anyway).
The other ridiculous thing about subscribing is that way overstates listenership. Podcasters routinely overstate their audiences by 10x or more and get away with it. Good for them, I guess.
