Jake Savin

Rob Fahrni attempts to set the record straight:

“Here’s the thing, Apple did not invent Podcasting — Dave Winer and Adam Curry did — Apple just has a really good Podcast directory. Anyone could do the same thing. In fact you don’t need to be part of Apple’s Podcast Directory to have a Podcast. All you need is a place to put your audio files so people can download them. Yes, that’s it.”

There have been, and continue to be, so many opportunities for diversity and competition in this space, and the media industry as a whole still doesn’t understand that they are themselves responsible for being locked in the trunks of the big tech companies.

Podcasting is one market, but blogging, social media, news, the web itself – in fact digital distribution in general – are all segments of the same ecosystem. And the same rules apply to all: Understand the technology and make your own distribution channels, or you will be beholden to the so-called “gatekeepers” in the form of big tech companies.