Commanding Chaos for Coworking, Open Source and Creative Communities

March 2007 Posts

How does iTunes popularity work?

Sun, 03/04/2007 - 10:26 -- rprice

Dear iTunes:
Will you please tell me how many people clicked Subscribe inside of iTunes? I know you know, and since you know I know you know, you appear to tease me with the information. Why?

Is my podcast popular in relation to other Alternative Health shows, or simply compared to the other shows I searched for? Is it popular today, this week, this month, since the beginning of the year, or since Hallowe'en? Is there any way to find out? Please, please, please help me.

Footprint Podcast is Popular on iTunesFootprint Podcast is Popular on iTunes Hosted on Zooomr
iTunes OCDiTunes OCD Hosted on Zooomr

Your podcast catching platform is regrettably the only software that works well for audio and video across 2 major platforms and also manages to keep people inside the program for hours a day, with a little number next to the "Podcasts" source that lets the OCD people know they have unfinished business with their podcast hosts. If someone else captured attention as well as iTunes, I would scream it from the rooftops. If all I do is video, Democracy Player is great! I wish Democracy did audio, or someone would write a hip, open-source podcatching/ music listening platform.

Wait a second... what about Songbird? Is their user experience too general? I can subscribe to a webpage with mp3 links, but not to a feed. Or if I can, they don't make it obvious. Since they are still on version 0.2.5, does this mean I'm going to have to wait a few years for them to get it right, like I'm doing with Flock? Only you, iTunes, have the power to help me in my quest. How do I compare?

People don't want to visit Podcast Alley, and they especially don't want to be NPR'd to death with "Please vote for our podcast, so we can beat the Harry Potter kids!" all the live-long day. They just don't. Most of them only tune in to about half an hour's worth of material anyway, so unless we plug it at the beginning, which no self-respecting podcaster would do, there's almost no way to get a decent comparison.

iTunes Related SubscriptionsiTunes Related Subscriptions Hosted on Zooomr

When I first saw these little gray bars, I was very excited - my podcast is popular! Hell, people even have related subscriptions... I think. Is this like the Amazon store, where they say "People who bought this product also bought..." because if it is, where are the comments from those kids? This large number of related podcasts leads me to believe that you are just pulling the stats from Alternative Health in general, or one very eco-friendly person's list.

Gosh, iTunes. Even your screenshots look good in a blog post. I wish you weren't the only major player. I guess all I can do now is start writing XUL plugins for Songbird, create BitTorrent friendly feeds for Democracy TV, and keep doing my shameless self promotions for Liberatr, Liberatr, Liberatr.net!

Thanks for... something, Uncle Steve.

Peace,
Ryan Price
iTunes User
Orlando, FL

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Holly Riggs' Farewell Show

Sat, 03/03/2007 - 09:57 -- rprice
Holly Riggs' Final FarewellHolly Riggs' Final Farewell Hosted on Zooomr

Holly Riggs began writing poetry after a rough break up. A producer from Nonsense Records discovered her talents at a performance and offered to produce a spoken word album. It came out great, and Holly kept performing around town. She was a regular at the Tuesday night SPEAKEASY at Will's while it was still around, and she even appeared in the documentary about the event.

Apart from her music career, Holly makes jewelry and produces interactive, hip-hop inspired theatre as Starbananas Productions. I never got a chance to see the play they put on last year, but if I know anything about this girl, it was a sight to be seen.

Come out to Dandelion on Friday and help Orlando wish Holly a fond farewell and many happy returns.

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