Is The MP3 The Audio Equivalent Of The PDF?

Last week I took a little jab at the PDF for being such a rigid document for our lifestyles. I argued that using PDFs for ebooks was impractical as the format doesn’t suit the way and speed we access information today. This week, my experience with podcasting has left me feeling the same about the MP3 format.

My week started by recording a an interview between myself and contributor DK which was more difficult than it looks – but it really got me interested in the medium. The problem was, I didn’t know what other podcasts to listen to. So, later in the week I asked quite a few marketing bloggers about their favorite podcasts. What I found is that many marketing bloggers didn’t actually listen to podcasts.

What does this mean for the future of podcasting?

There could be several reasons for the low usage rate of podcasts amongst this group of key influencers. The first is the dynamics of the format – the MP3 is far from user friendly. You play and it’s a one way train from start to finish. To quickly get to any point, you have to skip forward or back (guessing where to stop) – hey, it’s 1978 again! It’s not like the keyworded Google search we’re used to that allows us to pinpoint text heavy web media. The MP3 doesn’t even have the chapters that DVDs employ.

Secondly, there may be a split in audience tastes. John January from the raucous American Copywriter podcast suggested to me that bloggers and podcasts may be different beings. "Do you think there’s a split between bloggers and podcasters?" Johnny said. "We’ve run into people who either like one medium or the other but not both. One guy said, ‘Blogs intimidate me because they move so damn fast, I never feel like I am caught up and that I have information overload.’ Another guy said, ‘Podcasts require too much time, I’d rather scan information and be done with it.’

There could also be the matter of length of podcast. Keith Stieneke left a comment on PSFK suggesting that the length of time a podcast takes just doesn’t fit within our frantic lifestyles. It reflects what I said about PDF’s – who has time to flick through a multi page document these days? In the same way, while a few of us enjoy the podcasts on the way to and from the office, others might shudder at the thought of playing a podcast whilst ferrying the kids to school.

And what exactly does an MP3 contain? There’s no way of skimming through quickly, no way to scan for keywords. Jack Yan left a message worried that as he couldn’t tell what a he might pick the wrong podcast and waste his time. Maybe there’s time for somebody to make some recommendations?

The MP3 is to podcasting what the PDF is to blogging – a rigid file based on the output of a previous generation of technologies. PDF doesn’t have the power blogs offer: no comments, no dynamic comment, no frequent refresh – and the MP3 doesn’t offer the audio equivalent. But wait a second – imagine that: an audio file format that offers the equivalent of trackback, del.icio.us links and whatever other magical idea that could be inserted. Hmmm… someone invent that fast.

So what should a budding podcaster do? Wait? No – I now remember my words in an interview with Marketing Shift recently: "You gotta give the people the information in any way they want." That means, if you really want to get reach, you have to provide your content in blog format, RSS, email, podcast and, dare I say it, PDF too!

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The Future Of The Ebook Isn’t PDF