Podcasting Future

The Bear is going to step out on a limb here and look 18 months out (say, about April 2006) and imagine a new kind of Smart Playlist in iTunes. Of course by then browsing and subscribing to any of the thousands of available podcasts will be built into iTunes. Many of these podcasts will be daily or weekly half-hour or one-hour shows. But there will also be plenty of shorter bits: 15-minutes, 5-minutes, 15-seconds, 5-seconds, you get the picture. (Now here's where the extra clever Smart Playlist comes in...)

iTunes will also let you compile strings of these short and long podcasts into your own custom "podio show":

1. Lead off with a seven-minute *musical set* featuring *two or three* podcast *sessions* you've *never listened to before*.
2. Then bring on a *news summary* that runs *no longer than six minutes*.
3. Next, *one or two* *songs* from Podcasts you've listened to at least *three times before*.
4. Then an *indepth report* on any one of the *top five* *issues of the day* weighted towards *science or politics*.
5. Followed by *one* *musical seque* in the *rock or easy listening or dance* genre no longer than *ten seconds*.
6. Leading into *four to six* brief *special interest* *stories* running no longer than *four minutes each*.
7. (Work in more serendipitous musical segues if you like.)
8. Announce a *breaking news headline* of *30 seconds or less*.
9. Finish up that set with a *ten second* *riff* in the style of *Jimi Hendrix*.
10. Next, any *eight minutes or less* *news update* weighted for the *European* hemisphere, including *at least one* brief on the current *economic outlook*.
11. Any *new or old* *one minute* musical piece in the *psychotropic* genre.
12. Any *musical segue* you've *heard less than 10 times* before.
13. A *serious* *newsmaker* *interview* with a *progressive politician or astrophysicist or painter or teacher*.
14. One *musical segue* by an *experimental* artist *with vocals* on a *hopeful* theme.
15. A report on the current *big gainers* and *big losers* on *NASDAQ or NYSE*.
16. One *funny story* about *police or pets or politicians*.
17. Close it out with a *new hit single* from *any iTunes top ten list* *within the last year*.
18. Tell the *current time*.
19. *repeat*.

Oh and one more thing... AirExpress it to my *bedroom clock radio* starting at 6:00am, and then stream it to my *home office system* at 7:45am.

Last update: 2/22/08; 2:02:03 PM.