Jeff Jarvis pulled a couple of stats from the latest Nielson report on podcasting. 6 percent of U.S.adulst (9 million people) have downloaded podcasts inthe last 30 day. The most successful podcasts are getting two million downloads a month. It has occurred to me that the same people (in my world) that pooh-pooh such reports, are the same people that insisted “this Internet thing” was nothing more than hyped-up fad that would soon fade. If you want to understand why people are creating and listening to podcasts, read The Long Tail.

We are turning from a mass market back into a niche nation, defined now not by our geography but by our interests. (Pg. 40)

A co-worker recently observed that most of the podcasts he has listened to were boring. That’s like saying most of the books in the library are boring. I think that will change for him as he finds more and more podcasts dealing with things that interest and entertain him. It’s no longer necessary to watch/listen/read boring stuff. For the first time in recorded history, it’s possible to find all thing things (and only the things) that interest you. I’m sure glad I didn’t miss this.