434- Dilemma for creativity and innovation in Podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver our perspective and historical background when related to the ideas from Clayton M Christensen of his book titled The Innovator’s Dilemma (which you can get in hardcopy or kindle from amazon.com).

As a backgrounder and historical point, we see such companies that had the opportunity to take advantage of future technology and innovation and be true leaders in the fields of:

Movie rentals — how Netflix stole the market from Blockbuster, even though the latter had the opportunity to buy the former, but declined;
Xerography and copiers — how Xerox stole the market of copiers from IBM, even after IBM had the opportunity to buy the technology and firm that was later a key competitor, Xerox; and
PC Operating systems and portable phones — how google and Apple stole the market of smartphones and search engines from Microsoft.

Now, what about podcasting? Has there been new technology that can now upset the apple cart for podcasting?

Well, in several podcast episodes of Grumpy Old Bens and No Agenda and other tech-focused podcast shows, the example of DeScript is given as the possible next technology to turn the podcast industry and podosphere upside down.

So, if you understand the technologies used with DeScript, do you think that being able to change the text of a text transcript will be revolutionary to change the face of podcasting and force the indie podcasters to become extinct?

For this podcaster, my perspective is that the podosphere is still a level playing field for indie podcasters — this is my opinion. And with the growth of podcasting by the new shows (now over 1 million shows in podcasting), the technology of creating audio from text and including it into a podcast or making an entire show from the audio-generated from transcripts will compete with the following areas of the indie podcasters:

the perspective and credits and credentials of the indie podcasters who have gained a reputation and a loyal following in the podosphere;
the audio of an accepted podcaster’s character, voice, sense of humor and personality that sets the podcaster apart from anyone else;
the loyal fans of podcasting who hate to hear any type of robot-like voice, regardless of how “perfect” it may seem to the newer publications creators (like the millennials);
Those listeners who still find value in the older methods of publication and reception of audio podcast episodes and shows and refuse to change; and finally
Those podcasters who still want to continue their workflow in creating and publishing outstanding content for the audiences which they have (and have worked so hard to get over the past 15 years).

So, as the above is only my opinion, I suspect that we all have to keep watching the space of technology in podcasting and see what the newer innovations will be. And perhaps we need to focus on the podcasting tech shows to see if innovations like DeScript will grow (and how fast it will be accepted by the podcast community). Please remember that when blab was available several years ago, many podcasters jumped on this technology and predicted that this would be the game-changer in podcasting for the future — and you saw that this was removed after a year or so from the podosphere.

So, we hope that you keep involved in understanding the technologies that are being created, and the innovations that may change the participation of podcasting.

Thank you for your attention.