In an interesting bit of news, a press release has been put out announcing that Libsyn (a pioneer in podcast hosting) will be acquired by Wizzard Software (who specialize in speech software). This doesn’t strike me as the most obvious of match ups, but it sounds like they have some things planned. From the press release:
The acquisition combines the world’s largest and fastest growing podcast network with Wizzard’s expertise in speech technology integration, creating a powerful new service for podcasters worldwide.
“A powerful new service”…what exactly this is we’ll have to wait and see. Some further insight can be gleaned from this passage:
The combined companies will focus on providing independent content creators with comprehensive search engine indexing, transcription and blogging integration and new tools so that they may better attract advertisers and sponsors allowing them to reach highly-targeted audiences with more relevant advertising and promotional opportunities.
Nothing earth-shattering here. This is what I gather. They plan to offer:
- Comprehensive search engine indexing (like Podscope and Podzinger? do they have something new/unique to offer here?)
- Transcription (This is cool. I’ve been telling podcasters for some time–myself included–that they should use transcriptions for search engine fodder. If Libsyn offers this as part of their service…I can dig that.)
- Blogging integration (don’t they already do this?)
- Relevant advertising and promotional opportunities (don’t they already do this too with Kiptronic? again, is there something new/unique to be offered here?)
It sounds like it will be the same guys working on and running Libsyn out of Pennsylvania.
Libsyn is a great service. I recommend it all the time as one of the easiest and least expensive ways to start a podcast. In fact, I have said for a long time that they don’t charge enough. I would pay twice as much as I do to get what they offer. I’m glad to see they are getting some additional capital to take things to the next level. We’ll have to wait and see what exactly this means.
UPDATE
I just realized that Wizzard is the same company that recently acquired two other podcast-related companies: BlastPodcast (ad-supported video and audio podcast solutions) and Switchpod (another podcast host offering unmetered bandwidth). The previous press releases offer more insight into their plans.
Here are the significant excerpts:
Wizzard plans to simplify the search process by allowing audio and
video podcasts to be fed through its speech recognition system, creating a transcript of each podcast. This feature will allow advertisers and listeners to type in precise
key words and find relevant podcasts based on the full content of every
single podcast episode, simplifying the search process and providing a
more targeted audience for the sponsor.
Sounds like Podscope and Podzinger. How the technology compares, I don’t know. If they allow the podcasters in their hosting network to have complete transcripts, that will be a distinct advantage.
…this will provide sponsors and advertisers a more sophisticated means of selecting the podcast shows they feel will be the best fit for their product or service…
Also:
We see great value in the proprietary advertising technology that Blast
Podcast has developed and our plan is to build upon their concept by
incorporating Wizzard’s world class speech technologies…
In addition, they plan to offer an automatic blog-to-podcast service:
“…automatically turning their text-based blogs and online articles into audio files for podcasts, by leveraging it with its high quality AT&T Natural Voices and IBM ViaVoice portfolio offerings.”
From Libsyn’s Dave Chekan:
“We’ve had several investment offers in the past and we chose Wizzard due to its expertise in speech technology, its passion for podcasting and its desire to make money for our independent content creators.”
June 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I dont really understnad the beneift of podcast hosting… am i missing something?
June 30th, 2008 at 2:52 am
George,
What’s important is that you have a host that can deliver your content in a reliable manner and as quickly as possible at a price you can afford.
A host such as Libsyn offers podcast specific metrics as well as un-metered bandwidth.