Utterz launches new features and international numbers and podcasting is starting to take off
Couple big pieces of news from yesterday that I feel compelled to talk about. I think I got these at about the same time, but I’ll give you the cool news first.
Utterz, one of the hot companies at BlogWorldExpo last fall, launched a bunch of new features including the long-awaited international phone number support:
Sim said: Welcome to the new Utterz! You have all been so incredible giving us feedback and feature requests. This really is YOUR new utterz. So thank YOU! You’ll discover lots of new treats as you go, but here’s a complete list of everything that’s new!
- You can now reply to an utter…with an utter! That’s right, reply with webcam, computer mic, picture, text from your computer, and as always, from your phone by pressing 8 while listening to an utter.
- A new threaded conversation. Highlight threads, collapse and expand them!
- 24 new dial-in numbers in 17 new countries. Complete list is coming later today. Source: Utterz - Welcome to the New Utterz!
Utterz is one of my top choices for easy podcasting. BlogTalkRadio is great choice for doing interviews, but Utterz is awesome for just doing a simple audio commentary. Interesting isn’t it that both these services use the phone system to make the recordings? Instead of getting people to learn a bunch of new stuff…you adapt to what people already know. 
I use my landline for my Utterz, but maybe I’ll do more mobile Utterz-ing. Of course generally I record and upload, but that’s just me.
The second, and very related, bit of news was the eMarketer report on the projected increase in podcast advertising. Many of us have predicted that podcasting would take off once it left the realm of geekery and into the world of everyone else. Services like Utterz and BTR do exactly that.
The key to both of these services will be revenue. While subscription models are interesting, they are also hard to get going. 
You have to offer something really great to make it work. Flickr has done this, but other sites … I haven’t paid for many of them. You couple the growing podcast audience (above) and the projected ad spend (right), well you can see there is good reason to be excited. First we had podcasts easier to subscribe and listen to via iTunes, now podcasts are easier to make with Utterz and BTR. With video on the brink of doing the same thing, it’s going to be an exciting time I think.
But there is something nagging at me, will we just reach a point of such tremendous info overload that there will be a backlash? I don’t listen to podcasts very often. I like just music better for work (the radio generally), podcasts take attention to consume. Video, the same. To get people’s attention you have to create something great … or offer something for a small niche. Personally I’d go for the latter and not the former.
Podcasting … on the verge a real business model.
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POSTED IN: Podcasting, Web Services
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