Curry gets Sirius with podcasts

(From Monday's Internet Daily column)

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. announced it will launch a daily four-hour show featuring podcasts.

The program will be produced and hosted by Adam Curry beginning May 13. Curry is a former MTV personality and co-developer of the technology which makes it easy for Net users to download podcasts to portable music players. He will produce the show from his home in a suburb of London. It will be carried on a Sirius talk channel and "feature highlights and insights from the world of podcasting and showcase new talent and artists from around the world, including new music," Sirius said in a written statement.

The announcement follows several months of development by Curry, and a business partner, Ron Bloom, of a venture to create a network of programming known as Podshow.com. Over the weekend, Curry and Bloom published a two-hour "strategy cast" in which they discussed plans to form production company arrangements with a number of well known podcasters, including Dawn and Drew, Madge Weinstein, and Michael Butler. They outlined a plan to provide audience promotion, production tools, hosting services, and advertising revenue sharing opportunities for "millions" of podcasters. Reaction to the plan has been negative, beginning with comments from a computer programmer who originally worked with Curry to develop podcasting software.

Dave Winer, a successful software developer and entrepreneur, asked, "Why should he be the arbiter of what's cool in podcasting?" Winer also faulted Bloom, writing on his blog, "I don't take professional gigs because of people like Ron Bloom, people who don't practice the art, who only think about how to make money off it. I don't object to making money, hardly, but I do object to only being concerned about making money." In a podcast over the weekend, Winer also said he resents Curry and Bloom trying to commercialize podcasting. "It makes me angry when somebody comes into a little garden that we created out of our excitement, out of enthusiasm, and says: 'I'm just going to take over that. Now I'm going to be the guy who decides what is good and what belongs on the airwaves.'"