There was considerable excitement when Apple launched iTunes 4.9,which it included a podcast node. Suddenly the world’s biggest online audio store was also distributing independent podcasts, for free, to eager listeners around the world. Small niche content podcasts literally became overnight sensations. Looking at the CBC Radio 3 Podcast‘s meteoric success following the 4.9 launch, The Globe and Mail’s Ivor Tossell reported the following:
“Radio 3 had started its podcast of indie music a few weeks previous, and had been seeing about 500 downloads a day. That number flew up to 20,000 downloads when iTunes started promoting them, according to Radio 3’s director, Steve Pratt. The figure has since levelled out at more than 7,000 daily.” Radio 3 retained it’s #1 rating on ITunes Canada for an amazing … weeks, beating out Al Franken, sundry morning shows and the CBC’s own Quirks and Quarks podcast (which, incidentally, has turned out to be oddly popular in Scandinavia).”
☆ “Recasting Radio 3 for the iPod crowd,” July 22, 2005
On the first day iTunes 4.9 was available over 3,000 podcasts were listed. A little over one year later that number had climbed to 82,978 — a 27-fold increase in 15 months.
★ Rabble.ca’s Wayne MacPhail recalls the arrival of iTunes 4.9 made:
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