Free Podcast Bandwidth Is Coming: How T-Mobile's Music Freedom Changes the Game

Are we going to be getting our smartphone podcast bandwidth for free? The podcast report, episode two at thepodcastreport.com to show hotline is 503-897-1290. It's the podcast Report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. All right, what is the podcast report? We're still only in episode two, so I thought I'd tell you. The podcasting industry is seeing a crazy boost. I've been part of it since the beginning and I'm really excited with what's happening for it right now. What's happening to it right now? I see two audiences for this show. Hopefully you're one of them, the podcaster. Those of you who are playing the game, hoping to get better at this, hoping to make a bigger splash, and those of you who are thinking about getting into the podcasting game, it is so exciting what's happening and that's what we're going to be sharing about on this show. This isn't a massive play. This isn't a get to the top of all the charts. This is a deep play from somebody who loves this industry and has since day one, who hopefully you will see that here on the podcast. But let's get to our topic. Are we going to be seeing, are we going to be getting our podcast bandwidth for free? See, T Mobile did something really interesting about a year ago. I guess they basically, they killed the smartphone tax. Now, what do you mean by that, Paul? Well, when they introduced their simple choice plan, they included with all of their plans, data. Now, initially it was a half a gig of data. Now it's a gig of data now. Actually, I should rephrase that because it was high speed data. Gave you half a gig of high speed data, a gig now of high speed data and then unlimited low speed data on the back end that could actually be used to get podcasting. But the fact of the matter is it used to be when we got our iPhone the first time and you got your first Android, not only did you pay for the phone, but you were paying extra every month for bandwidth. Well, T Mobile got rid of that. I promised my 13 year old daughter that I'd give her the cheapest phone possible. And she's a smart one. Get her the cheapest plan possible. She's a smart one. She's like, dad, look, I get data now, don't I? Yes, you do. But then T Mobile announced just a couple of days ago their music freedom program, which is basically right now, at the time of this recording, Pandora. IHEARTRADIO itunes, Radio, Rhapsody, Spotify, Slacker, and Milk Music, who I've never heard of. But on those people now, you get that bandwidth for free. If you have a T Mobile account, it doesn't count to your max. Now, by the way, you can go past the one gig. I've got an unlimited account for far, far, far less than the others offer. And by the way, it's also, you know, something that a lot of the other people don't offer, but those who don't have an unlimited account, they get all that for free. Put that back into perspective to my daughter. When we go on our road trip this summer, we can be listening to itunes radio the entire time on her $10 a month family account and not have to worry about that. Now that's interesting, but if you go to the T Mobile music freedom area, you'll see they're voting at the site for what's next. What new sites would you like to see? Now, right now, at the top of the list, number one is Google Music, which actually I like, I'm a Google Music user, have been since day one. Groove shark. Which is a little bit annoying because their legal status is still questionable. But then the third one was what intrigued me. Tunein radio. Yes. The same tunein radio that a lot of people get podcasts from. The same tunein radio that this podcast is on. What happens if they turn that on? On? Now, is this T Mobile only? Is this, you know, a gimmick for one of the players? No, of course not. Others have been forced to follow. Whenever T Mobile does something, the other companies are following suit. They're doing their own versions of this. This is the price wars game. And in the price wars game, the consumer wins. But in the case of the podcaster, we win as well. How does the podcasting game change if people can get our podcasts for free? Ah, so a good place. The technology will follow up. Bandwidth will become ubiquitous. Just might come a little bit quicker than we thought it was with Tune T Mobile. So what do we do about that as a podcaster? Well, the thing you got to realize, number one is that bandwidth is getting cheaper all the time, getting more ubiquitous all the time. Our audience. Yeah, it can't have capped because the amount of people who are going to grab it with the ease and use of driving in the car and consuming a podcast that is going to go away. That audience is going to get bigger and bigger all the time. You know, it could become free or more. It will be free, like email. You know, you don't really pay per email on your phone. Yes, you pay for the bandwidth to get email, but you can really get all the email you want. And gosh darn it, podcasting is going to come that way. So what do you need to do? You need to plan for the cars, you need to plan for consumption. If you notice at the beginning of the show, you know, I've got the introduction of what this episode is. I do that all within the first couple of seconds because I want when somebody's listening to this on Stitcher or one of the other places to know what it is that's coming discovery through these car players. And you know, Stitcher is really basically the Pandora of content. There are going to be others like that coming. If you plan for the cars, if you plan for true, anytime, anywhere, if you plan for these things, you're going to be at a good place. And what it will do is it will cause you to get bullish on podcasting. So are we going to be getting our podcast mobile bandwidth for free? Yes, we will, eventually. It might be coming quicker than we thought as a result of T Mobile and I am so excited about that. I would love to hear your thoughts. You know how to get ahold of me now. If you'd like the mind map and the transcript for this episode, go ahead and text EP2 to 503897, 1290. That's 503-897-1290. You also feel free to leave a voicemail message at the line here because we love to hear from the listeners. This is the podcast report@thepodcastreport.com I need subscribers. Subscribers are good. Subscribers are good because that's the power of podcasting. Coming out and listening every time we get a new episode is repetitious and lame. Subscribing to the podcast on Stitcher, subscribing on itunes, subscribing on Pocket Cast, whatever it is that you like. Then every time there's a new episode that gets pushed to you. So definitely, definitely subscribe now. We've got some voicemail from Fred, an old friend, an old listener and a podcaster who's been in this game almost as long as I have. So, Fred, take it away, buddy.

Hey, Paul, again, wanted just to thank you for starting the podcast report. This is Fred Castaneda speaking. Got two questions for you. Number one, are you going to be at Podcast Movement? That's August 14th, 15th and 16th in Dallas. Gary Leland is one of the organizers there and they started this conference only for Podcasters, and they did it through Kickstarter, podcast movement dot com. And let me know if you're going to be there because I know Jamie Gill is going to be there and there's a whole bunch of people that we'd like to get together with you. And now that you're back in the frail podcasting number two, are you going to start a tribe based on the podcast report the way you did with new media inner circle, not all your content, but I'm specifically saying, you know, focused on podcasts because you're usually two, three months ahead of where the circle was before, you know, before the industry got there. And I think that that's something of value that a lot of people I know, Jamie and myself, Elizabeth Harrington and a lot of other people probably want to be a part of that again. Anyway, let me know if you plan to do something like that, to have a special group. You may call us the podcast reporters or the podcast report tribe, whatever. But I think this is something that perhaps could be a win win situation for you. If so, hopefully we'll see a podcast movement. And if that's the case, when can we get together and have our own little meet up there like you used to with, you know, the affiliate guy or the money making get together used to have over coffee in the mornings at the conference?

Okay, two questions. Am I coming to the Dallas event? No, I am not. It is not out of protest. It is not out of anything. That weekend is becoming this crazy nexus of events in my industry. I had to choose between four different events and then I wasn't even able to choose from the fourth event because our family had planned a camping trip with some other families. So I'm going to be out, I'm going to be away, I'm going to be unplugged, and I will not be able to attend. Full excitement about what Gary's doing out there. I wish everybody the best. I'm looking for reports. I want to know how it went. So, no, I can't go. And then of course, as a result, we won't be able to meet up in terms of a tribe associated with the podcast report. You bet, Fred. Something's coming out. But before we do that, I've got to make sure that we get the subscribers up, we get the interest up, and we get our audience up. Thank you, Fred, for the question. Next episode, episode three, we're going to take a look at the issue. Do pot podcast subscribers matter anymore? A couple of minutes ago, I spoke to the fact that I really want you to subscribe to this show. Well, not everybody's pushing that. Not everybody's doing that. Do subscribers matter anymore? We'll take a look at that. This is the part of the show where we take a look at time sensitive issues, issues that I think are, you know, time sensitive. Hopefully this stuff will be ever going to be around for a while. If you're listening this way in the future because you've come back and listened to this, one of the cool benefits of podcasting, the specifics to this really won't mean a lot to you, but it's pretty cool right now because as I record this, we are the number podcast in itunes right now about podcasting, which is very, very cool. We don't have our rankings in Stitcher yet because, well, stitcher just takes a little while to do that. But if you have not subscribed yet, please subscribe in itunes. If you'd like to make a splash, subscribe in. Both of them haven't gotten around to the other directories yet. And if you have subscribed, here's what I'd really love. I'd love a review. I want to get this podcast out. Anybody who knows about it, I want reviews, I want shares. I want you spreading the word. If we're going to get that tribe going, Fred, that's exactly what we have to do. So if you haven't subscrib subscribed yet, please do. If you have subscribed, leave a review. This is the podcast report@the podcastreport.com My name is Paul Colligan. We'll talk to you next week.