It starts today.

 

The Podcast Network is ushering in a new era of global media companies.

 

While the RIAA, MPAA and TV networks try to stop their customers from using their content in the manner that best suits their needs, we are starting again. While they continue to litigate, harass and threaten their customers, we make the customers creators. They continue to cry "it's all about the artist" while systematically sacrificing art for commerce. They continue to cry about profits being eaten away by technology while making record revenues through the cynical exploitation of every new technology they can control to squeeze further dollars out of customers who buy the same old content in the latest format. They create content which panders to people's basest instincts in the name of entertainment. They manipulate the images we see and the sounds we hear to coerce us into buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't even like. They tell us how to vote and lie to us about their motivations. Then, when we confront their lies, they blame scapegoats and emerge unscathed. They smear a thin coat of entertainment over their advertisements and call it product positioning. They spend billions finding new ways to lie to us and manipulate us. They betray us at every step.

 

The insanity has to stop.

 

Starting 2005 we will produce our own content. Today audio. Tomorrow video. We will create the content in our own image. We will distribute it globally. We will license it under Creative Commons.

 

The Podcast Network. It's your world. They just borrowed it for a while.

 

 

Comments

[Raduza]

Amen

[Frank Arrigo]

yeah baby!

'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

[Michael Specht]

On ya guys!

[Nicole Simon]

What a great mission statement for tpn. :)

[Molly]

Okay, seeings as you guys are bucking the system and producing new media because "The insanity has to stop", does that mean we won't be getting the ads about the gadget show being brought to me by "Possibly your Competitor" (still haven't found what that company sells or where their website is).

I really thought you guys where trying to make a crust out of it, but obviously your doing it for the social good.

Good for you and best of luck.

Molly

[Cameron]

yeah we'll have ads Molly. But they will be relevant. And they will be transparent. If you subscribe to the Tablet PC show, chances are we'll have ads which will tell you about the latest Tablet PC accessories or form factors. If you subscribe to the Mobiles Show, we'll have ads about mobile devices. We don't have a problem with advertising. Mick used to work for one of Australia's largest advertising companies. We have a problem with manipulation. With deceit. With mindless rubbish peddled as entertainment.

The Social Good? I don't know what that is. I'm doing it for the individual good. I'm doing it for me. For my kids. I'm building shows I want to listen to. I'm interviewing people I want to get to know. This isn't a revolution - it's an evolution.

[Nicole Simon]

Molly: Doing it just for the social good and no advertisement - with both of their backgrounds and profile? Are you kidding? :o)

The fun about Mick and Cam is that they combine these two things. And they don't have to be seperate things, they absolutly fit together.

[Mike Seyfang]

http://www.texperkins.net/song.php?aid=1&sid=39

;-)

[Cameron]

Molly, you may be right. Maybe we'll sell out. Maybe we're just like the rest. Maybe. But as soon as we do that, people will stop listening to our shows, and the switching costs in podcasting are damn near zero. There will be hundreds of thousands of shows in the podsphere in a couple of years time and all we have is our word and our balls. If we treat our listeners disrespectfully, then I hope they desert us and go somewhere else. We will have earned their disrespect.

All I can tell you is that right here right now, this isn't just about making a buck. I've done that before. This is about building something worthwhile WHILE we make a buck. This is about doing something we believe in, having fun and seeing if the bucks follow. Naive? Foolish? Perhaps. This is about taking The Cluetrain and putting it to the test.

[Molly]

Thanks for the reply Cam. I don't know that people would leave if you did the McDonalds thing (example only). I think most people relise that theres no free lunch and as long as the content is good, they will stay (i.e. has your podership (I should copyright/patent this term(whoo, I think I was just channelling Bill Gates)) dropped since the Mick ads started in the begining and end of shows?)

Keep up the good work. I love the idea and hope you stay true to yourselves!

Molly

[Nicole Simon]

They might stop if Mick does not come up with a more alive presentation of it. (He sounds *very* serious and it has to much sound effects - or is this just a new mic setting?)

[Molly]

Yes, (To steal someone elses line I heard the other day) he should lay off the Vigra as he sounds a bit stiff!
Molly

[Nicole Simon]

Or just use the V. for other purposes ;)

[jk]

But what are you going to do AFTER lunch?

[Mike Seyfang]

Hey cam, grab yer lawyer, have a peek at this post -'http://spaces.msn.com/members/mikese/Blog/cns!1p6t4igVZ5-R-npCeqnrN2MA!167.entry', then tune into my blog for a couple of days to see how we might connect Adam Curry to the PodCastNetwork via the CD launch of a struggling young Adelaide band that I am supporting tonight!!

(and shake up those crusty old buggers in Redmond while we are at it)

Fang ;-)
(Mike Seyfang)