Play My Cards Right

So Jason Calacanis, Dave Winer and Peter Rojas have been “jokingly” talking up producing a limited run, luxury mp3 player. I think the original inspiration was right on, and some of the features they’re talking about are great:

• RSS based wi-fi file transfers
• Podcast recording
• NO DRM

However, I think instead of making the perfect mp3 player, they’re in danger of making the Dave Winer podcast player- a branded, commercial supported, podcast friendly monster that forgets that (most) people like podcasts in addition to their music, not the other way around. These three (possibly two- I don’t get the feeling Peter is all into podcatching) are forgetting that it has to be a great music player before it’s a great podcast player. Peter brought up a good point about mass storage mode players, though I personally have no problems with iTunes syncing- I sync 3 ipods between four computers and have never lost a track, I simply learned the use and limitations of the device, then built a workflow around them.

Overall, I think they’re on the right track but if this thing ever came to pass you’d be surprised how few people are really interested in Winerstein’s Monster. To sum it up, perhaps designing should be best left to designers, lest we arrive at:

Popularity: 22% [?]

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I’ll be on the Podcasting/Vlogging for Money Show (hosted By John C. Havens of About.com) this Wednesday, December 6 at 10:00PM EST.  Teamforcers would do well to participate in this through Talkshoe’s software or telephone interface.  Other guests include Chris Brogan and Justin Kownacki.
The subject?
It’s the age old question of “Art versus Commerce,” or “Craft or Cash.”  If you podcast/videocast/create new media, should you be entitled to get paid for what you do?  If so, how can you monetize successfully while not turning off your audience?

Because it’s through Talkshoe, it’s actually a live program that gets podcasted at a later date.
Podcast feed.

Popularity: 11% [?]

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