1. RSS Enclosures
Podcasting originated in 2000. Tristan Louis, an XML developer, suggested an enclosure to the 0.92 version of RSS. Former MTV VJ and well-known podcaster, Adam Curry, had also been thinking about how to deliver audio and video media to people through broadband around the same time.
2. Grateful Dead
Adam Curry pitched his idea of adding audio and video elements to Dave Winer, the developer of RSS 0.92, in October of 2000. After modifying RSS to support enclosures, Winer released a Grateful Dead recording through RSS on January 11, 2001.
3. Audio Enclosure Audience
RSS audio enclosures had few users and virtually no audience for the first couple years after its development. Winer began working with Christopher Lyndon, a Boston-based radio show host, and together began creating interviews to distribute via RSS feeds. For a while, Lyndon was the only regular podcaster.
4. The iPod
Curry introduced the RSS2iPod AppleScript for pulling mp3s from an RSS feed and loading them to an iPod in October of 2003. Shortly after, the iPod mini debuted in January of 2004 and was hugely successful. The iPod’s success is credited with accelerating the growth and popularity of podcasts.
5. “Podcasting”
Earlier referred to as “audio blogging,” the first publishing of the term “podcasting” dates back to an article published in The Guardian in February 2004 by Ben Hammersley. The term is a portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcasting.”
6. Daily Source Code
On August 13, 2004, Curry began the podcast Daily Source Code. He began with: “Well, good morning everybody, and welcome to the Daily Source Code. Thank you very much for taking the time to download this MP3 file. Some of you may have received it overnight as an enclosure in your aggregator. In that case, thanks for subscribing. So first what I’d like to do is to explain exactly what this is, and what the Daily Source Code is going to be.”
7. iPodder
Although not the very first, Daily Source Code is relevant in that it was a test for using an improved Apple Script to pull audio enclosures off RSS and use iTunes to sync it to an iPod. This software became iPodder, which was one of the first “podcatchers” (the term used for software that could automatically deliver RSS files to iPods).
8. Mainstream Podcasting
In June of 2005, Apple developed its own “podcatcher” directly in iTunes. It led to the end of iPodder and other podcatchers, but it greatly helped expand the audience for podcasters. Apple itself made podcasting mainstream with the release of iTunes 4.9.
9. iPod nano
In September of 2005, Steve Jobs launched the iPod nano to mass success. In just 17 days, the nano had one million sales. It was used widely by podcasters and podcast audiences. “Podcast” was also declared the Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionary in 2005.
10. Continued Growth
By November 2006, 12 percent of internet users reported downloading podcasts. This signified a growth of 5 percent in just seven months. With the release of the iPhone in 2007, that number grew to 19 percent.
11. The future of Podcasting
Today, accessibility to podcasts continues to grow. Many radio shows have converted to having a podcast form available, and many niche programs have developed and been successfully distributed. Many apps have been developed to easily stream content to mobile devices and large companies, such as Pandora, are looking into podcast distribution. With the increasing technology and distribution methods, the popularity of podcasts is likely to continue to grow.