There are some things that can be taken for granted because it seems like they have been around forever providing us with pleasure and convenience. Podcasting fits into this category because it is so popular.

When It All Began

The history of podcasting is an interesting one. A form of podcasting was provided through RSS feed after this had been modified in its software to be able to provide more than just text. The newly developed software allowed for the integration of larger media files and the RSS was able to take feeds from different resources. The results were the RSS was able to provide data for the mp3s.

The Progression

At least one journalist would take his audio interviews and insert them into his blog posts as mp3s. This was dubbed as the “Weblog for the Ears”. Today, journalists and many different forms of news media use different forms of podcasts to reach their target markets.

Podcasting Popularity

Development continued where audio could then be transferred to iTunes which then could be listened to on mp3 players. The testing for this took place on the Daily Source Code. For this reason, it was considered to be the first podcast when it occurred in 2004.

Following this, there came a podcast hosting platform. By 2005 the first daily news podcast was introduced. Podcasting continued to grow in its popularity to the point where by 2014 there were more than one billion people subscribing for podcasts and it continues to grow.

Famous Names in the Podcasting Industry

There were several people that contributed to getting podcasting where it is today. These includes:

• Adam Curry and Dave Winer – These are the two individuals who put the time and effort into changing the RSS feed. Mr. Winer was a software developer and was instrumental in this process.
• Christopher Lydon -He saw a great use for the early podcast as an audio delivery for his blogs.
• Steve Jobs – Steve brought more recognition to podcasts when podcasts were made available on the 4.9 version of iTunes.

Women in Podcasting

There are several men who have gained a reputation for their input into podcasting such as Ira Glass, Alex Blumberg as well as Jad Abumrad. There have also been some notable women who have contributed to the popularity of podcasting.

• Jenna Weiss-Berman – For those familiar with Buzzfeed and podcasts such as ‘Women of the Hour’ or ‘Another Round,’ Jenna’s name must be familiar. Along with several other women, she played a part in connecting the word Buzzfeed and Podcasts. Adding to the popularity women like Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton have taken Another Round to a whole new level.

Those who enjoy podcasts have a lot to thank those early developers for as well as for those who enhanced it, along with today’s’ producers and hosts.