Audible debuts tools to measure podcast interest

• If digital audio information provider Audible is successful with its new product and service, podcasting will become the latest digital medium to successfully set sail on a sea of advertising dollars.
• Audible of Wayne, New Jersey, said on Friday it will debut Wordcast, a set of tools that could transform podcasting from a free-form hobbyist and amateur radio enthusiast platform into a measurable advertising vehicle.
• Today podcasters, whether they are hobbyists or commercial radio stations, are unable to measure much more than how many times their podcasts have been downloaded.
• With Wordcast, podcasters will be able to measure that along with the number of pass-along listeners.
• "A podcaster could see only three downloads, but have 10,000 listeners because the podcast has been emailed to that many people," said Audible spokesperson David Joseph.
• Next year Wordcast will add the ability to measure how far into the podcast listeners got.
• This, of course, would affect ad placement and ad revenue.
• The user licenses the Wordcast tools and buys Audible's tracking service.
• Audible's Wordcast podcasting platform will play on the Apple iPod and 160 other devices in Audible's .AA file format, which the company said is the most widely playable file format on portable devices, second only to MP3.
• "Our format is the only one compatible with long-form audio, so it enables measurement," said Mr. Joseph.
• With Wordcast, podcasters will be able to build multiple revenue streams around capabilities such as dynamic ad insertion, advertising management, underwriting, and secured transactions.
• "Today it's tough for content providers to build a rate card because they don't know where their content is going, who is listening to it, and how long they are listening to it," said Mr. Joseph.