Bambi Francisco

Calling all podcasters

Nearly 90% of  Internet users don't know what a podcast is, suggesting there may be a lot of resources - talent and money - expended by the early pioneers of podcast-related companies devoted to an audience that's just not there.  Yahoo just launched a new podcasting site, where would-be podcasters can make and search for podcasts.  I asked Yahoo's head of products, Geoff Ralston, how Yahoo plans on not overspending time and resources on this project.

Watch interview with Geoff

Why do we need record labels?

GarageBand.com CEO says 150,000 artists have put their songs up on the site.  Their songs are ranked by fellow musicians. With podcasting, GarageBand.com hopes the independent songs that many of his users are creating will hit the consumer market.  If the cost of producing and distributing music has declined dramatically, why does anyone need a record label? Ali says budding musicians still need record labels to promote the best artists. 

Watch my interview with Partovi