Why Be Popular? (Podcast Rankings)

Playlist: Apple changes podcast rankings Thing is, the very notion of ranking podcasts (or voting for them) seems to run against one of podcasting's most interesting feature, related to the Long Tail principle. Specialized podcasts with few subscribers are as much part of the "success story" as those so-called "mainstream podcasts" which often attempt to mimmic the ways attitudes of mainstream radio from the US. When you add the problem with bandwidth for small popular podcasts, it seems that being an obscure podcast only catering to a few like-minded people is the way to go as opposed to having the podcast with the most buzz. Oh, but, yes, right, they're thinking in this mindframe of eyeballs and eardrums. "The more listeners you get, the better your advertising revenues will be." "What? Don't have advertising yet? Well, this is your chance, got a great deal for you!" Talk about reification...