Podango Warns That The End Is Near
Dec 26th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Featured Story, Podcast Distribution, Podcast Hosting, Podcasting Networks 
Podcasting startup Podango announced today that its future is uncertain and warned its users to make sure they’ve got their data backed up before the end of this month.
Here’s the announcement from Podango President Douglas Smith:
We at Podango believe that you, our customers, are our most valuable asset. Given this belief, we have always done our best to be honest and forthright in our dealings with you. The current uncertainties of the financial market has affected many of us in this nation. As of this morning, Podango is no longer immune to it’s effects. Our ability to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider. On Monday we will have a more definitive direction. As of today, the last day to move or secure your data is December 31st. RSS feeds will need to be redirected by this date as well. It is our hope that the events of the next few days will allow us to continue providing you a service based upon a subscription fee. Again, we will know more on Monday and you will be notified of any changes to the above plan as soon as we are made aware of them.
We will have a link in the My Podango section of the Podcasters login page by Monday which will allow you to redirect your RSS feed off of the Podango feed to a new feed. Instructions will accompany that tool. Also on Monday we will provide you with alternatives for show hosting.
Inactive accounts, those without recent uploads or downloads, may be already been deleted from the system. If you need to contact us, please use info@podango.com.
Again I personally apologize for this notice of caution. We truly appreciate your business.
While Smith attributes Podango’s state to the effects of the financial market, Podango and other podcast hosting services have not demonstrated that there’s much of a need for podcast-specific Web hosting services. While the number of podcasts and podcast listeners is growing at an amazing rate, there are open source tools (such as WordPress) for publishing podcasts and a competitive market for Web hosting. More advanced services, like dynamic ad insertion for podcasts, could just be ahead of demand.
Also – it doesn’t help Podango’s cause that the 2 1/2 year-old site still shows itself as being in beta.
Podcango’s situation raises the question: Is there a real need for podcast-specific hosting services?
Is there a real need for podcast-specific hosting services? Sure there is, just as there’s still a need for dial-up internet service providers. Neither one is very practical for the vast majority of users, but if you don’t have access to broadband or your own podcast hosting solution they’re pretty much the only option.
Their service is currently down – ‘503 Service Unavailable’.
There is Definetly a need for Podcast Hosting.
Podango’s Widget was the best I have seen/used for Podcasts.
From within the widget, anyone could grab embed code, jump to another episode created by the podcaster, download podcasts, subscribe by rss feeds and iTunes.
The majority of Podcast Directories only want your RSS feed to populate their site.
Since this news, I have been looking for someplace else to host my Podcasts (over 1GB) and finding very little places to host for free. The ones that are charging, their rates are out of line.
It looks like I am going to have to set up my own hosting and rss feed.
I think there’s a need for an integrated media hosting and podcast publishing service. As far as I know Libsyn and Podbean are doing fine offer those services. The difference between those services and Podango (and the soon to be shuttered Podcast Spot) comes down to business model. Podango gave away their services for free in return for sales of podcast advertising. Ad supported media hosting is a bad model because there isn’t a lot of money to be made from mass, auto inserted podcast advertising. The results of such advertising are poor and the CPMs are low as a result.
Here’s an idea for Podango. Create a valuable service that is simple, offers good features for media publishers and works well. Then put a price on the service and charge money for it.
[…] Podango has had issues for a while now, and that this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Podcasting News asks if there’s even a need for podcast hosting service. Wizzard, done quite well for […]
http://www.podOmatic.com
While we are sorry to hear about Podango, Rawvoice/Blubrry remains a viable and profitable company we have hosting and publishing services available for those needing a new hosting service operated on a professional CDN. See blubrry store at blubrry.com
[…] [via Podcasting News] […]
Podcasters need to understand that quality service and performance can not be had for free. Podango started out strong but soon began to flounder. Those who may be offended at having to pay for quality hosting may need to question how much (personally and financially) they are willing to invest. We as podcasters need a sound business model to make the quantity of money in order to invest in professional services. Companies that have been luring hobbyist with a “Free” flag will follow in the steps of Podango. It is only going to get worse regarding web hosting for podcasters. Now back to the “sound business model”…any one have ideas for podcasters not associated with traditional media or T.W.I.T.?
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We use, and pay, Libsyn. They’re great!
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What will happen to the media uploader that Podango bought from GigaVox before GigaVox disappeared (except the podcast academy feed)?
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Either popularity or reputation (particularly for commercial orgs) dictates using professional hosting solutions. The problem for the Podangos is that as cloud options such as Mosso’s Cloud Files and the various front-ends for Amazon’s S3 become more user-friendly they present very cost-effectice and uber-reliable hosting solutions.
The hosting sites have to value-add: be it widgets or community (YouTube) or promotional tools, or editing / conversion / publishing tools or dynamic ad insertion, analytics, RSS management, etc. Only if they go substantially beyond what the cloud offers can they survive.
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Podango is rising sun. I hope will be better soon.