29% of MP3 player owners have downloaded a podcast?
By Peter Rojas 
posted Apr 3rd 2005 8:42PM
posted Apr 3rd 2005 8:42PM
The Pew Internet and American Life Project did a survey of people who owned MP3 players and found that a full 29 percent of them had downloaded a podcast. Not sure how strictly they're defining the term "podcast", but to be honest, that sounds a little high for something so new. You know we dig podcasting, but it seems a little crazy that almost a third of all people who own MP3 players could have gotten into this podcasting thing that quickly, and when you look at the methodology of the survey—they did telephone interviews with only 208 people who owned players—it's not hard to imagine that there could be some serious skew in their results.
Pew....exactly whats in a new.
stinky poll all of them its all bull!
that percenage seems way too high.
what is podcast? can i use it for my mp3 player?
:)
Some schmukc puts an MP3 on his site for download and it's a "podcast?" That is the most retarded thing I've ever heard. Because, OMG! Before the iPod nobody was putting home brew shows onthe net for download in MP3 format! Nobody! iPod did it first! Yeah!
Todd: please don't spam these boards.
i meant to say whats in a name!
PEW exactly something stinks!
Obviously the numbers are off but if you think about it most people that have ipods (mp3 players in general) browse the internet. A lot of people like to do a little research when buy something as expensive as an Ipod and when you google ipod you are bound to come across pod casting, it’s a given.
The only thing new is the name "podcast" I have been downloading homemade radio shows in mp3 format for five years.
A secondary, but interesting point, is that the question asked of the MP3 owners was "Have you ever downloaded a podcast or internet radio program so you could listen to it on your digital audio player at a later time?"
In my opinion, the use of the terms 'downloaded' and 'internet radio program' obfuscate the results. Put those two terms together, and I could imagine a number of false positives from people thinking the surveyor eseentially meant "listened to the radio on the Internet".
If the question had been a less ambiguous "have you ever listened to time-shifted audio on a portable device?", I suspect they'd have received a different, lower response rate.
depending on where they go their sample audiences, that could be true... the run for student body president/vice president here at my college just ended, and both sets of candidates had podcasts...
a bunch of other similar events have 'em too...
then again, mostly only rich kids who's mommies and daddies buy them ipods go here... the white earbuds and and overpriced jackets (it's cold here) are all the rage...
According to the actual report, the survey only included 208 owners of iPods or MP3 players, which results in a margin of error on the MP3 player sample of plus or minus 7.5 points. Yikes! That means that when the report concludes that 11% of American adults say they own an iPod or other type of MP3 player it could really be anywhere from 3.5% to 18.5%, or roughly 7 million to 27 million people. This would put the number of people who have supposedly downloaded podcasts, based on the survey, at anywhere from roughly 2 million to 8 million people, assuming that the survey percentage of podcast listeners is still valid, which is highly unlikely given the small sample size and high margin of error. This number is still high, given that even Adam Curry is only reporting a listener base of 80-100K. So it's faily obvious that this survey is completely bogus, and if I were PEW I'd pull it before it completely discredits them.
The question produced what I’ll call a “vanity result”. iPod owners, mp3 player owners in general, like to think they’re cool, cutting edge type of folk. They’ve heard of podcasts and so it’s simple enough to tell the pollster they’ve downloaded one too when he asks. Half of them are lying so you can shave about 15% of the result I’d imagine.
I read engadget everyday and I've been hearing about podcasts, I have an iPod, etc, but even I haven't downloaded a podcast, so I highly doubt this. I doubt its over 5%.
15 of my friends have an mp3 player and use it frequently. I'm the only one that knows of a podcast..
I proudly remain podcast free.
Leoville, CoastToCoastAm, and CarTalk are my favorites!
Craig Patchett is a bit off on his reporting. The margin of error on the full sample of the PEW study is plus or minus two points. This gets applied to the 11% of adults who own iPods or MP3 players, which puts the range of ownership at 9% to 13%. The margin of error of plus or minus 7.5 points pertains to the sample that owns iPods or MP3 players, which means the share of these folks who have downloaded podcasts could range from 21.5% to 36.5% (29% +/- 7.5 points). Another interesting point from the study: "Nearly half of those who own iPods/MP3 players between the ages of 18-28 have downloaded podcasts, compared to about 20% of the owners of iPods/MP3 players over age 29 who have done so."
so a ...'podcast' is just a radio station recorded in mp3 format?
quote: so a ...'podcast' is just a radio station recorded in mp3 format?
No, think of it more as a web-log or blog in audio format rather than html/text - you listen to it as opposed to reading it. Format is usually talk or opinion, so that's where the radio comparison comes in.
29% is insanely high.
hah, this just goes to show how a buzzword can go too far... obviously they regard "podcasting" as any kind of music download from the internet to your ipod... otherwise how can it be so high? i never liked the term anyway because its not restricted to just ipods now is it??