ABC News.com interviews Steve Jobs

ABC News.com posted an interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs today. His Steveness and ABC News reporter Jake Tapper discussed the addition of podcasting to the iTunes music store, podcasting in general as well as what can be described as Apple's dual focus: computers and music.

For me, the most interesting part of the interview occurred when Mr. Tapper asked Steve about the average user's ability to create and contribute a podcast. While noting that many professional news and entertainment outfits have contributed podcasts to the iTunes Music Store already, like NPR, ABC News, Disney and ESPN, Mr. Tapper asks if there's room for folks like you and me: "Will the average man or woman who has their own podcast on their home computer and sends it out on their Web site, are they gonna be part of the directory?"  A good question, to which Steve replied, "You know, somebody in their garage making a podcast talking about you know, what's on their mind, whether it's their commentary on new movies that have come out in the last few weeks to whatever. And so there's a wide range...we're not allowing any pornography. And we're not allowing— you know,
copyright infringement and things like that. But other than those few guidelines you know, it's the Wild West."

Pretty cool. Steve also goes on to say that he expects podcasts to remain free, though advertising may be tagged onto certain podcasts in the future. And as we all know, Steve sees the future on an almost daily basis.  Incidentally, you may subscribe to the ABC News podcast here via iTunes (note: link will open iTunes)