Newsweek recently ran an article titled:

Tivo for your iPod
A new technology allows listeners to subscribe to homemade radio shows and listen to them on their digital music players.

I think the article, though informative, missed the principal advantage that podcasting provides.

Yes, podcasting is like TIVO because once you download a podcast you can re-play it any time on your iPod or other MP3 player. But this is not the main reason for podcasting's potential to become a very important form of exposing independent music. The reason is that podcasting is CHEAP. Webcasting music, for instance, is expensive because of bandwidth costs. Podcasts are much less expensive to maintain and offer.

This allows many music bloggers and weblogs, who could not otherwise afford to, the opportunity to offer podcasts of their favorite music. This should strengthen the already influential music blogger community. It's the genuine poor man's broadcast outlet.

Also, because on demand interactive transmission to portable devices will be the exclusive domain of the corporations who can afford satellites and such, podcasting may help the Indies flourish in the portable device space. This technology may be quaint and kind of "retro," but it gives a shot to the Indies to be present on your MP3 player.

Check out ipodder.org to download podcasting software and learn more about it.