The era of pCommerce: Podcast eCommerce has arrived.

[celerityfm]

Like it or not its here. Apple has finally unleashed the 500-pound gorilla of true Podcast eCommerce.

To quote from a paragraph I wrote on it in the Podcast ChapterTool wiki (http://www.voxmedia.org/wiki/PodcastChapterTool):

For the first time, true podcast ecommerce, or pCommerce for short, is possible. Chapters add the ability to embed links and graphics displayed in sync with the podcast. Now podcasters can discuss a product or website, place a graphic representation for it on the screen and simultaneously provide a hyperlink that, when clicked, would give the podcaster credit for that clickthrough and tie in to existing e-commerce systems.

And from my weblog (http://www.celerityfm.com)'s post on pCommerce (http://www.celerityfm.com/2005_07_01_archive.php4):

Thats it. Its all over now. I was updating a tutorial on the Apple Podcast ChapterTool that I created and in the middle of it I had a realization. Apple's new ChapterTool allows for something brand new to podcasts: True Podcast eCommerce! Instantly a phrase came to mind: "pCommerce" - check out what I wrote about it here: Podcast eCommerce or pCommerce for short and according to Google it seems that I've coined both of those phrases! Of course people may have talked about it in a podcast but, unfortunately, there is no "podcast audio search" yet.

I cohost a [url=http://www.k9cast.compodcast about dogs[/url] and have already implemented this chapter technology in the podcast. It would be dead simple for me to grab an affiliate id from some pet supplies place and place links in my podcast using that id to their sites to get cuts on sales and clickthroughs for products discussed during the podcast. Google should get in on this, "Podcast Adwords" is not too far away, I promise. The question is, is this what Apple intended? Their New Music Tuesday podcast features links directly to the iTunes Music Store where you can buy the song you wanted, so maybe so!

So. Are YOU going to be ready for this new era of podcasting?

[celerityfm]

More thoughts- this would only work with iTunes/iPod users (though thats the majority of mp3 player users), and it wouldn't work unless the users were listening to podcasts through iTunes or if they went back, after hearing an ad/discussion about something they are interested in, and found the part in the podcast that was discussed. Though this is easy now thanks to the chapter system.

Even still, you can bet that Apple has already got test kits going where people can optionally press a button on their iPod and upon syncing the iPod has already kicked off a process to make a purchase of music played on the iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast. Anything is possible after the revelation that they'd been experimenting with OS X on intel chips...

[docsnavely]

I'm wondering how long it will take before all those "free" buttons turn into "$.99" buttons!

[KHPR]

My biggest problem with the art and tags with Chapter Tool is that the window is too small. If you click on it you get a bigger window, but it doesn't update. I'm not going to switch over to using this until they give you a bigger window display that makes sense. This was kind of an odd one for Apple to do. It's not like them.

[celerityfm]

Heh. There will be some "$.99" buttons, but they won't be on YOUR podcast unless you want them to be :P

My biggest problem with the art and tags with Chapter Tool is that the window is too small. If you click on it you get a bigger window, but it doesn't update. I'm not going to switch over to using this until they give you a bigger window display that makes sense. This was kind of an odd one for Apple to do. It's not like them.

Understood... but Apple is already ahead of you: check this out (http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2791) :P

I'm sure they will add that kind of functionality to iTunes as well :)