Matt May at Corante reports that “podcasting paraphernalia” (a word spell-checkers were born to flag) are starting to aggregate in interesting ways. I mean dangerous ways, of course, in my own case, seeing as how Guitar Center/Musician’s Friend, already a source of major podcasting goodness for me, now has kits for sale to ease the way into wholesale addiction, I mean devotion.
Market economies: sometimes they pull through. I hope my own spending has in some small way contributed to this encouraging development (tongue firmly planted in cheek, or maybe not).
[...] What appears to be a cool new recording device is the Gemini iKey. It will record audio to any USB memory device. As the name suggests, it was designed to be partnered with the iPod, but it can also use a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Just plug the device into the USB port, plug a stereo pair of RCA cables from the source into the other end and it will record either MP3 (128, 192, or 256 Kbps), or WAV audio files. LED light on the top of the device will inform you of how much memory is left to record to, and each press of the record button creates a new file in the selected format. Retail price is $229, but is available online for around $150. It’s something else for Gardner to add to his podcasting goodness list. [...]
You might think this is “niche,” but when I looked at the 2 podcast kits for PCs that they are selling at the Musicians Friend web site, they were “Out Of Stock.” Niche indeed.
I agree with Jerry–you might be a part of a bigger niche than you think. Or maybe you’re a Maven in Tipping Point terminology, with hordes of us in the blogosphere counting on you to help us find the gems hidden in the overgrown jungle of the Web. (I’ve only posted one podcast and already I’ve got to spend $200 on more equipment. If I buy it, will I sound as good as you do?)