Podcasting Historical Timeline And Milestones

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2004

The Beginning: 2004
Adam Curry and Dave Winer are credited with the invention of podcasting. Who exactly did what is up for dispute, but in the end these are the two guys who got it rolling.

The Term: 2004-02
The term podcasting was mentioned by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper article.

First Services: 2004-10

Liberated Syndication (Libsyn.com) launches as the first podcast service provider.

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2005

Quit your day job: 2005-01
Podshow is created by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom. The phrase “Quit your day job” is batted around. Some producers are able to quit their day job. Many are not.

First People's Choice Award: 2005-04
Leo Laporte publishes the first episode of This Week in Tech. Later This Week In Tech wins the first People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Awards.

First Book: 2005-05
Podcasting: Do-it-yourself Guide by Todd Cochrane released.

iTunes: 2005-06
Apple iTunes 4.9 is released with native support for podcasts.

Presidential Podcast: 2005-07
George W. Bush is the first President to have his weekly address delivered as a podcast.

Podcast Search: 2005-10
Yahoo lanuches a podcast search site. People can listen and subscribe.

Six Figure $$: 2005-12
Mommycast inks a six figure deal with Dixie.

Dictionary: 2005-12
Podcast is declared the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

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2006

Mugglecast: 2006
Mugglecast wins People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Awards.

Steve Jobs: 2006-01
CEO of Apple Steve Jobs demonstrates how to make a podcast using Garageband in his keynote.

Blubrry Directory: 2006-07
Blubrry Podcast Directory Launches.

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2007

Keith and the GIrl: 2007
Keith and the Girl win People’s Choice Award at Podcast Awards.

World Record: 2007
Ricky Gervais sets Guinness World Record for most downloaded podcast at 261,670 per episode for the first month.

Feedburner: 2007-05
Google buys Feedburner for 100 million. Feedburner is a service many podcasters are using to create an iTunes compliant rss feed.

Yahoo: 2007-10
Yahoo closes its podcast directory.

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2008

Manager Tools: 2008
Manager Tools win the People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Awards.

Podpress: 2008
The developer of the Podpress plugin abandons plugin and when everyone upgrades to WordPress 2.6 they can’t make a new post. Eventually WordPress steps in to repair plugin.

Rising Stats: 2008
Edison Research reports Americans who have “heard of” podcasting is 37% Pew Research states that 19% of Internet users have downloaded a podcast.

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2009

Edison Research: 2009
Edison Research reports Americans who have “heard of” podcasting is 43% and 25% have consumed “downloadable media.” 32% of audio is consumed on portable media.

ESPN: 2009
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football wins People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Award.

WTF: 2009-09
After his terrestrial radio show is cancelled Marc Maron launches the WTF podcast.

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2010

Tell Em Steve Dave: 2010
Tell Em Steve Dave! Wins the People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Awards.

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2011

4Player: 2011
4Player Podcast wins the People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Awards.

Guinness World Record: 2011-05
Adam Carolla becomes the Guinness World Record holder for the most downloaded podcast after receiving 59,574,843 unique downloads from March 2009 to March 16, 2011.

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2012

Podcast Award: 2012
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football wins People’s Choice Award at the Podcast Award.

The Up Turn: 2012-05
Edison Research states 29% of Americans have listened to a podcast.

Google Listen: 2012-08
Google kills their “listen” app leaving no native podcast app on the android platform.

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2013

Patent Troll: 2013-02
Personal Audio “Patent Troll” sues high profile podcasters for royalties claiming they have a patent on podcasting from 2009.

1 billion!!!!!: 2013-06
Apple announces 1 billion podcast subscribers.

Electronic Frontier Foundation: 2013-10
Electronic Frontier Foundation files a petition with the US Trademark Office to invalidate the Personal Audio Patent.

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2015

President Obama on WTF Podcast: 2015-06-22
President Barack Obama is interviewed by Marc Maron on the WTF podcast.

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2016

Class of 2016 Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame: 2016-07
Dawn Miceli, Drew Domkus, Gary Leland, Mignon Fogarty, Rob Walch are inducted into the Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame.

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2017

Personal Audio patent troll: 2017-08
Court rules in favor of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in which the patent troll Personal Audio did not invent Podcasting.

Amazon Prime Video: 2017-10-13
Amazon Prime Video premiers Lore, a television show based on the popular podcast by Aaron Mahnke (ref. https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/13/16465922/lore-tv-series-review-amazon-prime-aaron-mahnke-campbell-scott-glen-morgan)

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2018

The Adventure Zone: 2018-07-17
The Adventure Zone (from Maximum Fun) publishes a tie-in graphic novel to their first season; the graphic novel hits third on the New York Times Best Sellers List: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/adventure-zone-graphic-novel-tops-new-york-times-trade-fiction-bestseller-list-1130198

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2019

Spotify Acquisitions: 2019-02-06
On 6 February 2019, Spotify acquired the podcast networks Gimlet Media and Anchor FM Inc., establishing itself as a major player in podcasting (ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify)

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2020

Joe Rogand And Spotify: 2020-05-19
Joe Rogan announced that he had signed a multi-year licensing deal with Spotify... (also ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify )

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