Marketplace, which airs on NPR, is probably my favorite audio show out there. Its a half hour audio show that talks about the day’s business news, but in a way that is immensely interesting and engaging. But to my great frustration, its not available as a free podcast like practically every other show on NPR? Why, you ask? Well, and I am speculating here as I have no facts, but its probably because they are tied down to a poorly negotiated contract with Audible, a company who’s business model is completely shot to hell with the advent of the podcast and is desperate to keep “partners” providing them with content. I mean, you can get Marketplace @ Audible for $2.00 an episode or $70 a year, but who is realistically going to pay for that in the world of podcasting? The number of subscribers has to be a miserable number. On the area of Audible that promotes Marketplace, there are zero, zip, nada, customer comments. I can hear the tumbleweeds. Its heresy to pay for a show that’s aired on National Public Radio.
So I ask you, fair reader and Marketplace listener, stand up and be heard. Send Marketplace an email and implore them to release Marketplace as a free podcast.
Yes, I’ve seen it. Been subscribing for a while now. This post is over a year old.
In case you hadn’t seen it:http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=749576
I completely agree. The same goes for many other NPR shows (CarTalk, Diane Rehm, etc). It seems like NPR (remember, it stands for Nationaly PUBLIC Radio) should be made freely available by mandate of the very mission statement of public broadcasting.Perhaps we should email that senator who got an ipod from his daughter ;)