Love, like humans, has different forms. Different forms and different stories. However, the classic romantic story enthusiast cannot but accept his undying affection for the classic romantic stories. The story where our King emerges out of fire and protects our Queen, only to be separated at the end.
The story begins with a computer company who had suddenly started producing handheld music playing devices. The company was named after the popular fruit, Apple. The company had acquired an iconic status amongst its users, and its recent project was going to revolutionize the whole world. Although, it wasn’t aware of the number of ways it was going to do it.
Apple had created buzz with the launch of its new product iPod, our hero. A portable slim compact way of carrying all your music library. However, the new product also created a new inflow of people on the digital audio space.
People began experimenting with the music industry’s new avatar. And then someone decided as to why not use the audio medium to create content other than the musicals. Different other possibilities in the audio spectrum like Storytelling, Discussions, Book Reading, Interviews, etc. were now feasible. And here comes our Queen, the Podcasts.
A Podcast was everything we discussed at the end of the previous paragraph. It was a medium for the broadening of the audio market. However, one would ask as to why the medium was named so? I mean how can anyone forget the use of the prominent keyword ‘POD’ in the new medium which has a similarity with ‘some other quite popular entity’.
Actually the use of the name ‘Podcast’ for the medium wasn’t a business decision. It was the term chosen by the people. At that time digital audio was synonymous with the iPod. The term was the entanglement of the two terms ‘iPod’ and ‘Broadcast’. The naming was spontaneous, by the virtue of our Hero’s popularity.
Several attempts were made to change the name of the format to some other name. However, our Heroine stood strong and held her ground. She got the support of the people who kept using the name again and again and thus unofficially sealed the name.
Our hero iPod too gave complete support to the platform in spite of pretty evident trademark violations. This must also be viewed with the historical special emphasis the company has maintained on its brand value. Not only did the Hero allowed the genre to flourish, but rather provided support by adding podcasting features to its iTunes and iPod software.
Our Heroine went on to achieve even higher levels of popularity because of the advent of smartphones. Another one of our Hero’s brilliant contributions to mankind. Podcasts continued to flourish among brands including Apple as well as several others.
However, the growth of the other platforms also meant another thing. Problems for our hero. iPods weren’t that in demand as they were once. The problem of having music in your pocket was solved. Now the problem was the extra space an iPod was taking besides a smartphone. Considering that the smartphone could also provide the same features, iPod became non-relevant. People still used the device, however it was for nostalgic reasons rather than any actual use.
It has been announced that the iPod would be discontinued.This marked the end of our glorious hero, who not only achieved success but rather brought a total digital revolution.
Our heroine, Podcast continues to enjoy a success that is in no mood of slowing any soon. The medium is popular across all platforms and it won’t be an overstatement to also say that Podcasts are ‘carrying’ these platforms.
However, our Heroine still carries in her heart the love for our beloved and glorious Hero.
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