Wizzard Software has announced 2010 financial results, recording a $4.1 million net loss, on revenues of $5,5 million in 2010, a drop from their $6.5 million net loss in 2009..

Wizzard notes that, in terms of net loss, this was Wizzard’s best annual performance in over 8 years.

They also note that “We have a history of losses and we may never achieve profitability.”

Wizzard derives its revenue from podcast publishing platform fees, podcast advertising sales, App sales as well as through speech recognition and text-to-speech programming tools, distributable engines and speech related consulting services and support.  Additionally, Wizzard derives revenues through the offering of home healthcare services through its wholly-owned subsidiary Interim Healthcare of Wyoming, Inc.

Revenues increased in 2010 by 7%. The increase was driven by Wizzard’s Healthcare segment.

2010 Business Highlights:

• For 2010, Wizzard Media, through their podcast-hosting service Libsyn, received 1.64 billion download requests for podcast episodes, with an average of 4.47 million episode requests per day vs. an average of 3.81 million requests per day in 2009.
• During the fourth quarter, 2010, the Wizzard Media Network hit a record high of 19,660,000 monthly unique audience members requesting 465,701,849 podcast episodes.
• Wizzard Media finished 2010 with 1,002 Podcast Apps and delivered 77 million advertising impressions over the course of the year.

Wizzard’s 2010 SEC filing can be found here.

Audio platform SoundCloud has announced a beta podcast release program. SoundCloud has built a large and growing fan base over the past year with its capability to create and upload audio files, and then promote and share users’ sound creations across the web. A number of apps are available for creating and sharing SoundCloud files across various devices and platforms.

SoundCloud is now in the process of offering RSS feed capability, making the site of keen interest to podcasters and their subscribers. Podcasters who are interested in taking part in the beta RSS feature rollout are invited to   fill out this form at SoundCloud.

According to the company’s announcement, current and aspiring podcasters are all invited to take part in the beta RSS program. In addition, “the best and most interesting applications will get a special beta account too so you can really test drive the platform.”  A list of current podcasts can be found on the SoundCloud blog.

Features for the podcast release include:

• RSS capability for your sounds
• Set which sounds are in your RSS feed during upload
• Enable RSS as a default option

Check out these links for further information on the SoundCloud podcast subscription feature rollout

• http://soundcloud.com/101/podcasts
• http://soundcloud.com/101/podcasting-101

Last week, Wizzard Media announced support for AdMob, Google’s Mobile Ad network. AdMob is the largest mobile advertising network with over 300 billion global impressions.

Additionally, Wizzard announced nearly 30 audio and video Apps, available now for use on the Android smartphone.   The latest Android version of Wizzard’s App adds the popular iPhone App feature, audio playback, with full background and multitasking support. According to Millennial Media, ad impressions for Android devices tied Apple’s iOS for the first time last month as each claimed 37 percent of the U.S. market based on revenue.

The newly launched Android Apps include some of Wizzard’s best selling Apps from Apple’s App Store and chalked up 9.2 million media downloads last month. Joining other familiar Wizzard Media Network names Grammar Girl and Zig Ziglar is newcomer 1938 Media. Loren Feldman of 1938 Media is a featured video blogger at The Huffington Post, making his debut in the Android Marketplace.

The Android smartphone continues to grow in popularity, outselling its closest rival, Apple’s iPhone, by a nearly two-to-one margin in the third quarter of 2010 as reported by NPD, a market research firm.

Wizzard aims to convert the 700 Apps it currently offers through Apple’s App Store to also be available in the Android Marketplace over the next month, in time for the post-Christmas sales jump from the surge in new devices hitting the market. The standard base-price for Wizzard’s App for Android will be $1.99, with additional features, paid in-App upgrades and ongoing subscription packages offered in the near future. Revenue from downloadable mobile Apps is predicted to surge from $6.8 billion worldwide this year to $29.5 billion by 2013, according to the research firm Gartner Inc.

Wizzard Apps now available in the Android Marketplace include: 1938 Media, 58% Geek Podcast App, A WindowtotheMagic, Anime Pulse – News and Reviews, Are We Alone, BEST OF THE LEFT, Books and Ideas, Brain Burps About Books, Brain Science App, Duct Tape Marketing, Filmspotting – movie reviews+, Gamertag Radio App, Grammar Girl – Podcast App, Inspire Podcast – Zig Ziglar, Jim Harold’s Campfire, Motion Traxx Radio, Paranormal Podcast, Photography 101, Pod F. Tompkast, Skepticality– Skeptic Magazine, Smart Mouths, Spanish 2 Go, The Cell Phone Junkie, The History of Rome, The Murverse, The New Republic, The Paranormal Report, The Steve Dahl Show, IBDeditorials Daily Podcast, Low Budget FM — Comedy Podcast, Meditation Oasis.

Podcasts are about to break into some new territory.

Commercial Radio Australia and Beijing Jolon Digital Media Broadcasting today announced plans to develop a DAB+ digital radio application that will allow podcasts to be sent via the broadcast band directly to a listener’s radio, without the need to connect to the Internet.

The technology, called Push Radio, will send an audio file directly to a DAB+ digital radio receiver via the airwaves, instead of requiring listeners to connect their iPod or mp3 player to the Internet or to sync via an Internet-connected computer.

The two organisations will set up a task force to test the current technical standards for DAB+ and DAB+ Push Radio and hope to have a trial of the system in Australia late in 2010.

“To free listeners from the necessity to connect to the Internet to receive podcasts and other specific information and targeted programming is a major step forward for DAB+ digital radio,” according to CRA’s Joan Warner.

“Push Radio will make a podcast even more accessible for all digital radio listeners.”

What do you think of CRA’s plan to deliver podcasts via digital radio? Is this the future of podcasting or the last hurrah for radio?

Image: A. Germain

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Apple iPad will be available starting this Saturday – and it looks like the company has another hit product. Pre-orders are in the hundreds of thousands and iPad suppliers are forecasting 8 million to 10 million iPad shipments in 2010.

That’s a lot of iPads – and a lot of people that will now be reading eBooks. While the Kindle has been relatively successful niche product, the iPad is a mainstream multi-function device – and it is expected to ship with 30,000 free ebooks available.

With numbers like these, it’s clear that a new platform for publishing is here.

Are iBooks The New Podcasts?

Apple’s iBook sneak preview isn’t nearly as sexy as the “motion magazine” Viv Mag or Penguin’s forward-thinking concepts for ebooks.

Apple’s eBook / iBook examples, though, look like they could be published by mortals. They look like something podcasters and bloggers could whip up over a couple of weekends.

And, out of the hundreds of thousands of podcasters and millions of bloggers, there are going to be a lot of people interested in publishing ebooks for those 8-10 million people buying iPads in 2010.

eBooks are going to be the new podcasts – not replacing podcasts, but becoming the latest user publishing platform. Just as the iPod provided a mass audience platform for podcasts, the iPad will create a mass audience platform for eBooks.

We’re still looking for the Pagemaker of iBooks – a cheap or free eBook/iBook publishing tool that’s as user-friendly as the typical iPhone app.

It’s coming, though, and once it hits, book publishing will never be the same.

Apple has updated its official recommendations on for how to submit your podcast to iTunes.

Here’s what they recommend:

Test Your Podcast Feed In iTunes:

You should first verify that you can successfully subscribe to your feed using the Advanced menu in iTunes:

1. Select Advanced, Subscribe To Podcast in iTunes;
2. Paste in the URL of your podcast feed and select “OK”;
3. Select the Podcast icon in the left navigation of iTunes. Verify that your podcast shows up as you expect it.

British comedian Ricky Gervais has translated his popular podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show, into an animated series for HBO.

The animated series takes the audio of the podcast and puts animation to it, intercutting retro-styled animated scenes with animated versions of Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington.

See the HBO site for details.

Podcast hosting network Wizzard Media today announced the availability of In App Purchasing for its Podcast Apps in the iTunes App store.

Wizzard’s iPhone App is designed to be quickly customized for each podcast. It lets podcast publishers offer their own iPhone App.

With In App Purchasing capabilities, podcast publishers will be able to offer their paid audience additional features and content, charging a one-time fee or a reoccurring subscription price.

According to Wizzard, their top publishers have converted about a quarter of their audience from free, to paid users, with an average app price of $1.99.

“Now, podcasting becomes a platform that converts audiences to revenue, accelerated by the micropayment billing process that Apple has created with the App store,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO. “We believe this new process is the future model for how digital media will be published, audiences grown and revenues derived.”

The updated App was recently approved by Apple and is available for Wizzard’s podcast companion App publishers immediately.

EmailWire NewsWire, a press release distribution service, is now offering podcasting as part of their services:

When a client purchases a press release distribution package for $199 or more, the summary, contact information and website address of the company’s press release is read by GroupWeb Radio’s host and podcasted to potential 38 million of listeners on iTunes, Zune network, mobile phones and podcast directories.

The transcript of each edition of a news summary is published and distributed to media outlets.

Here’s a summary of their podcasting plans:

• CEO Interview $595
  • 5 minutes interview with GroupWeb Radio host.
  • Interview is placed in your newsroom.
  • One press release is distributed nation wide with podcast link embeded.
  • We provide you with an MP3 file of your interview to place on your website
• CEO Interview with Unlimited Press Release Distribution Plan: $1549
  • 5 minutes interview with Radio host.
  • Send unlimited press releases nationwide for one year.
• Press Release summary on podcast $199
  • Summary of your press release is included in our weekly podcast.
  • Your press release is distributed to national U.S. media outlets.
  • Podcast will be embeded in GroupWeb Radio news summaries published nationwide.

While EmailWire NewsWire claims a potential audience of 38 million for these press release podcasts, it’s difficult to imagine anyone subscribing to a stream of random audio press releases.

Some companies my find a service like this useful to ensure that their press releases get indexed as media, in addition to text. Most companies, though, are better off focusing on trying to create content that people will seek out.

Apple has opened up iTunes LP and iTunes Extras, publishing Templates, Best Practices and a Development Guide so that anyone has the capability to create interactive content that can be played back in iTunes 9 or on Apple TV.

• iTunes LP lets you create digital albums that include links to listen to album songs and view lyrics, liner notes, photos and videos (such as artist interviews).
• iTunes Extras is designed to present a movie with interactive menus, bonus content, and chapter navigation, similar to those supplied by DVD or Blu-ray authors.

Apple has also published information on testing and delivering the new formats.

Complete information on building content for the new formats is available at the Apple site.