Apple podcast subscriptions top a million in two days

In just two days, people using the new version of iTunes have subscribed to more than a million podcasts, TechWeb News reported late yesterday.

On Tuesday, Apple launched iTunes 4.9, the latest version of the free digital music player software, that includes support for podcasting.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, the bi-weekly show Shel and I produce, is listed in the iTunes Podcast Directory so you can subscribe there if you wish. We’re seeing an impact already from iTunes.

Such massive uptake would undoubtedly explain some of the difficulties some podcasters have been experiencing in the past few days. Geek News Central, for instance, on the day iTunes 4.9 launched:

I just checked my latest Libsyn Stats and downloads are through the roof. I am getting reports that sites like Dawn and Drew are down, servers have melted all over the podcasting sphere. Thus far this site which is hosted on a GoDaddy server has kept up and we have seen over 300,000 individual hits to this site alone today. I know that at least 6,500 people on iTunes have downloaded the newest show so this is significant traffic. Be patient with the downloads as servers are getting hammered worldwide.

On a smaller scale, Shel and I noticed the strain last night as Shel had major difficulty uploading show #46 of the H&H Report to the LibSyn servers – heavy traffic. Success eventually, but it took a good hour to ahieve a successful file upload when it’s usually done in less than 10 minutes. (We discussed iTunes 4.9 in yesterday’s show, including comment on bandwidth issues.)

Let us know if you experience any download issues in getting the show, either directly (MP3, 32Mb) or via your RSS subscription.

No doubt the heavy traffic levels will subside as people discover the shows they want and discard those they don’t. Then again, as more people get iTunes 4.9 and start clicking on those ‘subscribe’ buttons, maybe we can expect to see sustained high traffic and continuing short-term bandwidth and server strain at hosting providers.

I’ll say it once again – podcasting is no fad.