Ok. Thanks for at least validating the model. I got some developer feedback and this is doable, maybe not with feedburner, but with a new kind of podcast site that takes some demographics and feeds mp3s with built in advertising. The ultimate it seems would be to have our own podcast listener that could actually track which ads have been listened to, and could insert new ads on each listen, but I don't think that it would work very well because people like to listen in their own ways and forcing a particular listening app on people would probably not be well received.
So here is the model
1. On the podcast site, grab some demographics that will help target advertising and make it more valuable
2. provide a custom XML podcast RSS which contains identification of the listener in the feed, for example the file name could contain a unique id in it to identify the person
3. When the file is requested, the server looks up the listener, check what ads they have already had, then inserts new ads based on demographics and an ad rotation algorithm. There would be a catchall kind of ad that you give when there aren't any good matches. This file is then served to the person
4. The file is cached on the server for future listeners for a number of days to speed up downloads.
This sort of system would require four parts
1. Demographic collection and communication of the demographics to the back end mp3 server (just an extension to an existing site)
2. RSS XML
generator based on unique Ids known by the back end mp3 server (new RSS generator - extension to an existing site)
3. The back end MP3 server that has a set of ads linked to demographics with each podcast being assigned timings in which to inserts ads, constructs the mp3 with ads inserted, serves the newly constructed mp3s, caches mp3 for others if practical. (new back end server... php?)
4. A GUI to manage the podcast mp3s, ads, demographic targeting, stats on ad downloads, ad rotation settings (new GUI and server.. php?)
As long as the core business model is ok, I think technically this could be done, and it wouldn't be too hard either. I lack the experience to know if the core business model is sound, so that's why your feedback is really helpful.
BTW I'm not implying this should be done for WA, I know WA have already signed up with Nerdist and stuff, this is more for the art of radio drama that I'm thinking about this. My theory is that if there was an effective system for getting money for audio dramas, then we would get more of them and of a higher quality.
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