Yesterday we were telling you about the parties that will be negatively affected by the recent iTunes update, which will include from now on podcasts, but let's not forget about those who will benefit from this change.

Apple and its iPod are the first to have something to win from podcasts, but aside from them, there are also other players who will benefit from this decision.

1. The users. The possibility to have free and fast access to information in a way that doesn't interfere with the user's mobility is the biggest gain, not to mention the speed and absence of censorship.
To provide an entire community with a tool that allows everybody to be heard represents a revolution for the communication techniques.

2. Content distributors. Podcasts are a significant source of income. It will take a while before an advertising industry will be available for this segment, but once all pieces of the puzzle are put together, ads integrated in the podcasts and sponsored podcasts will be a sure source of income.
It's obvious that those who will gain the most from this change are the ones to accurately assess the potential of the new iTunes and of the podcasts and to quickly invest in this industry.

3. Software developers. One of the readers pointed out to me that since podcasts are actually MP3 files, hardware players won't require major changes to be able to play podcasts. Things are not the same with software and as the number of podcasting generating sources increases, the demand for creating, editing, searching applications will also increase. After all, the format is making its first steps and there are still many things to be developed. Similarly to the separate download section for MP3 programs some sites have, in the near future, there will also be podcast sections.

4. Advertisers. To create a media channel able to reach anybody on the planet, anybhas a PC or a MP3 player, is a huge opportunity to advertise your products and services. This might be actually the cheapest advertising method, although it remains to be seen how it will work.

As it usually happens with revolutions all around the world, not everybody has something to lose, but those who wish to be on the winners' side, have to decide quickly whether they will gamble on podcasts or not!