One thing we are looking at on a day to day basis here at RawVoice, is the amount of bandwidth we are using. We move a massive amount of data each day for those that are podcasting on our hosting services.

Few Podcasters understand the true cost of bandwidth, and those shows with large audiences need to thank the shows with the small audiences! Because without those smaller shows their is no way that the podcast with large audiences would be getting the unlimited bandwidth options being offered by several podcast hosting providers today.

While many would argue that a show with 100k listeners should be paying more than a show with 1000 listeners, in the current marketplace of podcast hosting both are often paying the same exact price for service. Thus Podcast Hosting providers are all hoping they have more smaller shows than big shows to stay profitable. It is a delicate balancing act.

Well hope may be in site to allow companies to get CDN download performance with competitive bandwidth pricing. Amazon has announced that they will be introducing a CDN (Content Delivery Network) before the end of the year, and it will be pay as you play.

The current CDN marketplace dictates multiple year contracts, and the per gig charge is dependent on how much media you can guarantee to move. If Amazon does as promised then the extortionist like Limelight and Akamai who penalize smaller companies that do not move as much data, may have to change the way they do business..

Our CDN management was smart, they worked with us and we were able to secure great pricing, they knew over time we would grow traffic and we have. While I am not about to move away from my current CDN as they have been a true partner.  If Amazon comes out with highly competitive pricing I may have to step back and take a look at what they offer and go back to them a see if we can get a better rate.

Kudos to Amazon for shaking up the CDN Market it’s about time!