BigShinyThing

When the service goes live, it is intended that podcasters log on and employ Odeo-crafted, simple to use tools to record anything from found sounds to near-professional shows. Creators assign tags to signal their shows’ topics. Listeners then suscribe by tag or channel and either tune in or have the shows automatically downloaded to their PCs. Odeo plans to sell advertising and possibly audio tools and content.
Whilst the idea of a one stop shop for podcasting isn’t new, making it simple and accessible is. Odeo is co-founded by one Evan Williams, 33, who sold his last start up Pyra (which created blogger.com) to Google in 2003 for an undisclosed sum

Evan notes on the odeo blog:

“Pew Internet project reports: More than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and 29% of them have down-loaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen to audio files at a time of their choosing. That amounts to more than 6 million adults who have tried this new feature that allows internet “broadcasts” to be downloaded onto their portable listening device

See the full Fortune list here