Apple's iTunes software has also played a crucial role in the spread of podcasting, as users can access thousands of podcasts for free with a simple click of their computer's mouse.
(However, some podcasters are experimenting with putting advertisements into their podcasts).
Apple's iTunes, the software application and online music store that makes iPods work, currently lists 20,000 free podcasts and is adding them at a fast clip, all before podcasting's second birthday.
Streaming music service Spotify has announced new features including adding podcasts and video; music that adapts to the listener's running pace; and the promise of smarter abilities to serve the right playlists for the time of day, activity and habits of the user.
Listening to podcasts and news may be less of a stretch: Spotify isn't the only streaming music service expanding in that direction, with Deezer having announced its own move a day earlier.
The app - which is free to download and is available from the Android Market worldwide - includes the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from guardian.co.uk.
A remix of this using technology is making podcasts, for example on the free app AudioBoo.
Since cassette tapes helped when I was a kid, I might make an exception for quiet, non-light emitting podcasts.
Cooltan Arts uses art, film and culture to inspire and transform the lives of people with mental distress, via cultural walks, podcasts, exhibitions and poetry.
When there's a list of podcasts, how do you suppose you start playing one?
One click takes users to a page of podcasts on offer, from public-radio shows to the eccentric ramblings of geeks; another click sets up the subscription.
