EDISON STUDY SHOWS HEALTHY PODCASTING GROWTH: An Edison Media Research study indicates (.pdf file here) that the number of Americans who use podcasts has grown from 13% to 18% over the past year, and that in the past month 9% of Americans have used podcasts. Tom Webster, Edison VP, said that based on the results of the study, “radio stations would be smart to create as much podcast-able content as they can.” Webster and other media insiders feel that the reported growing interest, combined with coming developments that will bring podcasts to mobile devices, will make the programming “extremely attractive” to advertisers. Inside Radio subscribers can read their coverage here.

RAIN ANALYSIS: PODCASTING STILL A SMALL SLICE OF ONLINE RADIO PIE: It may be true that the podcast audience is growing, but in terms of hours of listening, it’s still minuscule compared to the streaming audience. (After all, if a consumer only listened to one three-minute podcast in the past year, they still would be counted in the “18%.”) According to the “RadioNext” study presented at the RAIN Las Vegas Summit (here), listening to podcasts comprises only about 1% of online consumers’ hours of reported radio listening — whereas listening to streams comprises about 12% of such listening. (See chart.)

LALA INTROS 10-CENT/SONG UNLIMITED STREAMS: An interesting new business move for LaLa.com: unlimited streams at 10-cents per song. LaLa is the WOXY.com investor that has gone through a few online music related revenue plans (allowing customers to swap CDs, on-demand streaming, and a “music locker” service). So, for $0.10, you can stream Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” from any Net-connected computer for the rest of your life, but no downloads (which means no portable MP3 players — though we imagine the music could easily be stream-ripped). CNet suggests (here) the likely customers are current LaLa music locker customers who want to bolster their online library but don’t want to bother uploading music. Wired’s “Listening Post” (here) and Edison Media’s “Infinite Dial” (here) have more as well.

PEW SURVEY SHEDS LIGHT ON INTERNET’S INFLUENCE OVER MUSIC CONSUMERS: The Pew Internet and American Life Project has published its survey results (here), revealing how Americans make choices regarding music. It found that 25% of internet users utilized internet radio to make a purchasing decision, and 29% of 18-35 year olds used internet radio to discover new music. Interestingly, 21% of 51+ year olds used internet radio to find new music. Other important finds include that 82% of music consumers prefer the CD format, and that 83% of consumers use AM/FM radio, movies, and television to find new music rather than the internet. Read the full article here.

RADIOPAQ BRINGS WORLD’S STATIONS HOME: A simple easy-to-use internet radio aggregator, Radiopaq was created so that users could find new favorite stations across the world. Developer Prash Vadgama enjoyed sampling local radio in his travels, and wanted to tune in to those far-away stations anywhere. Thus came about Radiopaq, “a search engine for internet radio.” Designed as a start page with news, traffic, and weather, Radiopaq features “exotic” stations such as Smart Radio’s “Club Play” from Singapore. Read the full article here.

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