This law stems from our very first podcasts of O’Reilly Media conferences back in 2004. With 400 attendees at the physical we almost always reached 40,000 unique individuals with the podcast editions. 1,000 physical attendees? …100,000 unique downloaders. I’ve long used this law as the basis for why events should be recorded, produced and distributors. Event producers are otherwise only reaching 1% of their potential audience. And the other 99% comes along almost for free.
Thanks for bringing this up. I had never thought of it quite this way. FWIW, I think you are close enough on Leo’s numbers. Any thoughts on how this works out for broadcast radio shows that then go to podcast?
Phil: No idea on that one. I just happened to observe the 100-to-1 rule over the course of many live events of different types and sizes. No first-hand experience with the same ratio in broadcast.