The idea is not new. Michael came up with this as a way to serve three constituents way back in the last century.
1.Publisher
2.Sponsor
3.Media Subscriber

It works like this
Publisher uploads content
Sponsor uploads Ads

The subscriber downloads publishers content
The sponsors ad is co-mingled with the publishers content pre-roll anywhere in the timeline of the media and after the content has played.

Publisher earns royalty from sponsor for each audio file delivered to subscriber.

Sponsors ad remains with publishers content

Subscribers enjoy free or discounted downloads or streaming media content

This works just as well with rss podcast feeds as it does with mp3 file urls or streams.

Michael Sharp’s dynamic ad insertion for audio and video files was the first application to pay publishers for dynamic ad insertion. The service paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to artists and publishers wayyyy back in the olden days of web .01

It’s nice to see it’s catching on a bit now, it’s patent pending and it would be great if he finally made a little money from his ideas.

His latest company takes dynamic ad insertion to the future with Phonecasting.com. With 2 billion phones out there dynamic ad insertion looks like a promising platform after all.

Here’s some example numbers to call and listen to podcasts from your phone.

Most Popular PotterCast: The Harry Potter Podcast +1 (818) 688-2780
this WEEK in TECH - MP3 Edition +1 (831) 480-3911
CNN News Update +1 (415) 376-7253
NPR: Hourly News Summary +1 (650) 523-6819
Diggnation (Mp3) +1 (408) 538-2141
BBC Radio NewsPod +1 (510) 248-0337
The Cell Phone Junkie +1 (510) 495-6352
Faith Church Weekly Word +1 (408) 538-2182
Daily GizWiz +1 (415) 376-7224
This American Life +1 (408) 538-2147

Here’s Matt Richtell of the New York Times’ article discussing Michael Sharp’s audio ad insertion platform.

http://209.143.91.19/Art&Cult.nsf/22973ed23103291385256bfc005487a3/c80fac5b1830aeb88525682c0051b22b?OpenDocument