The Podcast RSS feeds became a hit, and podcast clients were quickly written to allow people to use the new encoding. Podcasting became a means of quickly and cheaply sharing episodes with subscribers. Rather than requiring subscribers to visit the site that hosted the files everytime they wanted to know if a new episode was released, users could rely on the podcast client to do the work for them, keeping track of numerous podcast rss feeds that interested them and downloading the files to be viewed when they wished.

Podcast RSS feeds are now used to distribute a number of different types of podcasts. Some producers use it as way to share a comedy or news program that they produce, others podcast in order to share music files they create, and some podcast to share video files they have created and to showcase their work. Podcasting allows the producers to become radio or television stars without the large investment in time and money that wuld be required to do that. Because podcasting has such a low entry cost, requiring little more than a server and a domain to host the site and a way to record the media, thousands of people who otherwise would not have a chance to work in a media environment have a chance to do so through their podcast rss feeds.

In this way, podcast RSS feeds allow media publishing over the internet at a fraction of the cost of other forms of media distribution, permitting people with much smaller budgets to compete in some way. However, podcast rss feeds are also attracting more established companies and groups as well, bringing people from NPR radio stations and news organizations like CNN who use podcasting as yet another means to distribute their product to end users.

Podcast downloads could conceiveably be applied to any type of file. The RSS files that allow the mainly audio and video files now used in podcasting to be downloaded can be customized to enclose almost any type of file. This has led some analysts to believe that podcasting could eventually be used to distribute software updates, demonstration programs, and many other types of files, moving beyond the simple use of podcasting to share media files. All that would be neccessary would be for the users to subscribe to the feed with their podcast client. They could then stay regularily updated for nearly anything.

Podcast downloads offer many different possibilities for distribution of files across the internet. Because it is a different mode of using the internet, allowing the data to come to the user rather than the user having to visit each site they enjoy, podcasting has the possibility of changing the way the internet works. Content can be given directly to the individual, easily and ever more quickly as broadband use spreads. This means that what the internet is will change drastically. The web changes from something connected to in order to be used to something that is integrated and connected with our personal life.