Interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs

June 29, 2005 — -- The following ABC News Podcast is brought to you by ABCNews.com.

JAKE TAPPER: Hello and welcome to the ABC News Shuffle -- brain candy for your iPod. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington. We're dealing a special hand today. A special edition of the Shuffle. Tuesday morning, Apple rolled out the new incarnation of iTunes, which provides digital music software and an online music store.

But as it rolled out iTunes 4.9, Apple also announced it was dedicating new resources to podcasting. These are audio broadcast programs to download into your iPod, obviously. You're listening to one right now. Apple also announced a partnership with Disney for those podcasts.

ITunes users will get-- will be able to download podcasts from Disney companies such as ESPN or ABC News. Joining us to talk about Apple's new announcement is Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. Steve, welcome.

STEVE JOBS: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

JT: So here's a quick question. There are gonna be 3,000 free audio programs available, making it one of the largest podcast directories in the world. Why are they gonna be free?

SJ: Well, you know, podcasting-- has been free since the beginning. It's been an emerging phenomenon that-- has been, you know, growing very rapidly. But we're hoping to take it mainstream with-- the latest version of iTunes, which has everything you need to podcast built right in it. So-- podcasts I think they're gonna remain free. Although I do think we may-- start to see some advertising tagged onto them-- you know, in the coming months.

JT: Now, I know it's companies like Disney and ESPN and ABC News are also gonna be various contributors like the Dawn and Drew Show and Newsweek and some NPR member stations. Are there gonna be individuals who are able to contribute to this? Will the average man or woman who has their own podcast on their home computer and sends it out on their Web site, are they gonna be part of the directory?

SJ: Well, you know, the, we have over 3,000 podcasts in the directory, today at launch. And, and I'm sure you know, hundreds more are flooding in as we speak. And, yeah, they range from professional podcasts -