Everyone has switched into fall mode and that has translated into a huge jump in podcast interest in the Zune Podcast Marketplace software.  This is an annual rite of passage, that summer is the time when podcast usage dips and then it comes stampeding back in the Fall and Winter.  Well, this year is no exception and we have seen a 30% or more jump in new podcast subscriptions from August to September.  This heightened activity around podcasts involves Zune users discovering great new podcasts in the areas of politics, money, news and comedy. Current zune podcast users are also doing some significant house cleaning of podcast feeds that are just not of interest anymore.  This means that Zune has seen huge increase in activity around podcast transactions over the past few weeks on the Zune Podcast platform.

Here is the Top 25 most subscribed to podcasts in the past week (Sept 21-28, 2008):

The below deep-links go to the Zune Podcast Marketplace - media player software. You can download the desktop player here to get these FREE podcast episodes from the below podcasts.

1. FOXCAST: Family Guy (audio)
2. Best of YouTube (video)
3. HBO’s Stand Up Comedy (video)
4. Zune Insider (video & audio)
5. Strong Bad Emails (video)
6. Xbox 360 Only Game Trailers (video)
7. Discovery Channel (video)
8. Discovery Dirty Jobs (video)
9. Dane Cook Podcast (audio)
10. GameTrailers.com – Xbox 360 (video)
11. Happy Tree Friends (video)
12. NBC Nightly News (video)
13. Onion News Network (video)
14. G4 Attack of the Show (video)
15. Dilbert Animated Cartoons (video)
16. Comedy Central: Standup (video)
17. Real Time with Bill Maher (audio)
18. Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil (video)
19. G4 TV X-Play’s Gaming Update (video)
20. 60 Minutes Podcast – Full Episode (audio)
21. Xbox Live’s Major Nelson Radio (audio)
22. G4 TV Around the Net (video)
23. HBO’s The Life & Times of Tim (video)
24. CNBC’s Mad Money w/Jim Cramer (video)
25. G4 TV Street Fury Video Podcast (video)

If you are a podcaster with a podcast in the Zune Marketplace Directory then you can also create what we call a Zune Deep-Link that you can use to link to your podcast page in the Zune Marketplace - Media Player software. To get this link go to this page: http://social.zune.net/links/ZuneLinks.aspx and do a search for your podcast to find the deep-link for use on your website. We will give you the complete code to place this link into your HTML code on your blog or webpage.