Apple Thoughts: Apple Announces 'Best of 2008'

Apple has announced the "Best of 2008" from iTunes and, as could probably be expected, there isn't a whole lot of greatly big revelation going on. The music, television shows, and songs are all pretty much what you expected because it's all from a raw numbers angle. The interesting (or not so interesting, actually) part is the podcast section which is loaded with the same podcasts (for the most part) as it is year after year from the same providers. Everyone you would suspect is rightfully represented there, but the most disappointing part is how much of the podcast section is mainstream media outlets. I'm totally bummed at how podcasting has been taken over by the mainstream media outlets and big LA and NY producers like MSNBC, NPR, and so on. Essentially the best of 2008 on iTunes is the best of the mainstream with very little surprises or interesting additions.

I don't fault iTunes for noting raw numbers, but numbers aren't the whole story and in most cases they aren't even that interesting. Frankly I'd like to see a whole lot more GDGT.com and a whole lot less NPR, for example.

What do you think? Is this a representative sample or a bit too self-congratulatory for your tastes?