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By Alicia Bankhofer
February 17, 2005
Ever heard of Dawn and Drew? The Godcast network? The Rock and Roll Geek Show? These names are synonymous with the “podcasting” phenomenon that has been sweeping the Internet in recent months.
Since podcasting first emerged as a form of mass communication, typical
people - professionals, housewives, computer nerds, and teenagers –
have been making digital recordings of themselves doing little more
than talking. The subject matter ranges from anything in general to
nothing in particular - life, romance, music, sports, gadgets, arts,
computers, losing weight, politics, religion, the list goes on and on.
They banter about their pet peeves, recount how their days went, and
make fun of people. Podcasts give them a place to make their opinions
known, without censure, rules or conventions. And there’s no cost to
listeners: it’s all free via the Internet.
There’s good reason to believe that podcasting will be even bigger than
it is already. Google the word “podcast” and it’ll turn up almost 1.7
million hits, even though podcasting did not exist one year ago.
What is a Podcast?
A podcast is an audio mini-program, in MP3 format, broadcast over the
Internet. You can download and listen to the podcast on any
MP3-compatible digital music player, preferably an iPod, hence the
name. The key innovation is that subscribers can subscribe to lists of
MP3 podcasts and choose when to download them, taking their recorded
shows on commutes, treadmills or flights, unlike traditional Internet
radio, where music or other audio content is streamed at particular
times and is not always made available for free. You can either
download a podcast once or subscribe to the RSS service for regular
doses of your favorite shows. Your podcasting software checks for new
content and begins to download when you say so. Ideally, you connect
your iPod to your computer and have it automatically sync the latest
feeds via iTunes.
The beauty of podcasting is that it’s easy and generally free for
listeners, while costing relatively little to producers. At least, this
is true for listeners with unlimited broadband Internet access and
large hard disks, since a 30-minute feed can mean a 20-Megabyte
download. This means that podcasters also have to host large files. But
podcasting means you, the listener, are your own radio program
director: you can decide when, where, and how often to listen to an
audio program.
How Podcasting Started
Podcasting is the brainchild of Adam Curry and David Winer. Curry,
formerly of MTV Music Television fame, last year wrote iPodder software
that could organize and download to his iPod newly posted audio files
from websites of his choice. He encouraged others to improve on his
coding, and volunteers from all over the world subsequently helped him
perfect iPodder. He started his own half-hour podcast in the fall, “Daily Source Code,”
featuring talk on new and interesting podcasts, tech news, and general
chit-chat, with small bits of music in-between, and has attracted some
50,000 listeners.
Podcasting is a natural extension of the blogging phenomenon, which has
continued to grow over the past few years. Many podcasters start out as
bloggers, only to expand their platform further to the audio blog.
Listening to a podcast for the first time from the author of a blog
you’ve been following religiously for months can be an almost surreal
experience: suddenly you can match a voice to the name. This is how
people must have felt when they first heard the voices of beloved
actors after the silent movie era came to an end.
What You Need
What do you need to hear one of these audiocasts? All you need is a
podcast software client that will download the feed via your Internet
connection. Conveniently, there are multi-platform podcasting
applications such as iPodder, which is Windows-, Mac-, and Linux-friendly. At the moment, Windows-only apps include NIMIQ, podfeeder, and Doppler, whereas on a Mac you can choose between iPoddumFeeder, PlayPod, and iPodderX.
Podcasters themselves also have it pretty easy. All they need is
something to talk about, a microphone, a computer and some editing
software. Upload it to the Internet and voila. Sounds easy, right?
Well, it does get a tad technical. In fact, many podcasters want to
know how to get top audio quality, the right microphone to buy, how to
use editing and MP3 conversion software to erase errant sounds, and how
to get an RSS feed onto their blogs. Some have it easy. Most
traditional blogging tools already automatically generate RSS files.
Others have to do this themselves.
Getting the audio file into an RSS feed requires that you either copy
and paste code already available from helper sites, adapting it to your
needs, or, for the more savvy, write the code in HTML yourself,
defining your content into “items” (title, description, links,
language, date, etc.) and string these items into “channels.” The MP3
file is placed into an enclosure tag featuring the URL, duration of
file in bytes, and type. Then you’ll have to decide which RSS format or
version to use (0.91, 1.0 or 2.0) and get your RSS file validated and
syndicated. For details on all of these issues and more, see these
links:
Making an RSS feed by searchenginewatch
podcast about podcasting
podcast how-to by podcast411
What is Podcasting Like Today?
The increasing popularity of podcasting can be attributed to the
ubiquitous nature of the iPod. Tens of thousands of freshly baked iPod
owners have been filling up their little babies with free podcasts,
complementing their paid music collections.
So far, podcasters are not in it for the money, but rather for the
idealistic nature of what they are doing – making their thoughts, noble
causes, and rants available to a worldwide audience. And they are
quickly becoming stars. Suddenly musicians previously unknown and
unsigned are selling their music online after being featured on a
podcast, and some websites running podcasts see their hits increase
astronomically. It’s like the proverbial word of mouth, spreading buzz
in the virtual universe like wildfire.
Typically podcasters are known among themselves within the community
and usually mention fellow podcasters, as well as up and coming
podcasts – serving to spread the word. Even a bare mention on Curry’s
Daily Source Code is enough to increase your downloads exponentially.
There are so many podcasts available on every imaginable topic that it
has almost become difficult to find content you would be interested in,
which has of course made the birth of podcast directories a necessity.
And the scope of podcasting is now growing outside of the US – there
are a few Australian and European pioneers sending their message out
over the airwaves, including the beer-based babblings of Australian Craft Brewers, one Polish feed, the German-language Wanhoffs Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft about science, the universe and insects; or a really fantastically named French podcast Bebop & Loola – a cultural voyage of discovery of architecture, festivals, clubs and bars in Berlin. There is even a podcast in Native American Mohawk.
The Future
Though it’s already beginning to happen in the technology space with Internet-savvy broadcasters such as Your Mac Life and Leo Laporte,
traditional non-tech broadcasters are likely to jump on the bandwagon
too, making their shows available as free feeds, something that would
not have been conceivable years ago. Big names will also want to be
involved, corporations and celebrities alike – in a way to communicate
with or influence their target audience or fans more effectively. And
somebody is bound to find a way to make money out of it – hopefully at
a reasonable rate for both producers and subscribers.
With more and more people getting into podcasting – both listening and
scrambling to get their own podcasts together, the sky will be the
limit for future possibilities. One area is video podcasts: Rocketboom is already one example.
And of course, the technology and software will become even more
refined, making podcasting easier to enjoy and use. Podcasting is
another phenomenon that shows that the iPod will continue to influence
urban, suburban, and rural lifestyles all over the world, spawning
parallel industries in its wake and creating novel uses for all of us.
Best Podcasts
With podcasting still in its teething stage, it’s not easy to find
criteria to judge the best out there. What do successful podcasts have
in common? Interesting content and consistency. Generous doses of
humor, a bit of good music, and a specific topic of conversation. And
also regularity.
According to leading directories, the most popular podcasts are the Daily Source Code, the Dawn and Drew show, Rock and Roll Geek show, Coverville, Insomnia Radio and IT Conversations. Listeners can cast their vote on their choices for best podcast on the very handy Podcast Alley. iPodlounge has made two of its own podcasts available, as well, with plans for new editions in the near future.
You yourself will be the best judge of whether a podcast is worth a
second and third listen. Yes, you may have to listen to many podcasts
before you find the gem you’re looking for. But it’s a journey of
discovery worth taking.
Best Sites for Podcasting Information
We recommend the following sites as great resources for both podcasters and podcast listeners.
ipodder.org
Podcast Bunker
Podcast Alley
Podcasting News
podca.st
The Podcast Network
Podcast Central
Podcast411
Engadget How-To: Podcasting
Want to Discuss Podcasting?
In addition to the comments thread below, definitely visit iPodlounge's new Podcasting Discussion Forum, available at this link.
You'll find information on interesting new podcasts and podcasting
there, as well as fellow podcasters to share tips and insights with.
And maybe you'll even meet the author of this article there, too!
Alicia Bankhofer
currently resides in Austria with her husband of 11 years and their
three mischievous cats. She relaxes from her daily grind by answering
multifarious cries for help in iPodlounge forums as a forum moderator
("ginalee"), and in general spends too much time surfing the net.
 Tell a friend about this article.
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