Podcasting 101
What Tools Do I Need?
Tool 1 : Mobile Listening (MP3 Players) - optional
For this, you need a portable audio player that is compatible with MP3s. Check for compatibility also for the podcast file types you can download (see below). The IPod is the most popular audio player, but more on that later. Most of these portable players also come with software to install on your PC to allow you to categorise your audio files, and also upload any from the PC onto the device itself.
Tool 2 : PC Listening
Most PCs nowadays come readily installed with multi-media/audio listening software which allows you to listen to radio broadcasts online and downloaded music. Some well known examples - which are free - are Windows Media Player, or iTunes. Realplayer and others are also easily obtainable. These applications will allow you to play your podcasts from your PC.
Tool 3 : Podcasting Receiver (Aggregator)
Your next requirement is a podcast receiver, often called an aggregator. This is a tool which automatically downloads your podcast audio, once you’ve subscribed to the cast URL. There are many aggregators available for download over the internet, one of the most popular being feedburner - although this has a price.
If you want to look into all the different podcast receivers available, check out Podcasting News for a large list.
One of the most popular applications is iPodder which is downloadable and easily installable. It is cross-platform, meaning you can use it both on Windows PCs, Apple Macs and there is even an iPodder for Linux. And best of all, it’s free!
Right, I’ve Got the Tools, Now What Do I Do?
Step 1: Subscribing to a Podcast Service
After you’ve got your aggregator / podcast receiver installed on your PC, you will need to subscribe to the actual podcast service. To do this, you will need to locate the unique URL for the chosen podcast - normally available from the website (or often the website will point you to another such as Feedburner where the actual podcast is hosted). These Podcast links are different from standard web addresses, and are commonly referred to as “feeds”
The following are instructions for subscribing, when using iPodder, but should be similar for other aggregators:
- Copy the podcast feed URL
- Open iPodder, and click on the Subscriptions tab on the toolbar near the top.
- Click on the Add New Feed button (the green circle containing a plus sign)
- Paste the feed address into the address bar and then click on Save.
- The podcast will be added to the subscription list, and any available episodes will appear in a bottom panel, with their state (To Download, or Removed*)
*If removed, this means the podcast has been removed by the owner, or is no longer available. Podcasts, just like radio broadcasts are often time deliminated. They also take up a lot of space on a server (and your hard-drive for that matter) so old broadcasts are often removed to save space.
Now that you are subscribed up to a feed, next time you open Ipodder, it will check for and download any new episodes found for that particular subscription.
Step 2 : Downloading the Feeds
The next step is to download the audio programmes (podcasts) contained in the feed. These instructions are again for iPodder:
- Click on the name of the feed in the top subscriptions box.
- Click on the “check for new Podcasts” button (green square with two vertical buttons)
- iPodder will scan for content, and start downloading these podcasts into the Downloads tab. You will see the filesize ticking over as the feed downloads. If you are subscribed to more than one feed with incoming episodes available, Ipodder will download these one by one.
- By default, new files will be downloaded as an MP3 to the “My Recieved Podcasts” folder that iPodder creates in your My Documents folder (for PC users), but this can be changed to any directory of your choice by clicking on File / Preferences.
You can see which episodes from your chosen programmes have already been saved by looking at the lower half of your iPodder window. Once they have been downloaded, a green arrow button will appear in the downloads tab against the podcast. This arrow button is your play button!
Step 3a : Play it!
Click on the play button to open up your default media player (either Windows Media Player or iTunes)
Note: Ipodder is naturally setup on installation to open your MP3 PC software at this point, and if you have iTunes software on your PC, this opens naturally (both come from the Apple stables of software and work in unison). If you want another media player to be used, such as Windows Media Player, you will need to set this as a default preference within File / Preferences again.
Step 3b : Transfer to your Mobile Device
The process of transferring your files from a computer to an MP3 player differs depending on the individual player. As a general rule, the MP3 player normally comes with some music transfer software and you can use this to transfer your podcast files also.
Some Notes on MP3 Player Compatibility
Podcasts were first designed for the Apple iPod, but are now downloaded to a wide range of devices, although there are more and more restrictions (see below also, regarding copywrite and time).
Podcasts found on Apple’s iTunes website will only work externally on an iPod, but most available podcasts are in the MP3 format - meaning they will work on any device which plays MP3s - and that’s all of them.
As paid-for podcasts become available, broadcasters will want to make sure that they don’t end up being offered illegally on file-sharing sites (similar to the problems encountered in the music business), so these will work only on players that support some kind of digital rights management. Apple’s offerings only work on the iPod, but owners of other devices will need to make sure that theirs support Windows Media Audio files too. Many popular players do already support this type of file (an example is the Creative Zen Micro).
Digital Rights Management
As podcasting becomes big-time, there will be changes to the industry and the files to ensure they aren’t shared illegally (see above). Like many legal download music services, digital rights management (DRM) will be written into the podcast formatting. This will mean that many podcasts will be restricted towards how many times they can be listened to, or devices they can be copied to, or how long you can listen to them before they will expire (a time delimination). This will make them more like a one-off radio broadcast.
This might, in the future, make podcasting listening a bit less easy for us all. For instance, the Apple iPod, is DRM-compatible - but only with material downloaded via its own iTunes music service. A new version of iTunes is ready to be unveiled shortly, featuring podcasts, but you’ll only be able to listen to them via an iPod, whilst on the move.
Other podcasters may distribute DRM-enabled shows, but these are more likely to be WMA (Windows Media Audio) format files - so ensure that your audio player not only supports the MP3 files of today, but the WMA files of tomorrow (above - the Creative Zen Micro is one example which supports both types of files).
Information and References
So, You Want to Make a Podcast?
Consider these:
Podcasting Directories
General Podcasts of Interest to Crafting Readers
Please consult this page for links to crafty podcasts and web-broadcasts.
Credits:
- Although I have augmented the above with my own findings and playings with all of these tools also -
- A lot of the information on this page was gleaned from an article by Rory Reid, published in the ComputerActive Magazine, Edition 7-20 July 2005.
- With further additions and links helped out by the Podcasting Interview blog entry by Ken Leebow, on the Blog - Blogging about Incredible Blogs - by Ken Leebow
- Other readings / sources : The Lowdown on Podcasting, BusinessWeek Online article; Podcasting News - a blog-like site on all things podcasting.
- This Podcasting 101 article was authored by Michelle Thompson, as an article sitting under copywrite of the Scrapability website. You are welcome to link to it with my permission.
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