In the beginning there were blogs. Now the audio version of a blog, known as a podcast, is creating buzz as the latest cutting-edge, DIY form of media. It gives anyone with a computer, a microphone and an Internet connection his or her own radio show.
In a nutshell
First of all, podcasting is not just for iPods. Podcasts are compatible with all MP3 players, since they're encoded in the widely compatible MP3 format. Like any other kind of broadcast, podcasts can be talk, music, or a mix of the two. The main distinction is that you can listen to them whenever you want to (think of a PVR for your MP3 player).
The technology that drives podcasting is the RSS feed. Basically, these are Web-based information documents that allow developers to syndicate data from one site to another.
This can get tricky, which is why applications such iPodder are integral in making them easy enough to be used by nonprogrammers.
Amateur and professional broadcasters around the globe can now produce their shows at their leisure using a PC, digital music files and a microphone, and then upload them as MP3 files that get sent directly onto the MP3 players of any subscribers.
| 1. Download
iTunes and iPodder 2. Choose a Podcast |
3. Download a
New Subscription 4. Your Podcast is in iTunes |
5. Podcast
Your iPod 6. If You Don't Have an iPod |
 1. Download iTunes and
iPodder
If you don't already have it installed, download iTunes. You're also going to need iPodder, so download that from ZDNet Australia's downloads channel. Note: Podcasts aren't just for iPods; you can use any MP3 player. However, for this tutorial we're going to show you how to get a podcast using an iPod and iTunes. See Step 6 if you own a player other than an iPod. |
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 2. Choose a
Podcast
The install will place the iPodder icon on your desktop. Open iPodder and go to the podcast directory. There you'll find a list of various podcasts. Adam Curry's Daily Source Code is a good place to start, so let's choose that as our example. Highlight it by clicking on it once. Then, just above the directory list, select Add. |
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 3. Download a New
Subscription
Next, go to the Subscriptions tab. You should see "Adam Curry: Daily Source Code" there. Click on the orange button that says "Catch-up..." when you mouse over it, and iPodder will automatically download the most recent Daily Source Code show (podcast) to iTunes.
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 4. Your Podcast is in
iTunes
Go to iTunes and you should see the Daily Source Code sitting right there in your track library. You're now able to listen to it right there in iTunes if you want, but I'm sure you want the full podcast experience, so let's continue and transfer it to your iPod.
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 5. Podcast Your
iPod
Connect your iPod to your computer. If you already have "Automatically update all songs and playlists" turned on, then iTunes will automatically transfer the podcast (to view your preferences, right-click the iPod icon and select iPod Options). If you have "Manually manage songs and playlists" set -- and would like to keep it that way -- you will not be able to automatically sync podcasts; however, you're only one simple step away. Simply drag and drop Daily Source Code onto your iPod using iTunes the same way you would normally do with music. Note: Adam Curry's Daily Source Code is easy to find under "A" for Adam in iTunes, but when you subscribe to other podcasts, they may be harder to find. A quick way to locate them is to look at your playlists in the left column in iTunes. You'll see a list of all your podcasts there. |
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 6. If You Don't Have an
iPod
If you own a different kind of MP3 player, you'll want to use Windows Media Player instead of iTunes. In that case, in iPodder go to File > Preferences > Player tab and select Windows Media Player. Use steps 1-3 above, and then, rather than opening up iTunes, open Windows Media Player. You will find your podcasts under My Playlists.
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A new way to search for podcasts
In the short history of podcasting, the most popular way to find
shows has been to browse through a directory, such as the ones
available on iPodder, PodcastAlley, Podcast.net, or any of the other podcasting portals
that have sprung up -- seemingly in an instant -- as
entrepreneurs have struggled to make podcasting pay.
These podcasting portals are helpful, but they resemble the early mode of Internet searching, back when people still browsed Yahoo subcategories that were maintained by humans (rather than searching Google). If podcasting's growth is as explosive as most experts think it will become, these portals won't be able to keep up with the growth of available content any better than Yahoo's directories were able to with the Internet.
Enter Podscope: the first search engine built specifically for podcasts. It was developed by a company called TVEyes, which specialises in audio and video files that are text-searchable (ironically, the company recently licensed its technology to Yahoo for video searching).
How does it work? According to TVEyes CEO David Ives, the core of the system involves a spider that plays each of the podcasts they track (a thousand and growing) and then runs a speech-to-text algorithm on it. When you search Podscope, you're searching that database of transcribed text. Find something you like and you can either play the entire show, subscribe, or hear only the snippet that includes the word or phrase you entered.
The system is scalable, since it relies on automated transcription. Ives says that the current success rate for transcription is roughly 75 to 80 percent, which is by no means perfect, but is accurate enough to let you find several needles in the growing haystack of the "podcastosphere," or whatever silly thing we're going to end up calling the podcasting community.
What can you expect from this community? Right now, it's a mix of music and talk shows, as well as hybrids that play a song and then comment on it. "What's happening is, people are clearly buying and giving iPods initially for music," Ives said. "But it has now become so easy to download nonmusic types of audio that [the talk format] seems to be exploding."
In Australia, the ABC seems to be leading the way. Triple J, dig and ABC local radio (Sunday Profile) are currently conducting podcasting trials. Another source for local content is The Podcast Network.
This is all well and good for people who are looking for podcasts, but what about those brave souls out there who want podcasts they can give to the world that express their own thoughts and music?
Podcasting made easy
There is a brand-new product from the company that makes the
MixMeister
DJ software called Propaganda, and if you're interested in having
your own podcast but are fazed by the technical issues involved
with doing so, it may be exactly what you're looking for.
Propaganda capitalises on MixMeister's strengths by letting you queue up a bunch of songs or other audio files and then it lets you add your own commentary and sound effects. Enter the details of your podcast into Propaganda (your Web page, its audio directory, the title of your show and more) once, and you're set from there on. After you record a show, all you do is click the Publish button and you're done. If you're making a music podcast, you can even have the songs beat-matched and cross-faded automatically so they flow together as if they were mixed by a pro DJ on two turntables.
Podcast to yourself
Propaganda's primary purpose is to allow for the creation and
publication of podcasts, but you can also use it to automatically
create a mix of tunes to listen to on your own MP3 player. It's
an easy way to add cross fades and beat matching to portable
playback. For now, Propaganda and its sister software, MixMeister Express, are both free to try for 30
days, and both are US$50 (total) for purchase.
If you're looking for hours of fame (forget about Warhol's lousy 15 minutes!), this is money well spent.
