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Audio on demand
PODCASTING is quickly becoming the buzzword among techies. It’s being marked as the technology that will change how we consume audio.
What is it? Well, podcasting is online audio content delivered via an RSS feed. For those who don’t know, RSS is a standard for content distribution and syndication.
Think of it as a personal robot that goes around telling everyone you have created something and they should download it. The best thing about podcasting is that it gives listeners the power to determine what programming they want to listen to and when they want to listen to it.
What is good about podcasts? Every topic in the world that you can think of — ranging from music, comedy, sports, philosophy or people’s rants and raves — are available in the world of podcasting. Take a look at
To listen to a podcast you will require an aggregator. That is a very fancy name for software that download audio files which people create for you. The aggregator works by managing a set of feed URLs added by the user and downloads each at a specified interval, for example, every two hours. If the feed data has substantively changed from when it was previously checked (or if the feed was just added to the podcatcher’s list), the program determines the location of the most recent item and automatically downloads it to the user’s computer.
To listen to a podcast, you can download the Apple ITunes software from www.itunes.com or IPodder http://www.ipodder.org/. After this:
1. Go to a podcasting site like one of the above or
2. Click on “Listen” to see if you like what that feed is offering. Here, either you will get a small Mp3 file or a WebPlayer will open up.
3. If you like what you hear, click on the “Subscribe” button. You will be asked if you wish to save that file. Open it with ITunes or IPodder. When you click on OK, your aggregator, for example, ITunes, will automatically add the URL of the file in its playlist.
It will then check the RSS feeds regularly and automatically pull the new content when its available. You can subscribe to any amount of RSS feeds on these sites and the aggregator will check them all.
Virtually anyone with a computer and recording capabilities can create his or her own podcast. So if you’ve always dreamt about being a DJ, here’s how to do so. If you want to record a podcast:
1. Plug a headset and a microphone into your computer.
2. Install software like Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ which will help you create MP3 files. Create an audio file by recording (you can talk, sing or record your music) and saving as an MP3 file. Use the minimum bit rate that provides good results. Some suggest settings include 48-56k Mono (sermons, audio books, talk radio), 64k+ Stereo (music, music and talk combinations), 128k Stereo (good quality music).
3. Create your podcast feed or RSS files that describe your podcast along with information for each show. An RSS file is just a text file that links to your MP3 file.
You can do this using the software Feed4All www.feedforall.com. For a tutorial on how to use it visit http://www.podcastbunker.com/Podcast/Podcast_Picks/Podcast_RSS_Creation_Tool/. Pay special attention to the “Enclosure URL” and make sure it points to where your MP3 file is on your webserver.
4. Finally, upload the MP3 audio file and the RSS .xml file to one of the freewebhosting sites and index it at any of the sites like PodCast Directory http://podcastdirectory.org/, YakkYakk http://www.yakkyakk.com/submissions.html or HardPodCafe http://hardpodcafe.com/modules.php?name=pod_add.
Let’s go through a quick tutorial now. Upload both your files into your root directory on the server that is hosting your website; for example, let’s say you register at GeoCities and your homepage is http://www.geocities.com/dawn/index.html, where “index.html” is the HTML file for your main page.
What you want to do is load the XML file and the MP3 file for your feed into the same directory where your main page is located.The link to this file would then be http://www.geocities.com/dawn/feed.xml.
1. After this, visit http://feedvalidator.org/ first to make sure that the file that you created is working and will let people access what you have said through their aggregators.
2. For more tools, visit http://www.podcasting-tools.com.
