Podcasting? Huh?
Sure, you’ve probably heard the word. It’s been bandied about a lot lately, with an explosion of sites claiming it’s the next big thing. But like most buzzwords, there are a lot more people shouting it than explaining clearly what it is, and that’s unfortunate because the basic concept is really pretty simple.
Audio on Demand
Scene 1: So you’ve got some music you want to share. Or some sports commentary. Or your famous impression of Stephen Hawking reciting The Vagina Monologues. Whatever. You record your stuff and you put it up on the Internet. You link to it from a Web page. This is not new.
Scene 2: So you’re a bigshot blogger. You’ve got thousands of people each day reading your book reviews, your daily life snapshots, your opinions about Bush in the form of a primate study. Go you. A lot of people come directly to your Web site to read about this, but many other people subscribe to your blog by a clever little hook called RSS which lets them read all their favorite sites on one screen and notifies them when something changes. Again, this is not new.
Convergence: The “revolution” of podcasting is simply bringing these two ideas together. You still put your audio files up on the Web, but now you wrap them in an RSS feed as well. This lets people subscribe to your audio collection, so they know when you’ve got a new file up, and they can grab it automatically and listen to it.
That’s it. That’s all that podcasting is about. It’s called _pod_casting because someone realized that you could make these files automatically download to an iPod or other MP3 player, and listen to them wherever you want. Clever, eh? Now you know more than two-thirds of the journalists talking about it.
(Note: Yes, we know some people use “podcasts” to refer to video too. But we’re trying to keep things simple, and the vast majority of podcasts are audio only, including ours.)
Catching On
There are two basic ways to listen to Escape Pod or any other podcast:
You can come to our Web site and click on any MP3 files you see there, and listen to them. Dirt simple, and you’ve probably already got all the tools you need. You just have to remember to keep coming back.
You can subscribe to our RSS feed with a piece of software called a podcatcher. This is a little more complicated to set up, but easier once you’ve got it working.
A podcatcher is an RSS client that checks all your subscribed feeds on a regular basis (usually daily), and if it finds a new entry with an file enclosure, downloads it onto your system automatically. Most of them will also copy the file to iTunes (to sync with your iPod) or otherwise transfer the files to your MP3 player if you ask them. In essence, the podcatcher does your remembering and your file-clicking for you.
There are a lot of programs out there that handle podcasts, and more all the time. There’s a directory at iPodder.org if you want to try all of them. Escape Pod does not endorse any particular podcatcher, and we are not in the business of reviewing them. However, if you’re in a hurry, here are some of the most popular ones:
iTunes: Apple’s music software now has podcast support built in. It’s available for Windows and Mac, and it’s free.
iPodder Lemon: Available for Win/Mac/Linux, and it’s free.
iPodderX: Mac only. Free to try, $15 to own.
Doppler: Windows only. Free.
FeedDemon: Windows only. $30. A general news aggregator that handles podcasts as a side feature.
jPodder: Win/Mac/Linux/etc. (Java based). Free.
Again, these are not necessarily the best clients out there (for any given definition of “best”); these are simply a few that we’ve heard mentioned frequently.
What We Recommend
If you’re already a dedicated podcast listener, you know what you’re doing and we have no suggestions for you. If you aren’t, here’s an easy way to get started:
Click on some of the files at our site (of course!) and listen to them. Decide if it’s something you want to keep listening to.
Find a few others and listen to them, if you feel like it. There are lots of podcast directories out there. Far be it for us to tell you what you should and shouldn’t listen to.
If you hear anything that’s good enough that you’ll want to keep coming back, download one of the podcatching applications on the list above and install it. Take a few minutes to set it up and subscribe to the ones you like, and enjoy them wherever and whenever you want!
Conclusion
Is podcasting going to revolutionize the world? Honestly, we don’t know. Speaking only for the staff at Escape Pod, we don’t really care, either. We’re doing this because we want to. It sounded like fun, and nobody else was doing exactly what we’re doing.
That’s how we feel you should approach podcasts too. Don’t let anyone juice you up — or scare you away — with hype. It’s just stuff to listen to. If you run across one that sounds like fun, try it. If you like it, find a podcatcher and subscribe. You can always drop it later if it stops being fun.
Any questions? To learn more — ah, heck. To learn more, just frippin’ Google it. Enjoy!
