From time to time, I’ll give an overview of one broad MediaShift topic, annotated with online resources and plenty of tips. The idea is to help you understand the topic, learn the jargon, and hopefully consider trying your hand at a new endeavor. I’ve already covered blogging, RSS feeds, citizen journalism, and wikis. This week I’ll look at podcasts.
What Are Podcasts?
Podcasts are audio or video shows that you can subscribe to via the Internet and listen to or watch on your own time on your computer, portable MP3 player or other web-connected device. The power of podcasts is that you can subscribe to the shows you want, and then they automatically appear in your podcast aggregator software such as Juice or Apple’s iTunes. When you plug in your portable MP3 player — which can be an iPod or any other player — your podcasts can then be uploaded and experienced on the go.
Why has podcasting become such an appealing pastime? People who listen to podcasts love the way they can access an amazing array of content — from language lessons to comedy shows to NPR news — on their own time and on their own devices. Almost all podcasts are free of charge, and very few include commercial or sponsor messages. You can often fast-forward, rewind or pause the podcast, making it a similar experience to watching a DVD or playing back a TV show on a digital video recorder (DVR).
Plus, the barrier to entry as a podcast producer is very low. All you need is a microphone connected to your computer, and some audio software, and you can start creating your own podcasts. Of course, if you want to garner an audience for your podcast, you’ll likely need a website or a blog to help promote your show, and you’ll need to submit your podcast to various podcast directories.
Richard Giles, who co-wrote the “Podcasting Pocket Guide,” explains the explosion of podcasts on his blog:
There are podcasts about music, technology, movies, business, words, camels, coffee, politics, and parenthood. The range of podcasters is just as diverse: professional DJs, truckers, lawyers, counselors, journalists, camel herders, actors and the girl next door. Anyone and everyone can create their own radio show about whatever the heck they please. It might mean that only their wife and mom listen, or perhaps 50,000 people tune in, but the beauty of the show is that it can be whatever they want.
One downside to podcasting is that not everyone is comfortable using computer software to subscribe to shows and manage subscriptions. Listening to podcasts is not as easy as simply turning on your radio, or even just listening to Internet radio stations. However, once people get the hang of it, they often become big fans of the variety and convenience of podcasts.
A Brief History of Podcasting
Podcasting became part of the general lexicon almost overnight. The technology behind podcasting comes from RSS news feeds, which were developed by programmer and blogging pioneer Dave Winer. Former MTV VJ Adam Curry had been pushing for a new way to do RSS with multimedia, and helped encourage Winer to develop RSS with enclosures.
That technology allowed people to publish RSS feeds with audio or video, but it took a few years before regular podcasts were launched. In the summer of 2004, Winer started a proto-podcast called Morning Coffee Notes and Curry started his Daily Source Code show. Curry decided to start coding his own podcast software called iPodder, and was hoping to get other programmers to join in on the open source software project. Eventually, iPodder became the basis for other “podcatching” software programs, which help you manage and subscribe to podcasts. In 2005, when Apple’s iTunes included podcatching software as well as a podcast directory, the medium exploded.
What started out as a geeky side project became a medium that every major broadcaster participates in. When you look at the iTunes Podcast Directory, for instance, “featured providers” include NPR, ABC News, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, The New York Times, and yes, PBS. Along with the interest by media companies who want to reach this tech-savvy podcast audience, various startup companies have sprung up to help commercialize independent podcasts (e.g. Curry’s PodShow), insert ads into podcasts (e.g. Kiptronic) or measure podcast audiences (Audible’s WordCast).
Where to Find Podcasts
Unlike regular radio shows or TV shows, podcasts live all over the web, so there is no limit to where you might find them. However, to ease the burden of searching high and low for podcasts that might interest you, many sites offer podcast directories with listings of podcasts and easy ways to subscribe to them. (I wrote a guide to podcast directories about a year ago.)
The iTunes directory has the slickest interface, with an emphasis on professional content from media companies. You can search through podcasts according to topic or by popularity or check out “staff picks.” Once you find a podcast you like, you can subscribe to it via iTunes or just download an episode to check out. The great thing about iTunes is that it is well integrated with iPod devices, but the drawback is that you have to open up the iTunes application to check out the directory.
Once you have subscribed to the podcasts you like, you can return to your podcasting software to find new shows. Then you can download those shows to your MP3 player or listen to them on your computer at your leisure. As you listen to shows, you can then discard the ones you don’t need or have your podcast software remove older shows automatically.
How to Become a Podcaster
One great thing about podcasting is that anyone can jump in and start podcasting with very little investment in equipment. For a basic audio podcast, you’ll need a computer connected to the Internet, a good microphone, and sound recording software. Of course, having an original concept will help as well. You should probably sift through existing podcasts in various directories to make sure you’re doing something relatively unique.
Yahoo provides a great step-by-step guide for making your own podcast, and includes the following advice:
Want to really maximize your audience? We’ve found that many successful podcasts start with a good plan…Next, think about the content of your podcast. What will you talk about? How long will your podcast be? Jot down a rough outline for your podcast so you can keep on track when recording. Finally, how often will you create new episodes? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
Once you have the plan and the gear, make sure you’re in a quiet space and record your show. Be sure to get clearance for any copyrighted music that you use on your podcast. You can find music that’s free for use on podcasts at PodSafe Music. Once you’re done recording, you’ll need to take the audio file and encode it into the MP3 format, and then upload it to your website or the podcast hosting service you might use (such as Libsyn).
Then comes the tricky part: getting noticed. With the thousands of podcasts in existence, you’ll need to consider who your audience is and how to reach them. First you’ll want to submit your podcast to the various directories. Next, you’ll want to give notice to the various bloggers and online pundits who cover your field of interest. Once you have built up a loyal audience, you might consider making money as a podcaster.
Making Money with Podcasts
There has been a lot of hype around podcasting, and much of it has faded since the initial ruckus in 2005. While many podcasters have taken their hobby and made it into a profession — notably video podcasters such as Rocketboom and Ze Frank — the vast majority of podcasts remain labors of love with little commercial appeal. Bullish market researcher eMarketer predicted that advertisers will spend $400 million on podcasts by 2011, up from $80 million last year. But that number is miniscule compared to the nearly $20 billion eMarketer predicts will be spend in all online advertising in 2007.
There are a few problems for people looking to “monetize” podcasts. First, it’s impossible to tell how many people actually listen to your podcast. While you might be able to gauge the number of subscribers, you never know who actually listened to it or how long they listened. This information is crucial to advertisers who want to know specific audience numbers and usage statistics. While some services have cropped up to help podcasters tally their audience numbers, nothing has become widespread enough to make serious inroads. The podcasting audience remains a muddled guess.
Rob Walch of Podcast411 recently compared various research firms’ estimates on the size of the total podcasting audience. His conclusion was that the number is probably “somewhere between 6 and 60 million, with the likely conservative number around 15 to 20 million consumers.” That’s not bad, but still a long way from mainstream appeal.
Perhaps that’s beside the point. The early nature of podcasting was that it was home-brewed radio, created by amateurs and boosted by enthusiasts. Placing advertisements all over a podcast would almost defeat the purpose, and people would simply fast-forward past them or stop listening if it became too commercialized. The trick for podcast publishers is to create an experience that is engaging and includes the sponsors in new, more interactive ways. For instance, GoDaddy at one point allowed PodShow podcasters to create their own ads touting its service.
Resources
To learn more about podcasting — from how-to’s to business articles — check out the list of resources below.
Guides and Histories
Directory of Podcast Directories from Podcast411
History of Podcasting from PodcastBlaster
iTunes Podcast Spotlight from Apple
Introduction to Podcasts (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) from Richard Giles
Make Your First Podcast from Podcasting News
Podcast defined by Wikipedia
Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specifications from Apple
Podcasting and iTunes: FAQ from Apple
Podcasting Glossary from Podcasting News
Podcast Hosts from Podcasting News
Podcasting Software [for Listeners] from Podcasting News
Podcasting Software [for Publishers] from Podcasting News
The Technology Underlying Podcasts& from Computer.org
Top 25 Podcasts by Hits from Podcasting News
What Is a Podcast? from Podcast411
Yahoo Podcasts — Guide to Publishing a Podcast
News Stories
Audible’s Podcast Tool Tallies Listeners from the Wall Street Journal
Classes To Go Digital with New Podcast Service from the Daily Orange at Syracuse
Music Industry Changes Its Tune on Podcasting from the Wall Street Journal
Podcast Riches? from Blogspotting
Podtrac Unveils Web-Based Media Planner from MediaWeek
Searching for the Pod of Gold from BusinessWeek
The Next Big Ad Medium: Podcasts from BusinessWeek
Services
If you know of other good online resources for podcasting, please add them to the comments below and I’ll update the blog post with any glaring omissions.
Photo of Winer and Curry by JD Lasica.
Do you know what the connection between Mercora.com and podcasts are? Am I able to download music the same way as a podcast? Just curious. Thanks.
Jimmy,
I believe that Mercora provides a music search engine that will help you find music tracks as well as podcasts and Internet radio shows. You can listen to the podcasts on Mercora or link to the podcaster’s site to subscribe to the podcast from there. When you download a podcast, you get the whole show, not just the music.
I love to listen to podcasts, but refuse to subscribe to or enable ANY “automatic” downloads. I grab whatever I can where the show appeals to me, and where the provider has an ordinary mp3 download link that I can when I wish, simply transfer to my MP3 player. Then I select it off the menu when I want to listen.
If they only let you listen on-line or go to iTunes, I record the show via something like MusicMatch and format my own files.
More DRM-infused-we-control-your-computer nonsense I don’t need.
This is a great resource, thanks.
I am still looking for the holly grail though. A site that is like YouTube but for mp3s. Somewhere that you can upload mp3s and then can embed a player anywhere. And of course free. Odeo is very slick and seems the closest but you still need to host the file somewhere else from what I can tell.
Any other suggestions? Maybe just load mp3s as video file to YouTube? Still doesn’t seem ideal. Any other suggestions.
One omission is Castfire, which is a platform for audio, enhanced audio and video and provides the ability dynamically insert ads as pre, mid, or post-roll.
I wanted to make everyone aware of my blog that catalogues cultural and educational podcasts. It’s called Open Culture, and the url is http://www.oculture.com
You can find here, for example, directories of podcasts from universities:
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/free_university_1.html
Others focused on arts & culture:
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/itunes_cultural.html
Plus other categories (audio books, foreign language lessons, science, technology, etc). See full list here:
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/the_podcast_por_1.html
You missed the first Comerical podcast Network/company, TPN (The Podcast Network).
Also is Podshow relevant when they have under 12000 downloads a day?
Molly
Molly: Also is Podshow relevant when they have under 12000 downloads a day?
Really? Is that all? Where did you get this info Molly, it’s hilarious!
http://tinfinger.blogspot.com/2007/03/katg-claims-podshow-has-only-12000.html
Ah, just another promotional drive by katg on the back of the easiest target in the space. Their stats must be on the decline again. Dumb of anyone to think it is even remotely true.
May I be so bold as to reference Podcast Expo (http://www.podcastexpo.com)? The annual convention for podcasters.
Tim
I think there is one link missing: I’ve never used it, but the portal http://www.podomatic.com allows you to search and create podcasts.
I just discovered this blog thanks to Dan Colman’s superb Open Culture blog and want to commend your podcast primer. Of course, I would expect nothing less from North America’s best public broadcaster and I say that living in a country whose public broadcaster is funded the way public broadcasters should be. Any how, one podcast site I like is http://www.twit.tv. It seems to be Leo’s full time occupation now and I don’t know how he makes any money at it.
Educational podcasts are very beneficial to early college students. They relate to the medium and they find them more useful than presentation.
Just finished my first podcast. Some great tips here, thanks :-)
We are an independent record label not a big bad corporation out to sue you for file sharing, we WANT you to spread our music around. To listen to the Antiqcool Music Business philosophy podcast go here
http://antiqcool.podbean.com/2010/01/22/the-antiqcool-podcast-episode-1-how-can-you-be-a-part-of-our-success/