What the $#@$ is a Podcast?!?
~and~
Why don’t we know what we’re talking about?
I was out hearing some live music a week or so ago and afterwards had dinner with some friends. During the course of the meal they asked me about the Unsigned Underground Podcast. I told them that it was going well and asked if they had listened. Ummm, not yet– they replied. Oh?
Come to find out they didn’t really know what a podcast was, why it was special and different from any other audio on the web and most importantly: How To Subscribe! And these were the people I thought to be The Downtown-Rock-n-Roll- Music- Cognoscenti of our age!
So what does that say about us and this new technology? This new trick, this new acronym? Do we get infused with these words: WiFi, iPod, Podcast, you Blog, she Blog, I Blog, we Blog… wheew… just to misuse and misunderstand them? I must admit that it took me a while to make that quantum connection about audio & blogs & podcasts & and MY web connection. So here’s a Podcast 101 explanation.
A podcast is just an audio file. Plain and simple. It’s recorded onto a computer with easy to use software and then converted to an mp3 format and uploaded to the web where it is available to the masses for download onto their iPod, PC, Mac – whatever. The trick is this. As the podcaster I want people to tune in with out having to go to my site and wait for a download. In order to do this they have to subscribe to the podcast.
When you subscribe you paste a URL into your podcast software (something like iTunes or iPodder) and then if you’re on the web and your software is running it will search for new episodes and automatically download them for you. (On iTunes look under the menu -Advanced- and choose “subscribe to podcast”, then paste the url in the box that shows up.) Now your PC can do this any time, say 3am, and then when you’re running out the door for work the podcast has already downloaded onto your iPod. That’s what a PODCAST is all about Charlie Brown – It does what regular web-audio does not – shows up on your doorstep automatically – no muss, no fuss.
I hope that helped a bit? Now practice: Go to your iTunes, choose the Advanced menu item, choose -subscribe to a podcast- and paste in: http://www.bluecavestudios.com/unsignedunderground.xml You’re all set to receive Unsigned Underground now. CHEERS!
Darryl
Unsigned Podcast
