Podcasting - Radio Redefined!!

Everything evolves, and so has the good old radio. First they modulated amplitude (AM), then frequency (FM), then radio went online and never looked back. Online radio, which started out as an internet clone of your average everyday radio, has evolved into something new - podcasting. Podcasting is nothing but a spin-off from online radio, rapidly gaining popularity but having it’s limitations nonetheless.

What is Podcasting ?

Podcasting is a method of publishing files via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically (normally audio). It became popular in late 2004, intended largely for downloading audio files onto a portable audio player. However, listening to podcasts does not require a portable device and it is not traditional “broadcasting” to a mass audience at a fixed time.

The word “podcasting” was coined in February 2004, combining “broadcasting” with the name of Apple Computer’s iPod audio player (although podcasting was not invented by Apple, nor do podcasts require a portable player or Apple software). Podcasting works on the RSS system.

The downside is that podcasting is irrelevant unless you have at least a 128 kbps connection, and prefarably without datacaps.

- From Wikipedia (with little tweaking )

Podcasting and Radio

If you’ve read the above, you may understand that podcasting can be used to broadcast audio and everything else which can be downloaded on to your computer just like your RSS feeds. So, podcasting is simple, just publish your files, or in this case, the radio show, which can be then downloaded the by users and listened to at any time they wish. So podcasting is basically a set of downloadable MP3’s that are regularly updated.

The reason why podcasting can’t be used for full length music is simply because it’s meant to be downloaded, and that would just be a free giveaway, so podcasting and music go together only to the limits of samples, no more. However, the podcasting model can be successfully implemented in the case of talk shows, news, audio magazines, etc. most major news channels like the BBC, CNN and others now have podcasts of their own.

The Advantage

The advantage with podcasts is simple - it’s downloadable :bingo:, so you can listen to it whenever you want, wherever you want. iTunes is now fully integrated with podcasts that are available on the iTunes Music Library (accessible from iTunes), and as everyone knows, iTunes is integrated with the iPod, so you can listen to your podcasts on the move. As mentioned above, the iPod is the main reason being the name Podcasting, before which it was simply audio delivered by RSS (which nobody noticed).

Where to Start ?

To get your first taste of podcasting, I’d suggest you start off at the iTunes Music Library. This is not accessible directly from the internet, but through the iTunes Digital Jukebox which you can download from here (windows) or from itunes.com

Once you do that, just open up the iTunes Music Library and go to the podcasts section. Just subscribe to the podcasts you like and iTunes will keep downloading them as their latest podcasts are broadcasted. It’s that easy. Alternatively, you could use podcast libraries like iPodder, Podcast Alley or Podcast Bunker with other software (ipodder recommended), but iTunes is the best, with the fastest growing directory, and typical Apple simplicity.