iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac in a Snap (2nd Edition)

One of the most explosive phenomena on the modern Internet is podcastingthe digital descendant of underground radio shows. Developing hand in hand with the rise of blogs (personal journals and punditry sites written by any individual with the time to devote to it), podcasting allows a personfor example, a bloggerto record a half-hour of talk, music, comedy, politics, or whatever suits his fancy, add chapter marks and illustrations, upload it to his website, and do it all over again the following week. Anyone on the Internet can then subscribe to the podcast and receive each new installment as it's released, downloading it from its distribution site on the web for free. Because podcasts in their simplest form are really nothing more than large MP3 files, fans can play podcasts in iTunes or other audio programs and copy them to their iPods to listen whenever they have an ear to spare.

Key Term

Podcasting Publishing a stream of MP3 or AAC audio in episodic format, containing whatever content the individual publisher sees fit to record, for listeners to download and listen to in iTunes or on an iPod.

One of the curiosities of podcasting is that, despite its name, it doesn't have anything inherently to do with the iPod. People were podcasting months before Apple took official notice of the phenomenon; the name just came about and stuck because the iPod was already so popular and because it was such a convenient way to listen to these personal audio broadcasts. However, when Apple added podcasting support to iTunes and the iPod in May 2005, it brought a whole new sheen of legitimacy to the practice. Whereas beforehand, the only listeners for a podcast would typically be the existing fans of the site that produced it, today listeners can discover new podcasts of all kinds using a special section of the iTunes Music Storethe Podcast Directorythat spotlights popular podcasts and provides avenues for discovering thousands of new ones. iTunes itself has a whole dedicated navigation screen for podcasts and a set of tools for managing your subscriptions to them; it will automatically check each day for new episodes of each podcast to which you've subscribed, download these episodes, and throw away old episodes you've already listened to, if desired. Podcasts in iTunes can have running artwork that changes as the audio stream progresses, giving the podcaster the ability to illustrate what he's talking about; iTunes even supports podcasts that are made up of video streams, allowing podcasters to distribute their home movies, investigative video reports, or animated films (such as Homestar Runner) to whatever fans are interested in tuning in. Much more information on using podcasts with iTunes and the iPod is available in Subscribe to and Listen to Podcasts.

Creating a Podcast

One of the great things about podcasting is its democratic natureanybody who wants to can create a podcast and publish it for potential fans to find. If you can't find a podcast out there covering some topic that you want to see covered, just make one yourself!

Although creating podcasts is not a part of iTunes' feature set, the software necessary for creating podcasts is widely available on both Windows and the Mac. Dozens of programs both free and commercial allow you to record, edit, and upload your podcast to your web server, and create an RSS feed that allows podcasting client programs such as iTunes to subscribe to your podcasts.

Web Resource

http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcasting_Software.html

A listing of popular podcast-creating software for Windows, Mac, and other platforms.

As part of Apple's adoption of the phenomenon whose name it probably wishes it invented, GarageBand 3.0 for the Mac was released in early 2006 with a much-heralded integrated podcasting feature. GarageBand, already well known as a loop-based music-creation program that gives musicians of every skill level the ability to build musical compositions from prepackaged loop components and their own recorded performances, now enables podcasters to turn their musical creations into publishable podcasts with artwork or video tracks accompanying the composed music or recorded voice. Other helpful features include integration with the iPhoto application as a source for photos and with iTunes for integrating music tracks, and an automatic "ducking" feature that causes the music to dip in volume when you start talking into your microphone, turning the podcast stream into a professional-sounding radio presentation. GarageBand is part of the $79 iLife '06 suite, and it's included free with all new Macs. Another part of iLife '06 is iWeb, a Web page authoring utility that integrates the podcasting support from GarageBand and automates the uploading of your finished podcasts to your customized site.

GarageBand, on the Mac, provides tools for podcast creators and doubles as a music composition program with ready-made loops.

Windows users have their pick of several podcasting solutions that range from the bare bones to the feature studded. Most of the podcasting software for Windows that offers the same functionality that GarageBand does is commercial; some highly acclaimed examples include ePodcast Creator from Industrial Audio Software ($89) and Podcast Factory from M-Audio ($179). As a more inexpensive alternative, the free Audacity is a utility for recording multitrack sound streams from your microphone and other sources. Several standalone utilities are available for creating the necessary RSS feeds and uploading the finished podcast files to your web server.

Publicizing Your Podcast

When you're done creating and uploading your podcast episode, you'd think the hardest part would be letting people know about it. Thanks to iTunes, though, that isn't the case.

In the Podcasts section of the iTunes Music Store, there's a big link right in the middle of the page called Submit a Podcast. Click this link, and you'll be taken to a page where you can enter the URL of your podcast's RSS feed. You're then asked for a title and description for the podcast, in addition to search terms and other information (such as its category) that will help listeners find it. After you submit this information, the iTunes Music Store staff review the podcast and enter it into the Podcast Directory.

After your podcast has been listed, anyone using the iTunes Music Store can search for terms pertaining to a podcast they're interested in or browse whole categories of podcasts; yours will be listed among the search results right along with the most prestigious podcasts produced by hot bands, journalists, politicians, and much moreeveryone's on the same level playing field!