Podcasting |
Podcasting is a means of distributing audio and video programs via the Internet that lets users subscribe to a number of files, also known as feeds , and then hear or view the material at the time that they choose. A feed is usually in the MP3 audio format.
Podcasting became popular in late 2004 with the spread of free software that enabled automatic downloading of audio MP3 files onto computers and mobile MP3 players.
Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, rather than one-time delivery. A series of files are delivered because subscribers want to get the information regularly.
Subscriptions use a feed (such as RSS (file format) or Atom (standard)) to deliver the enclosed files. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated radio shows, and gives broadcast radio or television programs a new distribution method. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using podcatching software (a type of news aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically.
The word Podcast is often incorrectly used to describe any Web link to a media-player-compatible audio file. Some radio personalities post MP3 versions of their shows and call them podcasts even though they offer no subscription feed.
Most podcatching software facilitates copying podcasts to portable music players. Any digital audio player or computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts. From the earliest RSS-enclosure tests in 2000-2001, feeds have been used to deliver video files as well as audio. By 2005 some aggregators and mobile devices could receive and play video, but the podcast name remained most associated with audio.
Podcasting is a portmanteau that combines the words broadcasting and iPod. The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable player, and no broadcasting is involved.
Aware of that misleading association from the beginning, some writers have suggested alternative names or reinterpretations of the letters p-o-d , without winning much of a following. One little-used alternative is blogcasting , which implies content based on, or similar in format to, blogs. Another is audioblogging.
=History=
==Initial development==
By 2003, web radio had existed for a decade, digital audio player had been on the market for several years, blogs and broadcasters frequently published MP3 audio online, and RSS (file format) file formats were widely used for summarizing or syndicating Web content. In 2001, UserLand Software founder and RSS (file format) evangelist Dave Winer responded to requests from customers Adam Curry and Tristan Louis for a way to deliver video or audio with their RSS feeds. Winer added a specific enclosure element to what was then his company s Really Simple Syndication specification, then to Radio Userland, a blogging system incorporating both a feed-generator and news aggregator. (Ironically, the rival RDF Site Summary syndication format already supported media resources implicitly, although applications rarely took advantage of the feature.)
In June 2003, Stephen Downes demonstrated aggregation and syndication of audio files using RSS (file format) in his Ed Radio application . Ed Radio scanned RSS feeds for MP3 files, collected them into a single feed, and made the result available as Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language or WebJay audio feeds.
In September 2003 Winer created an RSS-with-enclosures feed for his Harvard development projects.
Curry s and Winer s podcasts, including several months of collaboration they called Trade Secrets, spread interest in podcasting among other widely-read bloggers. Amateur blogs and open source developers continued as important factors in the popularization of podcasting before and after professional broadcasters and entrepreneurs with business plans adopted the form.
Possibly the first use of the term podcasting was as a synonym for audioblogging or weblog-based amateur radio in an article by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian on February 12, 2004 . In September of that year, Dannie Gregoire used the term to describe the automatic download and synchronization idea that Curry had developed . Gregoire had also registered multiple domain names associated with podcasting. That usage was discovered and reported on by Curry and Dave Slusher of the Evil Genius Chronicles website.
By October 2004, detailed how-to podcast articles had begun to appear online. In November 2004, liberated syndication libsyn launched what was apparently the first Podcast Service Provider, providing storage, bandwidth, and RSS creation tools.
Precursor
Independently of the development of podcasting via RSS, a portable player and music download system had been developed at Compaq Research as early as 1999 or 2000. Called PocketDJ, it would have been launched as a service for the Personal Jukebox or a proposed successor, the first hard-disk based MP3-player. See Personal_Jukebox#PocketDJ_-_The_original_idea_of_Podcasting.3F in the Personal Jukebox article.
==Popularization==
The word about podcasting rapidly spread through the already-popular weblogs of Curry, Winer and other early podcasters and podcast-listeners. Fellow blogger and technology columnist Doc Searls began keeping track of how many hits Google found for the word podcasts on September 28, 2004, when the result was 24 hits. A year from now, he wrote, it will pull up hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions. (As of October 27, 2005 Google reports 60,800,000 for podcast)
Searls kept track of the search results in his blog through the next month. There were 526 hits for podcasts on September 30, then 2,750 three days later. The number doubled every few days, passing 100,000 by October 18. His prediction of perhaps millions in a year proved to be conservative. After only nine months, a Google search for podcasts produced more than 10 million hits, and as of September 2005, the same search produces 61 million hits. The next month, October 2005, it returned more than 80 million hits.
Capturing the early distribution and variety of podcasts was more difficult than counting Google hits, but before the end of October, The New York Times reported podcasts across the United States and in Canada, Australia and Sweden, mentioning podcast topics from technology to veganism and movie reviews. USA Today told its readers about these free amateur chatfests the following February , profiling several podcasters, giving instructions for sending and receiving podcasts, and including a Top Ten list from one of the many podcast directories that had sprung up. The newspaper quoted one directory as listing 3,300 podcast programs in February, 2005.
Those Top Ten programs gave further indication of podcast topics: four were about technology (including Curry s Daily Source Code, which also included music and personal chat), three were about music, one about movies, one about politics, and -- at the time No. 1 on the list -- The Dawn and Drew Show, described as married-couple banter, a program format that USA Today noted was quite popular on American broadcast radio in the 1940s. Such couplecasts have since become quite popular among independent podcasts (those not derived from a preexisting radio show).
In March of 2005, from on location.
By mid-2005, the medium had acquired a bittersweet form of validation: a backlash. Some experienced internet users declared podcasting to be either nothing special (just a variant of blogs and mp3s), or already past its peak (because of growing exposure, and/or adoption by unsavvy internet users).
In June, 2005, Apple_computer added podcasting to its ITunes 4.9 music software and iTunes Music Store, staking a claim to the medium. The iTunes software downloads and organizes podcasts, and loads them on the iPod, taking the place of a separate aggregator application. In addition, iTunes 5 interfaces with the online Music Store, which compiles and distributes the content. As of October 2005, the Music Store is free of charge to both the listener and creator.
A little over a month later, U.S. President George W. Bush became a podcaster[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/], when someone added an RSS 2.0 feed to the previously downloadable files of the weekly radio addresses at the White House website.
As is often the case with new technologies, pornography has become a part of the scene - producing what is sometimes called podnography. Other approaches include enlisting a class full of MBA students to research podcasting and compare possible business models, and venture capital flowing to influential content providers.
The growing popularity produced specialties, including the podsafe category, which refers to a track that is legal for use on a podcast, usually because the band or artist is not signed to a major label and they (or their label) has given consent for their work to be redistributed via podcast or the recording was made under the Creative Commons license. However, the mere fact that an artist is not signed to a major label does not automatically mean that they have given consent for their work to be podcast. See also Copyright.
At podsafe sites artists can submit podsafe tracks and podcasters can sign up to get music for their shows.
In September 2005, the first podcast encoded in full Dolby, was created by Revision3 Studios with their 14th episode of Diggnation.
== Adoption by traditional broadcasters ==
Traditional broadcasters were extremely quick to pick up on the podcasting format, especially those whose news or talk formats spared them the complications of music licensing. The United States syndicated radio show Web Talk Radio became the first to adopt the format, in September 2004, followed within weeks by Seattle news radio station KOMO and by individual programs from KFI Los Angeles and Boston s WGBH.
The BBC began a trial in October 2004 with BBC Radio Five Live s Fighting Talk . These trials were extended in January 2005 to BBC Radio 4 s In Our Time . January 2005 also saw CBC begin a trial with its weekly national technology column Nerd (radio show) . United States National Public Radio member stations WNYC and KCRW adopted the format for many of their productions. March saw Virgin Radio become the first UK radio station to produce a daily podcast of its popular breakfast show. In April 2005 the BBC announced it was extending the trial to twenty more programmes, including music radio and in the same month Australia s Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched a podcasting trial across several of its national stations.
In May, 2005, the trend began to go the other way, with podcasts becoming a source of content for broadcast radio programs by Adam Curry, Christopher Lydon and others. The entire format of KYOU Radio, a California radio station, became based around broadcasting Podcasts. That summer, when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation locked out more than 5,000 of its regular on-air and technical staff, they responded by creating their own unofficial podcast of original programming, [http://www.cbcunplugged.com CBC Unplugged], which also appeared on some campus and community radio stations.
=== Coping with growth === While podcasting s innovators took advantage of the sound-file synchronization feature of Apple Computer s iPod and ITunes software -- and included pod in the name -- the technology was always compatible with other players and programs. Apple was not actively involved until mid-2005, when it joined the market on three fronts: as a source of podcatcher software, as publisher of a podcast directory, and as provider of tutorials on how to create podcasts with Apple products GarageBand and Quicktime Pro.
When it added a podcast-subscription feature to its June 28, 2005, release of iTunes 4.9, Apple also launched a directory of podcasts at the iTunes Music Store, starting with 3,000 entries. Apple s software enabled MPEG-4 Part 3#.m4a encoded podcasts to use chapters, bookmarks, external links, and synchronized images displayed on iPod screens or in the iTunes artwork viewer. Two days after release of the program, Apple reported one million podcast subscriptions.
Some podcasters found that exposure to iTunes huge number of downloaders threatened to make great demands on their bandwidth and related expenses. Possible solutions were proposed, including the addition of a content delivery system, such as [http://www.libsyn.com liberated syndication]; [http://www.podcastservers.com Podcast Servers];Akamai Technologies; a peer-to-peer solution, BitTorrent; or use of free hosting services, such as those offered by Ourmedia, BlipMedia and the Internet Archive.
As of September 2005, a number of services began featuring video-based podcasting including Apple via its iTunes Music Store and Loomia. Known by some as a vodcast, the services handle both audio and video feeds. As well as public broadcasting made possible by [http://participatoryculture.org Participatory Culture Foundation].
== Other uses == Podcasting s initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own radio shows, but the system is increasingly used for other reasons, including: *A way for people and organizations to avoid regulatory bodies, like the British Ofcom, that would not allow a program to be broadcast in traditional media. *A way for news organizations to distribute audio as an addition to their existing text (or mostly text) news products. For example, Wikinews began to podcast its News Briefs in 2005. *Education. Musselburgh Grammar School, . *Politics. In the U.S., both major political parties have various podcasts, as do several politicials. *Religion. Podcasting (or in this context, Religious broadcasting) has been used by many religious groups . Many churches produce podcasts of talks and sermons. Disciples with Microphones provides podcasts relating to the Catholic church . *Unofficial audio tours of museums (musecast) . *Communication from space. On 7 August 2005. American astronaut Stephen Robinson claimed the first podcast from space during the Space Shuttle program Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-114 - although there was no subscription feed, merely an audio file that required manual downloading. ([http://www1.nasa.gov/returntoflight/crew/robinson_podcast.html transcript & audio]). *Television Commentary. for each new episode of Battlestar Galactica . Other television shows have since followed suit. *Conference and meeting alerts. Podcasts can be packaged to alert attendees to agendas, hosted roundtables and daily feedback. See *Advocacy. The 5,500 Lockout (industry) staff (editors, journalists, technicians, hosts, etc.) of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were podcasting news and other programming during August and September of 2005. *Youth Media. Podcasting has become a way for youth media organizations, such as Youth Radio [http://www.youthradio.org], to bring youth perspectives to a wider audience. *Newspapers. Newspapers use podcasts to brodcast audio content from print interviews and drive traffic to their websites. The San Franciso Chronicle is believed to be the first major daily newspaper to start podcasting using an external website (http://sfchroniclebiz.blogspot.com) in Feb 2005. Hong Kong s South China Morning Post was the first to use its own website and the first in Asia (http://podcasting.scmp.com), having launched on April 19, 2005. *The Society of Critical Care Medicine has a podcast at [http://www.sccm.org/podcast] used to update clinicians with summaries of important articles, as well as interviews.
= Talk Shows and Music Royalties =
Terrestrial radio broadcasters podcasts (and MP3 file downloads without subscription feeds) have run into complications regarding royalties for incidental music on talk broadcasts, even when identical programs are streamed. The broadcasters apparently believe companies that license the music will challenge its use in easily downloaded MP3 files, while streaming is closer to a broadcasting model.
For example, when popular U.S. conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began offering podcasts early in 2005, his employer, Premiere Radio Networks, tightened its editing of intro and bumper music, which it previously had allowed on other MP3 files. One effect was to render some of Premiere broadcaster Glenn Beck s podcasts difficult to follow. He would appear to stop mid-sentence and restart in a different thought, because of cuts required to remove royalty-protected music.
= See also =
*Autocast (the automatic generation of podcasts from text-only sources) *Vodcast (video-based podcasts) *iRotica (pornographic video-based podcasts) *Godcast (religious podcasts, typically Christian) *Media RSS (a kind of syndication of media files used by Yahoo!) *Mobilecast (podcasting to mobile phones) *Narrowcasting (podcasting is a form of narrowcasting) *Javacast (podcasting to mobile phones using J2ME Midlets) *Learncasting (delivering instructional content or academic support content via RSS or Atom (standard) ) *MMS Podcast (podcasting to mobile phones using MMS) *Palmcasting (podcasting to Palm devices like Treo and LifeDrive) *Photofeed (image podcasting) *Punchcasting (punching podcasts directly into smartphone devices) *Skypecasting (recording Skype text, voice, or video conversations) *Soundseeing tour (podcast utilizing ambient noise and descriptions) *Streaming Media
=External links=
=Podcast Resources=
As of 2005, the following links point to sites that can help find podcasts: *[http://www.digitalpodcast.com Digital Podcast] Podcasting news and directory *[http://www.podcast411.com/page2.html Podcast 411] A list of sites that list podcasts. *[http://www.dibidib.com Dibidib] Site for indexing, finding, and publishing podcasts. *[http://Loomia.com Podcast search engine] Podcast and Videocast search engine with recommendations. *[http://castsource.com Video and Podcast RSS feeds] Create custom video and podcast feeds based on keywords *[http://podcastsearchservice.com Podcast search engine]
Players: *[http://www.apple.com/itunes Apple iTunes] This player has a version both for Macs and Windows and works seamlessly. *[http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php iPodder Lemon] GPL free Podcast receiver for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Creation and publishing tools: *[http://www.potionfactory.com/podcastmaker/ Podcast Maker] A tool for publishing and creating enhanced podcasts for the Mac OS X
=Notes and references=
# Technology writer used that same version when countering reports that his company was pushing the word blogcasting to avoid mentioning an Apple product. Scoble, Robert, 2005. [http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/07/12.html#a10602 Blogger gives incorrect data about podcasting at Microsoft]. # Winer, Dave, Oct. 31, 2000 [http://davenet.scripting.com/2000/10/31/virtualBandwidth Virtual Bandwidth] ; and Jan. 11, 2001 [http://www.thetwowayweb.com/payloadsforrss Payloads for RSS] # Curry, Adam, Oct. 27, 2000. [http://adamcurry.editthispage.com/broadband/ The Bandwidth Issue] # Louis, Tristan, Oct. 13, 2000. [http://backend.userland.com/discuss/msgReader$108 Suggestion for RSS 0.92 specification] # [http://www.downes.ca/ed_radio.htm Ed Radio] # [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/specialRssFeed Christopher Lydon Interviews] # Marks, Kevin. October 2003 [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ml/output.pl/35512/stream/temp.ram Audioblogging session (start 48 minutes in)] [http://epeus.blogspot.com/2003_10_01_epeus_archive.html#106527364652597310 blog post] # Hammersley, Ben. 2004. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1145689,00.html Audible revolution]. In The Guardian , Thu, Feb 12 2004. # Gregoire, Dannie J. 2004. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipodder-dev/message/41 How to handle getting past episodes] In the ipodder-dev mailing list, Thu, Sep 16 2004. # Torrone, Phillip. 2004. [http://www.engadget.com/entry/5843952395227141/ How-To: Podcasting]. In Engadget , Oct 5 2004. # Searls, Doc. Sept. 28, 2004. Doc Searls IT Garage, [http://www.itgarage.com/node/462 DIY Radio with PODcasting.] # Cyrus Farivar. Oct. 28, 2004. The New York Times, [http://tech2.nytimes.com/mem/technology/techreview.htmlres=990CE3D6153DF93BA15753C1A9629C8B63 New Food for IPods: Audio by Subscription.] # Acohido, Byron. Feb. 9, 2005. USA Today, [http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-02-09-podcasting-usat-money-cover_x.htm Radio to the MP3 degree: Podcasting.] # Della Cava, Marco R. Feb. 9, 2005. USA Today, [http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-02-08-podcasting_x.htm Podcasting: It s all over the dial.] # Web Talk Radio , 2004-09-15. [http://www.webtalkradio.com/blog/9.shtml WebTalk Launches New Website]. # Crofts, Sheri, et al. [http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_9/crofts/ Podcasting: A new technology in search of viable business models]. [http://www.firstmonday.org/ First Monday], September 2005. # BBC Press Office, 2005. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/01_january/30/radio.shtml BBC podcasting sparks Fighting Talk]. # Newitz, Annalee. 2005. [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/curry.html Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star]. In Wired Magazine . See also: [http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/ CBC Podcasting page], [http://www.cbc.ca/nerd/ CBC /Nerd page]. # BBC Press Office, 2005. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/04_april/14/pod.shtml BBC to podcast up to 20 more programmes including Today and Radio 1 speech highlights]. # [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/help.htm#9 ABC Radio National podcasts]. # [http://www.apple.com/itunes/ Apple – iTunes] # [http://www.vsbrown.com/blog/news_item.aspNewsID=37 Starting Your Own PodCast]. # [http://www.vsbrown.com/blog/news_item.aspNewsID=36 Publish Your Podcast to the iTMS]. # [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/30podcast.html iTunes Podcast Subscriptions Top One Million] # [http://mgsonline.blogs.com/mgspodcast Musselburgh Grammar School Podcast] # Heinen, Tom. 2005. [http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun05/333091.asp Podcasting becomes another pulpit]. In JS Online , Jun 11 2005. # [http://www.discipleswithmicrophones.org Disciples with Microphones] # Kennedy, Randy. 2005. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.htmlex=1274932800&en=db1ced6873dcc4b6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour]. In The New York Times , May 28 2005. # BBC Collective, 2005. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3847737 Podcasting for beginners]|
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