Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

Ze Verrry Best Podcast How To Evah

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 01/08 at 01:43 AM • Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

For a little weekend fun, check out this video podcast, “How to Video Podcast” from French Maid TV (link not entirely work-safe).

A gimmick, you say? Nonetheless, you can learn how to do a podcast—at least, you Macintosh users can.

image
 
Comments (3) • Permalink

Podcasting: Will It or Won’t It?

Posted by Travis Smith on 03/31 at 12:24 PM • Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

Darren Barefoot says he’s Not Smoking the Podcasting Dope.

(Podcasting is a process where you put an MP3 file, kind of like an audio journal entry, on the Web in such a way that it can be automatically downloaded and copied to the MP3 player of people who subscribe to your podcast.)

I was all set to agree with Darren—that the podcasting “phenomenon” is mostly hype-driven, without a significant audience base or event that has truly shown the power or potential of podcasting.

But then I read Darren’s arguments for why podcasting isn’t important, and I found that I disagreed with a lot of them.  I now think podcasting will have an impact, someday soon. I paraphrase his arguments slightly below, hoping he’ll forgive me for my presumption.

Darren says:

Mainstream radio is already all over this trend. ... In six months to a year, it’s easy to imagine that most radio stations in North America will offer time-shifted content. (Thus, podcasting will be subsumed and/or is overhyped.)

True, radio stations will do this.  But this just shows that podcasting is already influential, counteracting your argument.  Also, remember that newspapers launched on the Web ten years ago, but many of them still haven’t figured out how to do things right.  So, yes, big companies have started podcasting—but that won’t stop smaller companies and individuals from doing it, and better to boot.

Darren says:

Audio doesn’t compress. I can consume 250 blogs in a day without much trouble, but can I listen to more than 10 podcasts?

Podcasting allows subscribers to listen when they want, and audio publishers to produce when they want, which means that you can fit more podcasts into your schedule, because the listener is never without a podcast to listen to, and the producer isn’t forced into a production schedule.  And actually, audio does compress: you can listen to audio books at double speed without distortion, and also you can skip past or through boring podcasts in a way you can’t in regular radio shows.

Darren says:

Only about 40% of North America has broadband access. A fraction of those people have portable digital music players

True.  And only 80% of North American homes have cable.  More to the point, though—how many people need to listen to a podcast for it to be a success?  For some podcasters, 10 would be enough, or 100, or 500.  The place I last worked had a subscription base of 45,000 people.  It made $80 million in revenue a year.

Darren says:

Personally, I have no commute, and I find that I can’t listen to talking while I’m writing.

I had a 45 minute commute, and love to listen to radio as I work.  The biggest mistake you can make when predicting how others will act, and I do this myself, is to assume that you are an example of the typical user.  Many more people commute than not, and many peole use radio as a background noise while they work.

Darren says:

Unlike a blog, anybody can’t do it. First, you need the equipment. Secondly, you need the talent. Everyone learns writing in school, so the barrier to entry is pretty small. However, nobody (or very few) learns how to be a radio broadcaster. Finally, if you’re keen to produce professional results, you need to understand how to edit audio files, layer in music, etc.

Suburban housewife in Utah.  T.V. production co-ordinator in Los Angeles.  Search-engine expert in Vancouver. Saville Row tailor.  If I asked you, “Would any of these people be likely to produce compelling and popular daily writing,” you might have said no, but you’d be wrong.  Equally, there will be great audio producers found via podcasting, just as there are great writers found via blogs.  I can think of three people off the top of my head with no radio experience whose voices can keep me entranced for hours, regardless of what they’re talking about.  They would be great podcasters.  And guess what, there will be a lot of crap, too, but that’s OK.  Oh, and as for the equipment, the cost of a good microphone pales compared to so many other costs associated with people’s hobbies or jobs.

Finally, Darren says:

Say we manage to get simple-to-use technology in the hands of average consumers. Say Apple offers a podcast-listening-ready iTunes. What’s the average consumer going to choose? Some dude like me talking in my pajamas or the CBC?

Ah, that’s an interesting question.  Let’s see: how’s TV consumption doing (down)? What about newspaper circulation (down, down, down)?  What about movies (second straight year that both box office revenue and attendance are down)?  I think it’s clear people are choosing to balance the dude in his pyjamas against the CBC—and Darren must think so too, because isn’t that what blogging is doing?

Frankly, I don’t think all, or even most, consumers will ditch the CBC for home-made podcasts.  But in the media mix, amateur-produced (meaning, those who do something out of love) audio content will catch on just as amateur writing, photos and software (open source) have already.

 
Comments (4) • Permalink

iPodcast Producer announced

Posted by Travis Smith on 03/05 at 12:31 PM • Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

Industrial Audio Software announced the introduction of iPodcast Producer.

It’s a completely integrated software package combining recording, editing, RSS feed creation, and FTP uploading. I haven’t tried it (it’s for Windows XP only right now), but on June 1, they promise a Mac version, and then I’ll likely give it a shot.

 
Comments (0) • Permalink

Podcasting Podcast

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 02/21 at 04:55 PM • Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

I posted on Saturday about a great session at Northern Voice by Tod Maffin about podcasting. Well, the podcast of the session is up on Blogosphere Radio, and you can hear for yourself just how to create a good podcast, including tips, tools and software suggestions.

Tod has also put up the slides and a transcript from his talk here.

 
Comments (0) • Permalink

ANT Video Aggregator

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 02/19 at 11:57 AM • Blogging Tools -- Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

Heard from video blogging devotees Jay Dedman and Peter Bull during the Introduction to Video Blogging session today. They introduced the ANT video blog aggregator, a fun little tool that works like any other RSS reader. Subscribe to your favorite video blogs, and ANT will refresh and download new entries. You can then view the video files right through ANT. Very cool little app.

ANT screenshot
 
Comments (0) • Permalink

Tidbits from Tod

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 02/19 at 11:25 AM • Blogging Events -- Law and Ethics -- Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

(This titling system may mean I have to choose the sessions I attend today based on the first name of the speaker…)

Tips for podcasters from Tod Maffin, who did a fabulous session on podcasting. Here’s what he says about using clips of music or shows.
People believe (but are wrong) that it’s perfectly legal to play music clip if:

  • I only play 15 seconds
  • I talk over the intro of the song
  • I bought and own the CD
  • The artist Agrees (you still need the label’s permission and sometimes their union’s)

You can get licenses for things from ASCAP.com/weblicense to get a non-interactive, no revenue license for $360/year. It’s more if you earn revenue from whatever the clips are included in.

 
Comments (0) • Permalink

Podcasting

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 02/18 at 04:58 PM • Blogging Tips -- Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

You may have noticed the term podcasting being tossed around lately—and that people seem pretty excited about it. Wondering what it is?

Podcasting is the practice of creating an audio file, usually an MP3, and putting it into a blog entry for people to listen to. (You don’t have to put them in blog entries; you can email a podcast, or put it on a regular Web site.) Because podcasts are MP3s, they can be downloaded and played on a portable MP3 player, and because people are creating regular series of them and publishing via blogs (via RSS feeds, specifically), you can subscribe to regular podcast “shows.”

Bloggers are using podcasts to blog when they aren’t at their computer, and blog readers are listening to podcasts to hear from their favorite bloggers when they aren’t at their computers either. Both sides seem to be having a lot of fun.

If you’d like to learn more about podcasts, I suggest you start with Andy J. Williams Affleck’s comprehensive article “Podcasting: The People’s Radio,” which he wrote for TidBITS. It’s a terrific introduction, and includes links to some of the best podcasting going on today.

 
Comments (0) • Permalink

Moblogging Paranoia

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 11/14 at 02:46 AM • Audio, Video & Photo Blogging

You know it’s gone mainstream when it hits the Sunday funny pages! Check out the 11/14 Dilbert strip for a corporate view of camera phones.

 
Comments (0) • Permalink