Pennsylvania AFL-CIO digs iTunes and Podcasting
As some may know the new version of Apple's iTunes, version 4.9, came out last week, It's notable because it now has support for podcasting and because anyone can add a podcast to Apple's database of broadcasts.
This last week I added podcast information for the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO to the iTunes database and it is now available through the Music Store. If you have iTunes 4.9 installed, go to the front page of the Music Store, and click on "podcasts". From the podcast page search for "Pennsylvania AFL-CIO" and you'll find the podcast information.
It turns out that iTunes also now supports video pod casts, what some call "vodcasts", and I have posted a short clip of PA AFL-CIO president Bill George speaking at a recent minimum wage rally in Harrisburg.
One nice thing about podcast support in iTunes is that it greatly simplifies explaining to people how to get podcasts. Now all they have to do is download and install iTunes (available for Mac and Windows) -- no third application is needed. Hopefully, the threshold of participation is now great reduced.
If any are interested in a how-to on posting podcasts to the iTunes Music Store, I would be happy to post one.
- Peter Wiley's blog
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Threshold for participation
One of the big reasons I was kind of down on audio and video on the net is that it was a huge hassle to encode the data so that people with all versions of WindowsMediaPlayer and RealPlayer could view and hear the material.
So, are you saying that iTunes will overcome that problem? What if people don't have iTunes?
Thanks for this post, Peter. One nitpick: can you edit your post to provide urls to the material in question so readers can quickly access what you are talking about?
P.S. If anyone is totally lost on this or what we're talking about, you should ask a question here. Anyone can chime in and answer.
Many things in life, often
Many things in life, often those worth doing, are a "huge hassle", at least at first. Anyone remember rubbing on Letraset letters?
The steps to a podcast vary a bit depending on the resources one has available, but are generally: 1) recording and editing to a computer-based audio file ; 2) "ecoding" the audio file (that is, compressing a file to a size that is usable on line); 3) posting the audio file and creating the RSS what make it accessible.
An excellent on-line resource on step 1 issues is http://www.transom.org. Transom has good how-tos on many aspects of computer-based recording, including discussion of various shareware audio production tools for Windows and Mac. Look in the "tools" section.
If people don't have iTunes (http://www.iTunes.com), they can get it easily because it is a free download for both Windows and Mac. One does not have to pay a dime to Apple to listen to free podcasts or use the Music Store podcast search features. One also does not need an iPod. One nice feature of iTunes is that one can use it to encode .mp3 audio files from other kinds of audio files very easily.
On podcast RSS issues there are also a number of good resources on-line (there are even RSS generators like http://www.tdscripts.com/webmaster_utilities/podcast-generator.php). Again, transom.org is a good starting place. I am writing a free podcast how-to and will post a link when it's finished.
If one uses .mp3 as the audio file format the version issues for the various players are moot because they all play .mp3 now.
Thanks for these links
I'm going to have to figure out an easy way of compiling tips and resources like this into one area. Once this stuff gets buried in the site, it will be tough to find.
Editorial stuff
Peter, as editor, I took the liberty of changing the title of your blog entry from "iTunes and Podcasting" to something a little more enticing and interesting to our audience. Also, remember that blog items are also likely to get promoted to the front page. Things on the front page get disseminated to all sites that subscribe to our RSS feed. You should keep that in mind when writing your blog entries.