The Genre of Podcasting

It may seem strange that a technology like radio that was developed in the early 1900's is suddenly a hot space for innovation in the early 2000's, but it is. The way people create and use audio on the Internet has re-energized radio in particular and the use of audio recordings in general. "Podcasting" is part of that innovation.

You may have heard of podcasting, a new medium of communications some people describe as homemade radio shows recorded by amateurs, which you grab off of the Internet, put in your iPod, and listen to any time you want. Some of this is true, but there's more to it.

What exactly is podcasting and what makes it special? What are some examples of what it sounds like? In this essay I try to help you understand the answer to those questions and point you to some samples that you can listen to. In other Top 10 Sources lists you will find some recommended podcasting feeds that will let you hear even more of the many types of podcasts now being created.

Technically, podcasting is a process made up of several parts. First, someone makes an audio recording, called an episode or show, and stores it as a computer audio file much like music. That recording may be just a few minutes in length like most music tracks or 15 minutes, half an hour, or even hours in length like a TV or radio show.

Dan Bricklin creating a podcast (May 2005)
(All photos on this page courtesy of Dan Bricklin)

The file is made available to listeners through use of the Internet, much as normal web pages are. Unlike streaming media, in which the audio moves through the Internet and is played on the computer speakers in real time, podcast files usually are downloaded completely before playing and do not require an Internet connection after the download.

Podcast files are often quite large (for example a 40 minute show could take up 20MB or more) and can take several minutes or more to download even with a broadband connection. Many people instruct their computers to download new shows well in advance before listening to them. This is accomplished with the help of a facility called RSS. RSS is commonly used for distributing news headlines and blog feeds and is used by every Top 10 Sources site to download and display new content to the site's home page.

Taking advantage of a special feature of RSS called "enclosures", listeners run programs on their computers that download each new episode of podcasts they "subscribe to" automatically as the podcasts become available. These podcast-downloading programs are often run in the wee hours of the night or in the background during the day. Once a show file is resident on their computer, people can listen using the computer's sound system.

Unlike many previous uses of Internet media, the new podcast episodes may be automatically copied onto portable music players, such as the popular Apple iPod, and heard away from the computer. This copying is done using the same programs and cables that let you update a music player's memory with newly downloaded music or music copied from CDs. For example, the Apple iTunes software updates an attached iPod with new podcasts (along with new music) at the same time that its battery is recharged.

Since most podcasts are in the popular MP3 file format, they may be listened to on almost any music player, such as those from Creative, iRiver, Dell, and others, as well as the Apple iPods and on the music player software that comes preloaded on most personal computers. The special RSS-monitoring is becoming integrated into music playing software including Apple's iTunes.

All of this automatic behavior makes it seem as if the podcasts just show up ready for listening on a device you already are carrying. You just push the Play button. When this whole chain of Internet audio became automatic, from downloading to appearing in any portable music player, and anybody could create the recordings for basically no money, we had podcasting.

Almost anybody who wants to can create a podcast. The cost to create a show or series of shows and to distribute them to a small audience is very low. While some podcasters use hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment like you would normally find in a radio studio, many get by with a $10-20 microphone, a PC or Mac for recording, and a $5/month web hosting account. This means that almost anything anybody wants to record can become a podcast and experimentation is easy. Unlike radio, there is no need for transmitters, antenna towers, or licenses from the FCC. There is no limit to the number of podcasters like there are with radio channels.

The targeted listening device, a portable music player like the iPod, gives the listener flexibility not previously available with Internet audio or traditional broadcast mediums like radio or TV. You can listen to a show when you want. You can pause it, rewind a section to hear something you missed, or skip ahead. Some people call it "TiVo for radio". You can recommend a show to others and they can download it at a later time, as you do for a news story on the web. Like music on an MP3 player, you can listen wherever you want, even while your body is busy doing something else, such as while traveling, commuting, exercising, walking, doing chores, or relaxing. You can choose the shows and the order in which you listen. There is no need to fit into a station's broadcast schedule.

There are many different styles of shows that have developed in the short history of podcasting. Different podcasters brought their backgrounds in other areas and applied it to podcasting. One of the first was Christopher Lydon, a long-time broadcast and print journalist known in the last decade for his hour-long interview and call-in shows on public radio. When he wanted to experiment with the Internet he naturally tried making audio shows of interviews. Similarly, there were bloggers who were used to writing what was on their mind or what was happening in their life or about some area of interest every day on their blog. When they experimented with online audio they sometimes called it audio blogging and we got monologues, short news reports, and on-location recordings. Other people loved the idea of being a "radio DJ" on their own show or wanted to make use of previous experience with audio technology.

Christopher Lydon (Oct 2003)

The April 2004 FCC indecency fine against Clear Channel over Howard Stern's program and his subsequent announcement that he was moving to satellite radio where the rules are different highlighted the search for alternatives to radio for entertainment. In September of 2004 Dawn and Drew, a married couple in Wisconsin, started a podcast that became very popular with thousands of listeners, one of many that explored areas forbidden on the radio in a homespun personal style unlike most commercial shows.

For those with a more serious bent, Doug Kaye's ITConversations website started in June 2003 and provided interviews and recordings of conference speeches on technical topics, as well as a weekly hour-long discussion among a group of computer industry commentators and guests started in May 2004.

Doug Kaye (July 2005)

These shows caught the attention of people. There was nothing like them available by listening to traditional radio. Now those new iPods, bought for music, could be used for new forms of entertainment or learning. People started evangelizing about podcasting. More people experimented, filling new niches and trying new styles which attracted new followers.

Finally, some traditional broadcasters have started making their shows available as podcasts, including NPR, various public radio stations, and now the major TV networks with audio versions of shows soon after they air.

As I write this, podcasting is continuing to grow.

To get a feel for some of the breadth of this genre, at least as we've seen it so far, here are some specific episodes you can listen to. Some of these include material that inspired others as well as explanations of podcasting as seen at the time. When listening, feel free to skip ahead if a part is boring.

While you can listen to these recordings sitting at your computer, for the full effect if you possibly can it is best to try listening on an MP3 player away from your computer and while doing something else like exercising. The links are to normal web pages where you will find links to the MP3 files themselves.

If you don't want to download and save the MP3 files on your computer (see below for instructions), in most cases you can just click on the link to the MP3 file which will start a temporary download. After the file downloads, it will automatically play in your computer's built-in music playing software but will not be saved permanently on your hard disk. (Note that most of these MP3 files are quite large, taking up 10-20MB or more.)

• A speech: Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, spoke at the Pop!Tech conference in October 2004. See the show information page on ITConversations for a link to the 30 minute recording.

  
  Malcolm Gladwell (May 2004)

• A discussion among experts: Listen to an episode of The Gillmor Gang with guests podcasting pioneers Dave Winer and Adam Curry as well as three Firesign Theater members (they were part of innovative audio in the 1960's), recorded October 2004. See the show information page on ITConversations for a link to the 66 minute recording.

• An audio blog: Dave Winer made a recording of what he saw as he walked to the Democratic National Convention in Boston to cover it as a blogger in July 2004. You can find a link on his July 25, 2004 blog post. (There is an accidental silence starting about a minute into the 39 minute recording that continues until the 5 minute and 50 second point that you can skip.)

  
  Dave Winer holding his convention pass at dinner after making the recording (July 2004)

• Something you can't do on the radio: The Dawn and Drew show is part of the history of podcasting. In their 100th show recorded in May of 2005 they replay and discuss some of their most popular material. See the show information page on their website for a link to the recording. Note: This is definitely "adult" material, and many people will find it objectionable for a variety of reasons. They make many very explicit references to sexual topics, religion, etc. However, this series, with its warm, informal style, and chemistry between the two podcasters was part of getting podcasting noticed in the early days and continues to have a large following. (This show is a little over an hour long.)

• Unofficial museum tours: Another use of podcasting, providing alternative tours of art museums, was highlighted in a front page story in the May 28, 2005 New York Times about Marymount Manhattan College's Art Mobs project. See the Art Mobs page for links to discussions about various pieces of art (note: perhaps objectionable content to some people). For example, the reviewer does not like Chagall and explains why and sees much in an abstract Jackson Pollock painting. Slate posted some of its own tour recordings and discussed them in an article in July 2005. Here is a direct link to an MP3 file for one of them about a Matisse painting the reviewer does not like. (These "tours" are 5-10 minutes each.)

• Adam Curry: One of the most quoted podcasters, and one of the biggest boosters, Adam publishes a new episode several times a week with commentary, music, podcast boosting, and news of his commercial podcasting ventures. He was once a professional in the broadcast industry and is now living near London. As a good example you can listen to the 38 minute show from the day after the July 7, 2005 bombing in London. (Possible objectionable language.)

  
  Adam Curry (Oct 2003)

• Broadcast radio show: NPR's existing weekly hour-long On The Media program became the first NPR show available as a podcast in January 2005. You can read the press release annoucing the podcast and find the show itself on the January 7, 2005 show page. One of the segments discusses podcasting and why they are doing it. The first public radio podcast was probably WGBH's Morning Stories three months before.

• You can find more information about podcasting in the Wikipedia Podcast entry.

• To manually download, save, and play an MP3 file on your computer, follow these instructions:

  Right-click with the mouse (ctrl-click on a Mac with a one-button mouse) on the link to the MP3 file. Choose the appropriate operation. With Internet Explorer and Opera the operation is "Save Target As...", with Firefox it's "Save Link As...", and with Apple Safari it's "Download Linked File". Save the file in an appropriate directory. On Windows, the browser will prompt for this location, and you can specify one such as in the "My Music" directory. On the Mac, Safari will automatically download the file into a folder specified in the Safari General preferences (which is often set to the Desktop) from which you can then drag the file to a more appropriate place such as in the "Music" folder.

  Downloaded MP3 files stored on your computer may be played by opening them in computer-based music player software such as Windows Media Player, MusicMatch Jukebox, RealPlayer, or Apple iTunes. On some systems you can also just double-click on the filename to open it with that software. Alternatively, some music players let you add the files to your music "library". Finally, you can use the software that comes with a portable music player such as the Apple iPod to copy the files to the player for listening away from your computer.