Published on
December 6, 2004 in
podcast.
I’ve already created some podcasts with Webjay and some with Blogger + Feedburner’s SmartCast. Neither of both was originally made for podcast feeds.
Webjay (put back online by Lucas after a hacker break-in) is actually a great playlist creator tool, whose ‘RSS’ converter happens to be podcast compatible.
Blogger is the most used general-purpose blogging tool, and needs to be combined with Feedburner’s inventive Atom-to-RSS feed converter to allow audio enclosures.
If you compare creating a podcast with both:
- Webjay (e.g. Smoothouse October List)
- PRO: zero startup time / also provides M3U, SMIL, ASX playlist support (for playing in WinAmp, RealPlayer, WMP, …) / has a playlist importer (get all the MP3 links from a page and put them into a playlist
- CON: no way to add meta-data / no way to modify look-and-feel
- Blogger + SmartCast (e.g. Smoothpod Mashups / Backroomsounds podcast)
- PRO: meta-data (playlist/transcription/related links) can be put in the blog post body / optimal results in Google/Technorati/Feedster / maximum flexibility for adapting look ‘n feel
- CON: no that trivial to set up / no ‘play-it-all-now’ functionality except when added manually
This is what an ideal Podcast publishing tool would look like for me:
- minimal set-up: no technical knowledge required – comparable with the setting up of a new Blogger blog
- adding a new post should be easy – a wizard like ‘add-the-audio-file’ – ‘write-the-text’ – ‘publish!’.
- use standard templates like
- one-person talk show (e.g. Daily Sourcecode)
- name of the host, list of topics, list of music (if any), some related links
- multi-person conversation (e.g. Gillmor Gang)
- name of participants, list of topics, related links
- music show (e.g. Coverville)
- host, playlist, guest DJ
- …
- provide download statistics for the feed and the individual files
- also provide a ‘play-now’ button for each audio file, and maybe a ‘play-complete-playlist-now’ functionality
- be conscious about audio file types (like Webjay): .MP3 can be played by anything, .AAC is for iTunes/iPod, WMA for WMP, … so you could have a ’subscribe to this podcast with iTunes/RealPlayer/Windows Media Player/…’ choice
- automatic ping of audio.weglogs.com (and Ping-o-Matic)
- take care of directory inclusion (ipodder OPML, …)
- include tools like BlogTorrent or a point-and-click preconfigured FTP uploader for easy audio file upload
- easy access to directories of RIAA-free music
- easy access to feed validator
- easy access to podcast delivery networks (with cheap bandwidth)
Anything I forgot?
Published on
December 4, 2004 in
podcast.
Restaurants and hairdressers in Belgium are complaining because the costs for playing muzak in their businesses (performers’ rights or ‘naburige rechten‘) will rise with 30% to 37% (De Morgen, Dec 4, 2004, p.9).
I wonder: is that the same for people who just play Radio 2 in their shops, those who use a PC with some brand of MP3 player shuffle their CD collections around, and even those who pay for subscription-based digital no-commercials no-talking theme-grouped music?
There is a parallelism between this discussion and the issue of non-RIAA music (in Belgium this would be non-IFPI music) within the podcasting community. Most of the current podcasters use music from sites like garageband.com, studiogeek.org or lonely heroes like Brad Sucks to avoid getting into trouble with (having to pay) the RIAA. Both the RIAA and the IFPI seem to prefer a ‘shoot first, ask questions afterwards‘ attitude.
Now, would the average restaurant owner mind if instead of Elton John and Celine Dion, there are unknown groups playing music that is as easily digested by his customers? If there would be a ’smooth jazz’ or ‘deep house’ podcast with non-RIAA music, would you still have to pay for playing it? The mechanism of podcast could take care of regularly updated playlists with e.g. 1-hour mixes in 64 Kbps (30 MB/hour), without manual intervention.
Let’s say the only requirement would be that if a listener who wants to know “who was playing that last song”, he should be able to see – on enquire for – it. That’s actually how I discovered Maxwell years ago, before he was … what is he now … semi-famous? I heard “Urban Hang Suite” in a store and asked the manager who that voice was.
Published on
December 1, 2004 in
NL and media.
(post in Dutch)
Al mag reclame dan in veel gevallen ongeinspireerd en storend zijn, nu en dan hoor je een spot op de radio die eruit springt. Onlangs nog de ‘Successie van uw vermogen’ spot van De Tijd op Radio1. Ik heb net ontdekt dat ik dan die spot ook kan beluisteren op SpotShop.be, een dienst van de VAR, die de reclame-regie doet voor Radio1, Radio2, Clara en Studio Brussel. Dit is de spot die ik bedoel:
Man: Dag notaris, euh, ik ben hier met mijn vader, hij had graag nog iets veranderd aan zijn (gesleur met iets zwaar …) testament. Hij wou het bedrijf nog aan mij schenken.
Notaris: Euh, hij beweegt niet veel meer, precies.
Man: Oh jawel hoor, allez pa, zette gij efkes hier uw handtekening? Ja pa (gekriebel op papier) en nu maar los. Allez vader, zeg maar dag tegen de notaris.
Man (duidelijk buiksprekend): Dag notaris!
(…)
[ Play "De Tijd: Successie van uw vermogen 
" ]
Ze hebben trouwens elke maand een Spot van de Maand in hun Hall of Fame. Een goeie selectie: de Joeri van flySN.com, de telefoniste met de piercing van Creyfs.
De VRT mag dan nog recent overgeschakeld zijn op MP3 voor hun streaming, op spotshop.be staat alles nog in RealAudio.
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