Why Don’t You Podcast?

Really?

A podcast or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.

The files distributed are in audio format, but may sometimes include other file formats such as PDF or EPUB. Videos, which are shared following a podcast model, are sometimes called video podcasts or vodcasts.

The generator of a podcast maintains a central list of the files on a server as a web feed that can be accessed through the Internet. The listener or viewer uses special client application software on a computer or media player, known as a podcatcher, which accesses this web feed, checks it for updates, and downloads any new files in the series. This process can be automated to download new files automatically, which may seem to users as though new episodes are broadcast or “pushed” to them. Files are stored locally on the user’s device, ready for offline use. There are many different mobile applications available for people to use to subscribe and to listen to podcasts. Many of these applications allow users to download podcasts or to stream them on demand as an alternative to downloading. Many podcast players (apps as well as dedicated devices) allow listeners to skip around the podcast and control the playback speed.

Some have labeled podcasting as a converged medium bringing together audio, the web, and portable media players, as well as a disruptive technology that has caused some individuals in the radio business to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production, and distribution. Podcasts are usually free of charge to listeners and can often be created for little to no cost, which sets them apart from the traditional model of “gate-kept” media and production tools. Podcast creators can monetize their podcasts by allowing companies to purchase ad time, as well as via sites such as Patreon, which provides special extras and content to listeners for a fee. Podcasting is very much a horizontal media form – producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other.

Hey, this is the hip new way to communicate your ideas. Your words can be downloaded or streamed through those smarty pants phones while kids are walking or jogging or driving or eating or sleeping or… (Do they ever turn those things off?) Nobody reads type any more. Can they comprehend complete sentences? Can they contemplate theories, hypothesis or thesis?

Usually a podcasts has a theme. Business, politics, games, wellness, love, etc. and some are about “What I ate today” or “What Mary is doing”. Either an expert or narcissi thinking other people will want to listen to. If a podcasts is just air filler like TV or a re-enforcement of a hip lifestyle, the sound needs to have a clean ‘radio voice’ or, if video is included, a young pretty face. Background music or sound effects increase the experience while the levels need to be monitored and adjust for best quality.

If you’ve seen any of my videos on YouTube know I’m very basic. I have enough software to do all that stuff, but just not interested. Even my attempts of music on soundcloud or revebnation are usually one-take wonders.

Beside I like to type what I think at the time. Few re-reads and no editing (obviously) for it is the way I think and talk. Much of the concepts are footnoted with Wikipedia notation on an explanation of details with my thoughts on top. Some writings are personal recollections and some writings are thoughts with a twist. That twist is for the reader to contemplate without a suggestion to an answer.

This Blog also doesn’t follow any direction other than the thoughts of the day. Today might be about eating and tomorrow might be about news of the moment. Yesterday might have been a word or a song or just an experience that needed to be written down, but instead of a private diary or a journal, I post it for the world.

Some ranting like these are sponsored and if enough contacts, money can be made.

Some people have had good (or bad) responses that have led to interesting conversations. These are just words, ideas, thoughts from one person lost in the mass of electronic space.

It is Just Another Life.