What is a Podcast?

While most people have heard the term podcast and perhaps have listened to one now and again, I wanted to define the term in a little more detail…

A podcast, taken from the term broadcast, and then coupled with a portable media device. It originated shortly after the creation of the iPod.

A podcast is different from say a song available on iTunes in that it is usually presented in  a radio show format with one or more hosts, could include instructional materials, an interview, a product review, a fiction series and countless other categories. There are literally millions of podcasts available on the web today.

But the really big different between a podcast and other audio files on the web is that it allows anyone with a web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari and “subscribe” to the “feed.

All you need to do is click on the orange subscribe icon in the address bar…

When a person subscribes, you are telling the podcast provider that you want their content “pushed” to your iTunes or Zune player whenever a   new episode or podcast is released…

So in summary, the attributes associated with a podcast are:

• That person can subscribe to a podcast and then updates are “pushed” to them when  new content is posted.
• A podcast is a compressed (small) audio file, usually in the mp3 format.
• It is produced in a radio show format.
• It has to be stored on the internet so that it can be listened to by either a select of broad audience.
• A podcast is usually available through various content aggregators on the internet such as iTunes, Podcast Pickle, the Zune network and thousands of others.

I you would like to listen to my podcast as an example of how a podcast works go to Implement ERP Fast