If you don’t know what a podcast is, you will, and soon. Very soon. Why? Because I’m going to tell you right now, that’s why. First, let’s analyze the word. Pod. As in iPod. Cast. As in broadcast. Podcast. See? Simple.

Podcasts, or, rather, what would become podcasts, started out as simple audio recordings loaded on web sites. If you knew where to go to look for them, you could click on the link, and either listen to a streaming version or download the file itself onto your computer. The real trick was finding them – there was no real central location that catalogued what was available.

Early podcasts were often “archives” of broadcast radio programs - some mainsteam, and some from the far fringes of what could be called “news” or opinion. Eventually software was written to help find podcasts, using another technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which we don’t have time to get into at this moment.

Podcasting got a major “jump start” when Apple added podcasts to its iTunes Music Store (iTMS), accessed of course through Apple’s iTunes software. Apple makes it easy for podcasters to make their wares known. One simply fills out a form, providing information to Apple as to where the podcast resides (Apple won’t host them on their servers). Once the podcast is reviewed for content (no porn allowed), a listing to the podcast appears in the Podcasts section of the iTMS. Simple.

iTMS also allows you to “subscribe” to a series of podcasts. This is best illustrated by an example. My wife and I, being interested in photography, subscribe to video podcasts produced by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. They’re called “Photoshop TV”, contain Photoshop tips and tricks, and are distributed through iTMS every two weeks. Every time I open iTunes and have an internet connection, iTunes looks to see if there’s a new Photoshop TV podcast to download. I can start or stop the subscription anytime I want, or “cherry pick” the Photoshop TV section of the iTMS for just the individual shows I want.

Note that even though the term “podcast” contains “pod”, you don’t have to listen to or view a podcast on an iPod or iPod pretender. You can also view it on your computer, which is how/where you got the podcast in the first place.

Video podcasts are generally small, around 320 by 240 pixels in size, for a couple of reasons. One, that size is the “native” size for video iPods. Two, that size yields a fairly small file, enabling fairly rapid downloading. Speaking of downloading, subscribing to video podcasts is not for the “bandwidth challenged”. Sorry, Georgetown residents. Even at 320 x 240 pixels, those Photoshop TV episodes I mentioned earlier (some 35 minutes in duration) are almost 90 MB in size. Ten shows, and you’re up to almost 1 GB of storage space as well.

Podcasts are steadily gaining mainstream popularity – they’re not just for geeks anymore. A recent report from Nielsen Analytics revealed that more than 9 million Americans downloaded podcasts last month. Ten percent of the study’s respondents said they downloaded eight or more podcasts a week. More than 75% of all podcast listeners are male, for what it’s worth.

So, if you’ve got iTunes loaded on your computer (you don’t have to have or use an iPod to use iTunes, by the way – it’s a free download from apple.com) and you haven’t perused the iTunes Music Store to see the wide range of podcasts available, you should. Certainly there’ll be something there to tickle your fancy.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski