How to do podcasting?

• Introduction to podcasting

• Creating an andio-only podcast

• Enhanced podcast with Garage Band

• Sample RSS feed xml file

• Podcast tutorial links

I. Introduction to Podcasting

1. What the heck is a podcast?

A podcast is a series of media files (episodes) distributed over the Internet using RSS. When a user subscribes to a podcast, new episodes are automatically downloaded to their computer. The files can be played back on the computer, iPod, or other mp3 player.

A podcast needs two types of files: media files for each episode, and an RSS feed file. Supported media files include m4a, mp3, mov, mp4, m4v, and pdf. The RSS feed is an XML document, containing metadata about the episodes, including links to the media files.

Publishing a podcast is as simple as putting the media files and RSS feed on a public webserver. A user can subscribe to the podcast by simply entering the URL of the RSS feed into their favorite podcasting client.

To attract a wide audience to your podcast, you should submit it to a podcast directory. The iTunes Store contains a free podcast directory, making it easy to browse, subscribe, and listen to the newest podcast episodes on the computer and iPod. When an iTunes user subscribes to a podcast, iTunes will periodically check the RSS feed for new episodes. When a new episode gets added to the RSS feed, iTunes downloads the file.

2. Types of podcasts

1. Audio only podcast
An audio-only podcast can be played on a wide variety of devices, including all generations of iPods and other mp3 players. Audio-only podcasts are encoded as mp3 files.
2. Enhanced podcast
An enhanced podcast can contain images and links that display during audio playback. These are encoded as m4a files. Only iPod photo and later version of iPods can play enhanced podcasts.
3. Video podcast
A video podcast includes a full video and audio track. These are encoded as m4v, mp4, or mov files. Only iPods with video can play video podcasts.

3. Steps to make, publish, and promote a podcast.

1. Create the media file for the podcast episode. You can use any program to record and edit the audio and video, as long as it is saved as one of the supported file types. Audacity and Garageband are great for recording and editing audio podcasts. Garageband 3.0 supports the creation of enhanced podcasts. iMovie and Final Cut Pro can be used to create enhanced podcasts and video podcasts.
2. Create the RSS feed file in a plain-text editor, such as Notepad or TextWrangler. To take a look at a sample RSS file, see the template below. Click Here to download a sample RSS file or visit http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html#example
3. Put your media files and RSS feed on a webserver.
4. To get your podcast in the iTunes podcast directory, go to the podcast page in the iTunes Store, click on “Submit a Podcast” on the upper left corner, and then follow the instructions.
5. To test the podcast, launch iTunes, go to Advanced->Subscribe to Podcast, then type in the URL for your RSS feed. If everything works fine, you should see your podcast starts to download to your computer.
6. To add new episodes to the podcast, add a new item entry to the RSS feed. All users subscribed to the podcast will automatically get the new episode.

4. RSS template

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/Podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Put title of podcast series here</title>
<itunes:author>Author’s name here</itunes:author>
<link>URL OF supporting web page here</link>
<description>Description paragraph here</description>
<itunes:subtitle>Channel subtitle here</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Description paragraph here</itunes:summary>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright attribution here</copyright>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Author’s name here</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>Email contact here</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<image>
<url>URL to cover art jpg here</url>
<title>Channel Title here</title>
<link>URL of supporting web page here</link>
</image>


<itunes:link rel="image" type="video/jpeg" href="URL to cover art jpg here">Channel title here</itunes:link>
<category>Education</category>


<itunes:category text="Education">
</itunes:category>
<item>
<title>item title here</title>
<itunes:author>Item author here</itunes:author>
<description>Item description here</description>
<itunes:subtitle>Item title here</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Item description here</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url="URL to audio file here" length="8727310" type="x-audio/mp3" />
<guid>URL to audio file here</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<category>Education</category>
<itunes:category text="Education">
</itunes:category>
<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:duration>6:52</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>keywords here separated by spaces</itunes:keywords>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

II Creating an audio-only podcast

1. Record the audio. Two options:

a. Record the audio in the audio recording booth by using the set-up microphone and Audacity. Open Audacity, turn on the microphone, press record, and begin your narration/recording.
b. Import the audio from a recording device such as the DMC’s Edirol recorder with memory stick. Plug in the memory stick via USB, locate the files, save the to the SaveWorkHere folder. Open the audio tracks from the file you saved with Audacity by selecting Project > Import Audio.

2. Edit the audio.

a. Use the tools in Audacity to add effects, delete specific portions, or move around audio tracks. Once the audio is exactly how you want it to be
b. Save your work by selecting File > Save As and selecting Format: Audacity projects (*.aup)

3. Export the audio.

a. Go to File > Export as MP3. You can change the MP3 encoding bit rate by selecting Audacity > Preferences > File Formats > MP3 export setup.
b. In general, the Default Sample Rate is 44100 Hz and the default sample format: 16 bit. The higher the sample rate and sample format, the better the recording quality and the bigger the file size.
c. Bit Rate: 128kbs is the standard setup for song, you can’t go lower than 64kbs if you want to preserve good quality. For narrations or talk shows, you can’t go lower than 32kbs, the typical setup is 64kbs. The lower the bit rate, the smaller the file size. When the file is encoded at 64bps, its size is approximately 0.5MB/minute. When the bit rate is doubled, the file size is almost doubled too.

4. Put the mp3 files on a web server. Rice members can use their owlnet accounts as the server.

5. Create the RSS Feed XML File

a. Download the template to create your RSS Feed file.
b. Open the template into the TextWrangler application on a Mac or Notepad on a PC.
c. Modify the template to reflect information specific to your podcast.
d. Include the <item> section for each mp3 file in your podcast. The information in the <enclosure> tag includes:
i. The URL of the mp3 file on the web server. If your files are on owlnet, the URL will look like http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~username/file.mp3.
ii. The length of the file, in number of bytes.
iii. he MIME type of the file. For audio podcasts, this should be “x-audio/mp3”.
e. Put the XML file on the web server.

6. Publish with itunes by going to the podcast page within the itunes music store, click on “Submit a Podcast” on the bottom left corner and follow the instructions.

7. Test your Podcast

a. Launch itunes and click Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast. Type in the url for the xml file. If everything is right, your podcast will begin downloading to the computer.

b. For questions, consult the DMC staff.

III Enhanced podcasting in Garage Band

1. Introduction

Enhanced podcasts allow you to include images, chapter titles, and URL links with an audio podcast. You can easily create Enhanced Podcasts using Garageband 3.0 or higher.

2. Creating an Enhanced Podcast Project

1. Open Garageband.
2. Select New Podcast Episode from the Garageband splash screen.
3. Enter a name for your podcast and click Create. Be sure to save the podcast to the SaveWorkHere folder on the Desktop.
4. Garageband will create a new project with all the tracks you need to create an enhanced podcast.

3. Recording The Audio

1. Select Garageband>Preferences, and click on the Audio/MIDI tab. Make sure the correct audio input is selected if you’re using an external microphone. Close the preferences window.
2. Select the Male Voice track or Female Voice track by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left.
3. Click the big red record button to start recording. When you are finished, click the record button again to stop recording. Hit the play button to pause playback.
4. You can record multiple voice tracks and add sound effects and music to the other tracks. For more information, consult the Garageband guide.

4. Enhancing the Podcast

1. Select Control>Show Editor and Control>Show Media Browser.
2. Select the Podcast Track by clicking the appropriate icon on the top left.
3. To add a marker, click the Add Marker button at the bottom of the editor. A dark gray appears in the podcast track to indicate the marker. Also, a marker entry is added to the editor’s list view at the bottom of the window.
4. To change the length of the marker, drag the edges of the gray box.
5. To make the marker a chapter, fill out the Chapter Title in the chapter list in the editor.
6. To add an image to a marker, drag a photo from the Media Browser or from the Desktop to the small box labeled Drag Artwork Here next to the marker entry.
7. You can also add an episode image to the entire podcast. This image will be shown when no marker artwork is specified. To add an episode image, drag a photo to the big Drag Artwork Here on the left wide of the editor.
8. To add a URL to a marker, fill out the URL Title and URL field next to the marker entry. The title will show up as a link during podcast playback.
9. To preview the enhanced podcast, select Track>Show Track Info. If you play back your podcast, the marker images and links will show up in the track info window.
10. To export the enhanced podcast, select Share>Export Podcast to Disk and save.

5. Publishing the Podcast

1. Put the mp3 files on a web server. Rice members can use their owlnet accounts as the server.

2. Create the RSS Feed XML File

a. Download the template to create your RSS Feed file.

b. Open the template into the TextWrangler application on a Mac or Notepad on a PC.

c. Modify the template to reflect information specific to your podcast.

d. Include the <item> section for each mp3 file in your podcast. The information in the <enclosure> tag includes:

i. The URL of the m4a file on the web server. If your files are on owlnet, the URL will look like http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~username/file.m4a.

ii. The length of the file, in number of bytes.

iii. The MIME type of the file. For audio podcasts, this should be “audio/x-m4a”.

3. Put the XML file on the web server.

4. Publish with itunes by going to the podcast page within the itunes music store, click on “Submit a Podcast” on the bottom left corner and follow the instructions.

5. Test your Podcast