New Penniless Podcast production: The Stables Podcast

The Stables Music & Entertainment venue in Wavendon which is just outside Milton Keynes in the UK has launched a new podcast series.

I'm proud to say that this is a penniless podcaster production in association with the hub one of the most respected arts consultants here in the UK.

The first episode documents the launch of The Stables new performance space 'Stage 2'. The podcast also is an introduction to the Leverhulme Artists Programme, a development scheme for young up and coming singer/songwriters.

Here is the link to the jellycast home of the podcast - http://thestables.jellycast.com/jellycast

Music Podcast Sampler

Ola,

Music is still a thorny subject when conjoined with the term 'podcast'. Copyright infringement is a constant worry - in some countries more then others. Here in the UK it's still a thorny issue but that has not stopped the UK podosphere producing some superb music podcasts and in particular new music features prominently alongside record label, magazine and venue podcasts extending their work and using podcasts to promote the music.

Here's a sampler



Here is a list of what I've included:

1st - The Weekender - BBC Northamptonshires new music podcast, a must listen!

2nd - Bjork's video casts (audio extract) promoting her album Volta

3rd - Folkcast - Lancashire's best folk music podcast

4th - Chrisitan McBride's excellent podcasts giving background to his music

5th - Slash Music - Tom Ravenscroft's new music podcast for C4 Radio

6th - Coldcut's Solid Steel - podcasting Coldcuts mixes and cuts and other bits and pieces from the Ninja Tunes label locker

7th - Ronnie Scott's very slick podcast featuring artists performing at this legendary London venue

The Penniless Podcasters hit Northamptonshire

On May 19th 2007 we head to Northampton to partake in a training day organised the hub.

We are really looking forward to meeting with Northampton's finest in the worlds of music creation, curating and promotion. We will post an entry on how this session went and any valuable insights into podcasting that we picked up as we have as much to learn as we do to teach.

J

Welcome to the Penniless Podcaster Blog

Welcome all!
You will see our 4 steps to podcasting listed on the left - also above you'll see links to all the free online resources that we are recommending here. It goes without saying that there are many more ways to podcast for free then the one we've outlined and with that in mind we'd love if people posted comments, links, tips etc.

Enjoy!

Step 4. Get A Blog

Blogs are very simple websites that act like long online lists of content. Myspace has a blog within each space, so you can use your myspace blog or I would recommend using the google blog service www.blogger.com. Blogger is a really user-friendly blogging site. It takes literally minutes to set up a blog.

When you have your blog you can create a post and title it after your first podcast event, let’s call it ‘Pod-Poets Session #1’. Your twango account where your audio is living is going to allow you to do two very important things. In the ‘Pod-Poets Session #1’ post it’s going to allow you to create a twango player so that people can listen live to the audio on your blog. Also it’s going to allow you to create a link back to your audio on twango as twango creates a unique address like a youtube posting (click here to see a posting on my Contemporary Jazz blog to see how this looks). That link to your twango audio has a very useful ‘Podcast’ button down the bottom of the page alongside other useful buttons that say ‘RSS’ and ‘XML’ (I’ve spotted that these functions seem to have glitches but they will in time be fixed).

This particular 'penniless podcaster' recipe is assuming the vast majority of people who want to subscribe to your podcast will be using iTunes (we've not tested this on Juice!), so all they have to do is hit the ‘Podcast’ button and automatically iTunes will subscribe and download the episode you’ve posted. Now each time you load an audio or video file to the channel in twango (let's call the channel - podpoetspodcast)the person who has hit the 'podcast' button on that page on the twango site and subscribed will get an automatic download to their iTunes.

Well done you have created a top notch podcast with little or no money save your basic equipment and thousands of people can download it with joy!

Step 3. Finding A Home For Your Podcast

Once you have your programme edited and saved as an mp3 (or mpeg for video) you now need to find a site or server that will host your podcast. There are lots of sites that offer limited free podcasting services but the best site on the web for posting audio has to be Twango.com. Twango was bought by Nokia last year and is in the process of transforming itself into a site called Ovi/Share which will integrate into the 3G Nokia mobile network but as yet this has not happened and the URL remains twango.com, but this may change. Twango or Ovi is Youtube style site but allows you to post video, photos and most importantly audio. Twango is like a youtube meets flickr with an added audio function – it’s free and like youtube offers you free server space for limitless storage and enough bandwidth (uploading time) to post at least an hours worth of quality audio a month. To be honest it's still ironing out lots of glitches as I write this but for this recipe it's perfect and I'm hoping it will last as a web service.

When you’ve registered and got a profile you can now upload your audio to the site. You’ll need to create a media channel and assign your uploaded audio to this. This sounds really simple but I’m not going to lie, you will have to spend some time reading through the tutorials on the site to make sure you understand exactly how to do this. What I will say is no matter how thorny it is to upload audio to twango when you’ve done it once, it’s a doddle. It's important to remember that you name the channel you create in a way that it's obvious for the person who subscribes via iTunes to your podcast what it is, for example - thepennilesspodcast or thewirelespoets etc.

When you’ve created a channel, uploaded your audio you will then see that twango has a very handy set of tools on the right hand navigation bar. The 'Podcast' button on your media channel page will allow users to subscribe to your podcast. Every time you add a file to this channel those people subscribed will get the podcast in their iTunes. Another tool on this page will also do something very special it will allow you to embed your audio in your blog. The imbedded html creates an excellent little twango audio player which sits nice and neat into a page, like a youtube player window. I've posted an audio sample on this posting, click here to have a look and hear the quality. That of course presumes you have a blog, either as part of a social network site (be warned not all social network sites will allow you to embed the twango player)or a stand alone blog like this one. For those who don't have a blog we are going to pop over and create one.

So podcast has a place on the shelf so it's time to create a shop window in the form of a blog!

Step 2. Editing and Encoding Your Recording

Right, you've recorded your event or some audio that explains your music, label or venue to your audience. The raw audio is on your mini-disc and now you want to put it on your computer.

You now need a ‘mini-jack to mini-jack cable’ – with this you plug one end into the mic input on your computer and into the headphone socket on your mini-disc player. If you don’t have an audio editing tool on your computer your in luck because there is a free programme called Audacity. To download it go to the Source Forge website you can play around with this programme and become competent within a few hours. You will need to important another vital piece of software in order that you can create mp3 files in Audacity, its called lamenc.dll – this sounds very techy but simply go to this web site and download the programme into the same folder you’ve put Audacity in.

Plug all your cables - open up a new project in the editing software Audacity and press record, press play on your mini-disc, trying to keep a healthy looking wave level and play in your recorded audio. Audacity is pretty simple, the truth is you’ll just have to play around with it for a few hours and you’ll get the hang of it. When you are finished editing your audio, go to file and ‘export as mp3’ – a box will say that Audacity uses Lamenc.dll ‘do you want us to find it?’ – say yes and your in! Save your mp3 file onto your computer, bingo your programme is made. From then on you won't get that box, you'll just be able to export in mp3.

Audacity is a great programme and not over complicated but for a novice at audio editing it is not easy, but persevere as the results with this software if your audio is good quality is broadcast standard.

OK the cake is out of the oven so to speak, now to wrap it and stick it on a shelf!

Step 1. Recording

There are a number of ways you can record an event or if your a musician, package your music to give your fans context and background around your music. The simple way to voice audio for a podcast if you don't have access to a studio is to buy a mini-disc recorder or portable hard disc recorder such as an iRiver – I recommend mini-disc as it’s a proven format and most of the domestic machines are very good and easy to use. Saying that I've noted it's getting harder to actually buy mini-disc recorders, but ebay has a few. Your also going to need a microphone and really you need to spend at least the same amount of money on your mic as on your minidisc, i.e. over £100 which seems a lot but will get you a decent mic. Best thing is to go into the best audio equipment shop close to you tell them what you want; with £100 in your pocket you’ll get a good mic, or if they recommend something more expensive check online to see if you can get a better deal! Common sense I know. It’s more important to spend money on the mic, the minidisc or recorder is less important.

If you are recording live events all you will need is a stereo to mini-jack cable which you can buy for a few pounds in any hi-fi shop, this you use to plug your mini-disc into the desk. Every desk has an analogue output, and every engineer or techy person will understand what you’re on about if you ask for your mini-disc recorder to get a ‘mixed’ line out. Be aware you might need to mic the audience, otherwise you’re just getting voices through the PA system and you loose a lot of the audience reaction unless it’s very loud and you’re in a small venue. Again the person in charge of the PA system will know what your talking about if you say confidently “let’s mic the audience!”.

Podcasts can be any length but on average they work out at 30 – 50 minutes in their longer form and 10 – 15 minutes in the shorter form. You might want to record an interview with an artist or you might want to record and introduction to give context to your music, an event or performance. With your mic and mini-disc this is pretty simple but a good radio producer will record these before the event in the same space when it is quiet, this way you keep a sonic continuity in your final recording.

Right you've bagged your audio, next step is to cook these great ingredients!

The Penniless Podcaster introduction

Hello,

This blog is dedicated to all those who find out that podcasting is not THAT easy and who have no money but lots of ideas they want to distribute to a wide group of people!

There are a myriad of ways to get audio and video out to your public for free, but this is one way we think cuts out a lot of the faff and gives you a high quality podcast for free!

How to you create a podcast?

A podcast is a relatively simple way to deliver a radio programme or film to lots of people. Sounds straight forward but the use of the word “relatively” is troubling you is it not? Well this blog was put together by a radio producer and a film maker for the sole purpose of making the “relatively” word seem a little less daunting.

Also our aim here is to create podcasts for no money, Nada, nothing! (Hence the penniless podcaster title) As long as you have some recording equipment, this is again not hugely expensive (I can already hear you mumble relatively) our guide will hopefully make the rest of the podcasting process easy. Key to this objective is the use of a number of free online resources in particular Audacity, Twango and Blogger, bless their large and generous souls (or servers).

OK on with the exercise!