getting a podcast on iTunes?

toasterman

Hi everyone,
I've got a sort-of podcast I've been doing regularly for a couple of years now. I edit it, save as an mp3, upload it to some webspace I have, manually edit a html page and put links into it.. and 1-2 people download it again.
That's all fine.

I've recently decided I'd like to put it on iTunes to see if I can boost our listening figures (and I've recently bought an iPod and it's much easier to subscribe to things, than faff about going back to see if new updates have happened), but can't work out what I'm meant to do.

I'm using an iMac and I know I can do this 'one-click podcasting' thing, if I subscribe to a .mac account - but I already have webspace I'm happy with, a few sites hosted on it, domain names, etc.. and .mac is more expensive than all of that.

I know it's possible to do manually, and I get that it involves something to do with xml (I'm not a programmer, as you can tell), but I'd really like a program that just does it for me.
I found an Engadget guide that includes a sample .xml file to copy from, but it seems to be hundreds of pages of code. Surely it's not that difficult?
There are websites that claim to write xml for you, but I've no idea if it's the right sort of code.. as reading online, iTunes seems to have tags it uses that nothing else does?

According to Apple's site, to create the xml file for getting listed on iTunes,
"There are a number of applications and online services that will assist you in the creation of your podcast’s XML feed; you can even create one by hand using nothing but a text editor. Refer to those services or other documentation for the details of creating a feed."
That doesn't help me in the slightest, really.

Anyone know of an easy (and if poss, freeware) way of doing this?
I don't need anything that helps me record it, or edit it, or set id3 tags.. I can do all that already. Just want something that creates the complicated codey bit for me.

If not, I suppose this is only $30

geekgirl

http://www.clarior.co.uk/rsscodegen.aspx

This is a free xml feed generator. I haven't tried it myself but it may be good, worth a try down the free route before spending dosh.
When you have done pm me a link to your podcast please.

toasterman

Thanks Geekgirl.
I had a look but it generated me something and I didn't really have a clue what it was doing or how it was meant to work...
I've tried a few free web based ones this evening and if I'm honest, I've no idea if they're designed to work with iTunes, or if I need to modify the code or what. I've looked at other people's but they look quite complex.

I did have an idea.. I downloaded the 30 day trial of Podcast Maker and had a feed that worked in Firefox and iTunes within 10mins.
Then looked at the code.
While it's probably possible for me to edit this every week, it looks like a pretty good bit of software, and its only $30
I'm both lazy and impatient, and I can afford the $30..so I'll probably buy it when the trial runs out.

geekgirl

Don't blame you, if it works in the way you want it too and you can afford it why give yourself a headache. Enjoy!

Quaint1

I have a couple of podcasts currently on iTunes and, before submitting the first, I was in a very similar boat to you! However, I don't use special software to edit the .xml file for the RSS feed - all I did was copy the example feed on the Apple support website and, having read through the rest of the support page, edited the example in a text editor for subsequent uploading to a website from which iTunes will read it.
I have to admit, the example feed looked daunting to me the first time I looked at it, but once you look carefully at the components, it's really not that difficult to read! Plus, if you want to avoid mistakes, upload the feed somewhere and check it in Feed Validator which helped me a lot when I way learning what parameters to change!
Good luck with your podcast - what is it about?
Au Res.,
Paul

sra

You can create a podcast just with some form of blogging software and Feedburner. (Almost all blogging software auto-generates feeds and Feedburner then takes the feed and gives you a better version of the feed optimized for podcasts)

This guide is a bit old so it won't be exactly the steps you use as both Blogger and Feedburner have changed slightly but this is all you really need to do.

If you don't like Blogger, Wordpress.com (hosted with ads) or Wordpress.org (put it on your own webspace) works just as good/better

There's even now a box to tick on the Feedburner home page "I am a podcaster" to convert your Blogger/Wordpress feed to an Itunes-ready podcast feed right as you're creating your account.

This is how many podcasters do it. Eg all the producer of Three from Leith has to do when a new episode is ready is create a new post linking to the mp3 file (The 'Listen here' link at the top of the post) and his feedburner feed converts it to a podcast ready for any podcast downloader (You can paste http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThreeFromLeith into any podcast downloader and it will start downloading the latest episode).

Once you have a working podcast feed, you can make a link to quick-subscribe with Itunes by replacing http with itpc -

eg:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThreeFromLeith
becomes
[URL]itpc://feeds.feedburner.com/ThreeFromLeith[/URL] <-- This link should open Itunes and ask if you want to subscribe

toasterman

Thanks SRA. I will have to read through that more thoroughly and have a look at Feedburner.

There's not currently a blog to go with the podcast really - it's just a recorded version of a weekly hospital radio show I do, with the music removed - so whatever we happen to talk about that week, is what the podcast is about.
That said, I do have to do a mini writeup about what happened, and blogging would be an easier way of doing this.

I'm just a bit of a control freak and a little bit paranoid that if everything I have isn't hosted on my own space, and backed up to my own hard drive.. I might suddenly lose something.

Or if Feedburner one day goes rubbish, or starts charging a fortune...sometimes switching can be difficult.
I guess the benefit of being on Feedburner is that it gets listed in other places as well as iTunes.

I've read reports of people getting their Blogger account closed for being against the terms, then querying it and them changing their minds. In the period between closure and reopening, the whole account gets wiped.

I wasn't overly keen on putting too much on myspace for the same reason...that and the tiny filesize/time limits myspace have on their audio files.

I will definitely have a closer look at Feedburner...

sra

toasterman wrote: »

Thanks SRA. I will have to read through that more thoroughly and have a look at Feedburner.

There's not currently a blog to go with the podcast really - it's just a recorded version of a weekly hospital radio show I do, with the music removed - so whatever we happen to talk about that week, is what the podcast is about.
That said, I do have to do a mini writeup about what happened, and blogging would be an easier way of doing this.

I'm just a bit of a control freak and a little bit paranoid that if everything I have isn't hosted on my own space, and backed up to my own hard drive.. I might suddenly lose something.

Or if Feedburner one day goes rubbish, or starts charging a fortune...sometimes switching can be difficult.
I guess the benefit of being on Feedburner is that it gets listed in other places as well as iTunes.

I've read reports of people getting their Blogger account closed for being against the terms, then querying it and them changing their minds. In the period between closure and reopening, the whole account gets wiped.

I wasn't overly keen on putting too much on myspace for the same reason...that and the tiny filesize/time limits myspace have on their audio files.

I will definitely have a closer look at Feedburner...

Feedburner is now owned by google and so many people use them these days I think there would be a riot if they started charging.

If you want to have everything hosted and controlled by you then have a look at Wordpress. It can be installed very quickly - They boast 5 minutes and I can usually do it in that though if you're new to using databases it can take longer. Wordpress say that you can podcast with their feeds without feedburner but I've never looked closely at that.

Another alternative would be to look at libsyn who a large number of podcasters use to host their podcast. Their cheapest package is $5 a month

toasterman

sra wrote: »

You can create a podcast just with some form of blogging software and Feedburner. (Almost all blogging software auto-generates feeds and Feedburner then takes the feed and gives you a better version of the feed optimized for podcasts)

Ok, so I still need to get something RSS-friendly to start with. Understood. I suppose I could use the myspace blog for this purpose, as it's already set up and does that for me already.

sra wrote: »

There's even now a box to tick on the Feedburner home page "I am a podcaster" to convert your Blogger/Wordpress feed to an Itunes-ready podcast feed right as you're creating your account.

See that I don't understand.. I'll elaborate in a moment

sra wrote: »

This is how many podcasters do it. Eg all the producer of Three from Leith has to do when a new episode is ready is create a new post linking to the mp3 file (The 'Listen here' link at the top of the post) and his feedburner feed converts it to a podcast ready for any podcast downloader

How does it know?
If I do an update to my blog, it could be a text update ("coming soon" type schedule update I did this evening). It might not actually be a new episode of anything audible to listen to. Does it detect any link with .mov or .mp3 and then iTunes knows it can read it?
What if I put a link in, to an mp3 on someone elses website (a local band or something).. does that get listed against me on iTunes and automatically downloaded to everyone subscribed?
How does iTunes know whether I've updated text or audio?
In fact how does Feedburner know?

sra wrote: »

Once you have a working podcast feed, you can make a link to quick-subscribe with Itunes by replacing http with itpc<snip>

That certainly works in your example - and opens iTunes and everything.

sra

For a feed you don't even need a blog. You can use something really basic.
For example, I use del.icio.us to keep bookmarks (just so I don't get my browser bookmarks cluttered)

Here's mine:
http://del.icio.us/sra

Just now I bookmarked an mp3 file from an old MSE email.
(You'll see it near the top of my bookmarks)

Then I took the feed it automatically generates and put it through feedburner.
Now try it in Itunes:
[URL="itpc://feeds.feedburner.com/Delicious/sra"] itpc://feeds.feedburner.com/Delicious/sra[/URL]

See I've created a podcast in under 3 minutes!!


As to how a podcast downloader knows, It just grabs any files in the feed it can handle.

Itunes can download mp3s, AAC files, MPEG-4, and even pdfs.
If it sees any of them in the feed it downloads them. If I put an flv (flash video) file into a feed Itunes would just ignore it, yet I could put the very same feed into Miro it would download it because it can handle those files.

You can update your blog as often as you like with text posts and they'll be ignored yet as soon as you link directly to an mp3 file, it will be grabbed by any Itunes subscribe to that feed.

Feedburner's part is just to change the feed around. When it sees links to files rather than pages, it marks them with the appropriate tags and optimizes them for podcast downloaders - especially Itunes who like special tags that they invented mixed in

What if I put a link in, to an mp3 on someone elses website (a local band or something).. does that get listed against me on iTunes and automatically downloaded to everyone subscribed?

Yes it would so you'd have to be careful what you directly link to because it gets downloaded by everyone subscribed

sra

Once you have your podcast up and running you can if you want to submit it to Itunes for approval.

If they approve it they'll give you a link that goes to your own special Itunes page (rather than itpc link you'll have one starting phobos.apple.com/WebObjects...) and people will be able to search for it within Itunes and rate it.