Podcast Academy

I have an interesting idea that I think a handful of producers may find useful. It is possible that the concept is already in existence …This morning I decided to implement a ‘playlist’ stream for The.Point. Not too difficult and surely not that big of a deal. Personally, I appreciate when a program producer provides a streaming option form their site. In this case there is no need to access the audio from my web browser and I am not forced to download the audio file. In case you are wondering, since I spend most of my time here in front of my workstation … I rarely transfer media to my iPod.

I put some thought into this and I realized that it is possible to create a proprietary application or player that serves a single purpose: Launch and Stream - specifically the most current program living on a server. Nothing more.

Here is the breakdown: An .m3u playlist file is actually embedded within the application itself. By the way an .m3u file is simply a text document with a url that points to a specific file on a server. In order to provide access to the media file via the player, the producer must include a snippet of code in the .htaccess file that lives on the same host web server. If an .htaccess file does not exist, this too is just a text document with a few lines of code. The key is that anyone who has interest in listening simply launches the proprietary application and the file streams. No downloading, no web pages. When the audio is completed, close out the player and you are done. Keep in mind that in order to take advantage of this, you must have the player installed on your system.

So again, what’s the big deal? Think about this for a second … I’m sure that you are aware of VersionTracker and/or MacUpdate? Would it be inappropriate to distribute the player as freeware in order to serve one specific purpose - in fact as a method to help generate expousre for your program to help expand your audience? What if you decided to offer pay only programming? Without the player, there is no access to the stream. Lastly, would this concept be useful as a method of direct communication with select groups of associates, business partners, clients, etc.?

RSS? How about an independent RSS feed that specifies new media is available for streaming? Of course updates and references can be included in existing feeds as well. In terms of distribution management, by naming the current and subsequent .mp3 files with a predetermined and static filename, all that is necessary is to upload the file to the server and overwrite the existing copy. The code in the .m3u file and the .htaccess file never changes.

There is a catch … it is necessary to build each player application on a case to case basis. I simplified this concept today. Album art and logos can be integrated based on specified graphic specs. Additional methods of customization are possible. After compiling, I would deliver the application to the producer fully prepared for distribution.

I’m interested in hearing any thoughts that you might have. You can leave a comment, or if you prefer, email directly.

[the image above is the actual size of the application]

-ptfigg.