Return to the Wilson Price podcast page

A podcast is essentially a prerecorded audio or video file, saved in a specific format and posted on a website. A podcast provides content for businesses, interest groups and enthusiasts of every kind imaginable: short stories, lectures, news, "how-to" instructions, press releases, advice from self-help gurus, religious sermons, political radio shows - in short, anything that can be audio-recorded can be used as a podcast.

The term "podcast" refers to both the individual file and the complete set of files distributed by a podcaster (also known as a "channel").

To listen to a podcast you have to be able to play an MP3 file - and most any personal computer can do that; if you want to listen away from your computer, you need to have an MP3 player too. Any web browser has the capability to play audio podcasts, typically allowing the file to open in it's associated music player. There are also many software programs available with which you can download, store, play and subscribe to podcasts.

You can subscribe to podcasts similar to the way you subscribe to a magazine: the information is delivered to subscribers on a regular basis and in a consistent format. Podcasts can be made available to anyone who has the necessary software to play them.

There are many ways to subscribe. simply clicking on the "subscribe" button will probably open the default podcast subscription method in your browser. Each situation is different though. In Firefox using a Vista PC for instance, this is the screen you'd see:

and the same computer using internet explorer sees this screen:

A free tool that gives you a great deal of control over your podcast
choices is iTunes. You can get it here



Return to the Wilson Price podcast page