Podcast Palozza!
Our prayers have been answered…a little. NPR has begun offering podcasts of some of it’s specialty programming and features including Book and Technology roundups, The World’s Geo Quiz and a snippet (grrr) of the web-only music show “All Songs Considered” (which won’t let me play whole shows on a Quicktime Player).
It’s a start.
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8 Replies to “Podcast Palozza!”
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Color me underwhelmed. I checked out the Books podcast and they’ve made the mistake of (a) not providing specific information about any of the shows, (b) not providing running time, and (c) not offering an MP3 download on demand. You can only sign up through the subscription feed. And this isn’t anything you can’t get independently (although now it’s in MP3 format instead of RealAudio format). I’m listening to the “preview episode” and all it is is a compedium of their books programming from Morning Edition and the like, much of it I’ve already heard. I’ll take Pinky or Bookworm over this any day.
Color me underwhelmed. I checked out the Books podcast and they’ve made the mistake of (a) not providing specific information about any of the shows, (b) not providing running time, and (c) not offering an MP3 download on demand. You can only sign up through the subscription feed. And this isn’t anything you can’t get independently (although now it’s in MP3 format instead of RealAudio format). I’m listening to the “preview episode” and all it is is a compedium of their books programming from Morning Edition and the like, much of it I’ve already heard. I’ll take Pinky or Bookworm over this any day.
Saw your posting about the All Songs Considered podcast. Thanks…
The fact that we don’t play full songs is of course a frustrating issue.
I trust you understand this is a legal decision, not a production decision. We did get permission to podcast the Death Cab For Cutie cut. Next week our podcast will contain 5 or more complete songs from our live 9:30 club concert series. If we can get permission, we will podcast the songs completely. That said, there are a lot of intriguing podcasts out there and as a listener of podcasts I find myself without time to hear longer podcasts, I appreciate brevity. So there is something to be said for a show that acts as a sampler. As you point out, “it’s a start” and with feedback like yours, we will make a great podcast that takes advantage of this wonderful medium while working with those forward thinkers in the music industry. Too many in that industry belong to an era that has now long past.
All the best
Bob Boilen
host
NPR’s All Songs Considered
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/
Saw your posting about the All Songs Considered podcast. Thanks…
The fact that we don’t play full songs is of course a frustrating issue.
I trust you understand this is a legal decision, not a production decision. We did get permission to podcast the Death Cab For Cutie cut. Next week our podcast will contain 5 or more complete songs from our live 9:30 club concert series. If we can get permission, we will podcast the songs completely. That said, there are a lot of intriguing podcasts out there and as a listener of podcasts I find myself without time to hear longer podcasts, I appreciate brevity. So there is something to be said for a show that acts as a sampler. As you point out, “it’s a start” and with feedback like yours, we will make a great podcast that takes advantage of this wonderful medium while working with those forward thinkers in the music industry. Too many in that industry belong to an era that has now long past.
All the best
Bob Boilen
host
NPR’s All Songs Considered
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/
Bob,
I appreciate your feedback and where All Songs Considered is at in this shift into a new media and programming space. With already an enormous wealth of good podcasts out there, I appreciate brevity too.
That said, I think it’s also important for ASC to be upfront with it’s audience about what it’s offering. Nowhere on your website or in the iTunes description of your podcast does it say that this is a sampler, not the whole show. Furthermore, when I tried to listen to the whole show via its stream, it turned on my Quicktime Player (I’m using an imac G5) and then have me an error message.
If this is where ASC is in its move into podcasting, I accept that and your efforts. But I also think a little transparency goes a long way.
Keep up the good work.
Bob,
I appreciate your feedback and where All Songs Considered is at in this shift into a new media and programming space. With already an enormous wealth of good podcasts out there, I appreciate brevity too.
That said, I think it’s also important for ASC to be upfront with it’s audience about what it’s offering. Nowhere on your website or in the iTunes description of your podcast does it say that this is a sampler, not the whole show. Furthermore, when I tried to listen to the whole show via its stream, it turned on my Quicktime Player (I’m using an imac G5) and then have me an error message.
If this is where ASC is in its move into podcasting, I accept that and your efforts. But I also think a little transparency goes a long way.
Keep up the good work.
Kevin,
if Quicktime is opening when you try to play our show online, below is some advice how to fix this.
Try going here
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/index.html
Click the link that says Streaming Audio Guide.
You have to choose which player will play NPR audio and you can do that from this page.
Choose a player, either Real or Windows Media.
Make sure you actually have the player installed on your computer.
This should have come up the first time you tried to play audio at the NPR site, why it didn’t is a mystery. I have a Mac and it works just fine.
Try the file again and let me know how you do.
As for transparency, I think you are right. I will look into changing the language to better reflect what you get when you subscribe.
The long holiday weekend may make this difficult to do right away, but keep an eye our for a change. Next weeks show however will be full songs of those live concerts I described in the earlier post.
be well.
Bob Boilen
host
All Songs Considered
director
All Things Considered
Kevin,
if Quicktime is opening when you try to play our show online, below is some advice how to fix this.
Try going here
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/index.html
Click the link that says Streaming Audio Guide.
You have to choose which player will play NPR audio and you can do that from this page.
Choose a player, either Real or Windows Media.
Make sure you actually have the player installed on your computer.
This should have come up the first time you tried to play audio at the NPR site, why it didn’t is a mystery. I have a Mac and it works just fine.
Try the file again and let me know how you do.
As for transparency, I think you are right. I will look into changing the language to better reflect what you get when you subscribe.
The long holiday weekend may make this difficult to do right away, but keep an eye our for a change. Next weeks show however will be full songs of those live concerts I described in the earlier post.
be well.
Bob Boilen
host
All Songs Considered
director
All Things Considered