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Podcast, are you familiar with the term? No?
Nothing to worry about! I know most of you have already heard the term ”Podcast”.
What is a Podcast? A podcast is a series of digital audio files that is mainly focused on a particular theme or topic, enveloped in a series of recordings that you can examine, download or listen to according to your own time! Maybe at home, at work, or anywhere else.
The term Podcast comes from the word portmanteau which means iPod and Broadcast just like talk radio, but the fact is new installments of podcasts can be received by subscribers automatically. You can easily subscribe to the series of audio files, like any other smartphone app, and listen to them through your favorite speakers anywhere, anytime!
Read our blog on Best Podcast Website Builder For 2021.
If you are completely new to this field and want to start a podcast, I am here to guide you guys!
Basically, podcasting enables people to build a strong community of their own, engage in various arguments, share a message which is of close interest.
Want to know how podcasts works? Scroll down to know more..!
What is a Podcast?
A podcast is a downloadable talk radio where you can have the freedom to choose the topics that you want to listen to, simply it is audio entertainment anywhere, anytime, and about anything!
Podcasting is a free service that allows internet users to pull audio files from a podcasting website that can be listened on their PC or any kind of digital audio player. Let me clarify for you, that Podcast is completely different from radio.
How Podcasting Works?
Here, you don’t need to concentrate on a particular broadcast. Rather, you can download the podcast on-demand or target the niche or you can subscribe via an RSS( Really Simple Syndication) feed that automatically downloads the podcast to your computers.
There no limitation for Podcast, it can be of any length, format, style, production level. It can be cut down into seasons like popular TV serial which is a common example for us, right? A podcast may be daily or weekly, similar to a series of episodes which may be audio podcasting or video podcasting that is mainly stored in a Podcast Hosting Company.
There are two types of Podcast. See below:
- Audio Podcasting is generally a series of episodes with digital audio technology for the general public that delivers an enormous amount of interesting content, focusing on music, debate, interview, etc.
- Video Podcasting also called videocasts or vidcasts that combine the audio component of podcasting with visual media. It is very useful to build or promote business especially in the sales and marketing fields. Video Podcast is generally used by filmmakers, artists, video bloggers, and those who are new to video marketing.
Who Can Use Podcast?
Experts say podcasting will still take time, to grab the attention of huge masses but no one can deny that in recent times podcasting is eventually growing popularity, providing thousands of downloads a day!
The podcast is used by:
- Large and small businesses
- Individuals
- Radio Networks such as BBC
- TV Networks such as Fox, ESPN
- New Podcast only networks
- Many Comedians
- Storytellers
- Churches
- And many other companies
From the above discussion, hope now you have got an idea of what is a podcast, and how it works. Let us now see some popular Podcast examples in the next part.
If someone asks you what is a podcast? What will be your answer? I think now you are clear about the term ”Podcast”. Nowadays most radio stations are shifting their shows into Podcasts, but to be true Podcasts are growing gradually and will reach a large number of masses in a couple of years. Let me give you a popular podcast example below.
You have heard about BBC right? World’s Leading Public Service Broadcaster that provides us with latest news, sports headlines, weather report, TV and radio highlights. There is series named ”Beyond Belief” which is a series of exploring the place and nature of faith in today’s world, that is played on radio on the same time every week, and you have to concentrate every week.
Here comes the role of Podcast, recently BBC publish every episode as a part of the Podcast and every episode of ”Beyond Belief Podcast”. You can listen to each podcast episode as a recording of the ”Beyond Belief Radio Episode” and are all organized into a single podcast series! Subscribe to the specific podcast and watch your favorite episodes delivered to you each week. Enjoy listening to your favorite episodes anytime, you want!
Other podcast examples are one-on-one interview, solo commentary, guest interviews or discussions, non-fiction narrative story telling, recovered content and more.
Here is simple example of what is a Podcast, for better understanding:
Above is a brief description of what is a podcast, who can use it, how podcast works and so on. But do you think it is a complete definition of Podcast? Let me show you some unknown facts that you have never thought before reading this article!
First and foremost, Podcast delivers a compact content which doesn’t regenerate radio networks and is far better engaging than radio. Most of the podcasts supply authentic outlook, subjecting to specific niches such as sports, music, dramas. See an example below:
- A podcast can be any length, suppose the duration may be one minute scrap or take hours long
- A podcast can be any frequency, such as may be daily or monthly
- A podcast can be any format, such as single-handed shows or various dramas
- A Podcast can cover any topic, which never can be covered on radio
If you want to watch shows that meet your requirements or your desire, podcasts definitely help you to find interesting topics that build affection and save you valuable time.
When it comes to mind what is a podcast, most of the people have confusion in which form do Podcast approach? Do you struggling with the same question? If yes, I am here to give the right answer!
Look, Podcasts are basically of audio content which encourage, educate, entertain or inspire people on any topic they choose and that is basically a relief from boredom life. Let us take an example, most of us love to listen music while travelling. Similarly, when people are at gym, travelling to long journey, or just stepped out for an evening walk, audio podcast are great at every single time compared to video podcasts.
I am not saying video podcast are not in the scene, it do exist but nowadays audio podcast are growing to a large extent and it will definitely reach a large number of audience in the near future. You must agree that video content can’t be watched at any time, but whenever you find an ideal time you approach to audio right? There is the point where Podcast Audio plays an important role!
How Podcast Sounds?
Podcasts are generally great for entertaining purposes and you may be familiar with a lot more types of podcasts that may sound similar to a radio or TV conversation show. There are many new categories of podcasts which you may not have heard before. Let me give you some examples below.
Some podcasts have a subject matter of a specific topic and the respective host will have a conversation on that topic on each and every episode say how to train a dog, or sometimes it may a regular topic like how you spent your last Sunday, how to handle serious problems, how to become happy and a lot more!
There may be one or two presenters for each episode and usually talk about a specific subject or may get someone other as an special appearance they may be interviewed for that particular topic. Some podcast are really very simple and it is like a casual conversation like a group of friends having a discussion about an interesting topic like running a business, last week movie discussion, or any kind of informative discussion.
Some podcasts on the other hand are highly professional and great to hear with special theme music, sound effects, pro-like editing and more. But the only drawback is, it takes a lot of time and money to produce pro-like podcast content. Both type of topics is great, once you start listening to an interactive podcast episode you will definitely incline towards topics, no matter what is the appearance of the host!
Again confused between what is a Podcast and a Podcast Episode? As we have cleared earlier, a podcast is a series of digital audio files or episodes, whereas a podcast episode is just a single recording of an audio file from that whole podcast. Have I cleared the doubt? If not, let’s take a simple podcast example below:
Say if you take a TV show as an example of a podcast as it contains a series of episodes. One of the series named ”Emotion” is a real example of a Podcast whereas ”Harry meets Sunny” is a real example of a podcast episode that defines a single episode from the whole series of ”Emotion”.
Well, above is the complete discussion of what is podcast, how podcast works, what are podcast examples! Let us move to the next part of how a podcast is different from an audio file.
Hope, now it is clear what is a podcast and how podcast works. But if you are wondering how to start a podcast, first you have to listen to a podcast and then only you can identify the basic difference between a podcast and a simple audio file!
Say, if you want to download a series of episodes from a podcast site, there is literally no basic difference between them. Both are audio files, right? But the answer comes when you include a subscribe button to that respective series of audio files.
It totally depends on you, whether you allow people to have a subscription to the series of audio recordings. This makes the basic difference, where a simple audio file is completely transformed into a podcast audio file. The file still remains a simple audio file for common people, but can tag them as a podcast also!
The podcast usually runs through a technology called RSS( Really Simple Syndication) which automatically downloads the podcast to your sites. Once you provide your podcasting software such as Google Play Podcast, it will read the RSS feed and you can automatically download all the old episodes of the podcast and download new episodes once they are released!
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If you already use Google Play Podcast Portal which is basically built for android phones, or Spotify, Apple Podcasts which is already built inside an iPhone, it will definitely chase all the subscriptions you have made via each podcast’s RSS feed and will inevitably download new episodes whenever they are available on podcast.
Don’t you think the growing need for podcasts makes it really easy for all to listen to audio of interesting topics without any headache of searching them individually and download them again! This method seems so boring.
Hope, you have got a helpful article and finally, understand what is a podcast! Since the digital industry is booming around, people think visual appearance is the most needed entertainment for all! But with the evolution of podcasts, it has been proved that podcasts are very useful for informational and educational purposes such as self-guided walking tours, talk shows, and training which are all possible only because of podcasts.
Above I have discussed in detail what is a podcast app, podcast examples, what is podcasts used for, how a podcast works, and let me tell you one thing several companies are trying to turn podcasting into a profitable business.
It is my recommendation to transfer your business into podcasting and see the engagement of the audience in a couple of days. Who doesn’t like entertainment and inspiration? We all love to share our emotions with each other, don’t we?
So, what do you think about podcasting? If you have better suggestions of how to start a podcast with better podcast examples, please inform me in the comment section! Happy to be a part of the discussion.
In the meantime, you can read our other blogs here!
