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Podcast RSS Feeds
A Podcast RSS feed is what allows the entire system tofunction. To begin at the beginning, a podcast is aregular distribution of audio or visual files, calledepisodes, to a users podcast client. The people who usea podcast are called subscribers, and the podcast clientis what allows them to subscribe to a feed. The podcastclient is a program that connects to the internet, lookingfor a specific file the user has subscribed to, or told it tolook for. That file is an RSS feed, a machine readablepiece of coding that sends information back to thepodcast client. RSS feeds can be used to distributemany kinds of information, and were originally used forblogging and distributing blog posts to subscribers. Astime went on, however, a few people had the idea ofenclosing information about media files within the RSSfeed so that software could be written to find thatinformation and download the files described.
The Podcast RSS feeds became a hit, and podcastclients were quickly written to allow people to use thenew encoding. Podcasting became a means of quicklyand cheaply sharing episodes with subscribers. Ratherthan requiring subscribers to visit the site that hostedthe files everytime they wanted to know if a newepisode was released, users could rely on the podcastclient to do the work for them, keeping track ofnumerous podcast rss feeds that interested them anddownloading the files to be viewed when they wished.
Podcast RSS feeds are now used to distribute a numberof different types of podcasts. Some producers use it asway to share a comedy or news program that theyproduce, others podcast in order to share music filesthey create, and some podcast to share video files theyhave created and to showcase their work. Podcastingallows the producers to become radio or television starswithout the large investment in time and money thatwuld be required to do that. Because podcasting hassuch a low entry cost, requiring little more than a serverand a domain to host the site and a way to record themedia, thousands of people who otherwise would nothave a chance to work in a media environment have achance to do so through their podcast rss feeds.
In this way, podcast RSS feeds allow media publishingover the internet at a fraction of the cost of other formsof media distribution, permitting people with muchsmaller budgets to compete in some way. However,podcast rss feeds are also attracting more establishedcompanies and groups as well, bringing people fromNPR radio stations and news organizations like CNNwho use podcasting as yet another means to distributetheir product to end users.
More Resources
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Alexander Hotz is a freelance multimedia journalist and public radio junkie based in New York City. Currently he teaches digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Follow Alex on Twitter at @hotzington . With another long hot…
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