Archive for the 'Podcast Directory Sites' Category

AmigoFish is a site that is sort of like a psychic friend that helps you find podcasts you’ll like.

To use it, you sign up for an account, and then rate some shows. Once you’ve rated shows that you like, you can get recommendations for more shows that you’ll like, based on what people with similar tastes to yours have rated.

According to the site, the more shows you rate, the better the predictions will get.

You can find out more about the site at the Amigofish blog.

RawVoice announced on Tuesday the launch of PodcastFAQ.com, a site that offers, in their words, current and prospective podcasters “comprehensive insight into the field.”

The new site includes history, technology, industry trends and a portal to several online communities and directories. The site also offers a glossary of podcast terminology, support and instruction on how to create a podcast.

“Having gone to conferences, meetups and workshops and sharing the information we’d learned [over the last several years], we realized that we needed to get this stuff out of our heads and make it available to not only the community but the world,” explains Todd Cochrane, CEO and co-founder of RawVoice.

RawVoice’s new PodcastFAQ site will join the media company’s other new media communities, Blubrry.com, Podcasternews.com and TechPodcasts.com, which are powered by the RawVoice Generator platform.

The Guardian reports that the BBC is introducing music podcasts, featuring highlights from their radio programming and short music clips in “top 40″ style format.

Starting Saturday, November 17, the offerings will include Folk & Acoustic with Mike Harding from Radio 2, Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone from 6 Music and the Asian Network Chart. 1Xtra has podcasts from a range of music genres including hip hop, dancehall and garage.

Here’s the full list:

• Radio 1 Chart Show BBC Radio 1
• Radio 1 Punk Show BBC Radio 1
• Radio 1 Rock Show BBC Radio 1
• Radio 1 Indie Weekly BBC Radio 1
• Radio 1 Dance Weekly BBC Radio 1
• Zane Lowe’s Hottest Records BBC Radio 1
• Radio 1 Mini Mix BBC Radio 1
• 1Xtra RnB Top 10 BBC 1xtra
• 1Xtra Drum & Bass Top 10 BBC 1xtra
• 1Xtra Dancehall Top 10 BBC 1xtra
• 1Xtra Hip Hop Top 10 BBC 1xtra
• 1Xtra UK Garage Top 10 BBC 1xtra
• Paul Jones Rhythm And Blues BBC Radio 2
• Folk & Acoustic with Mike Harding BBC Radio 2
• Music Club with Simon Mayo BBC Radio 2
• Asian Network Music Chart BBC Asian Network
• Friction: New British Asian Music BBC Asian Network
• Jazz Library BBC Radio 3
• Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone BBC 6 Music

BBC Podcast Directory

via Dean Whitbread

Zune Podcast Programming Manager Rob Greenlee sends word that podcasters will be able to add their podcast to Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace podcast directory starting on November 13th.

We will be launching our Zune Marketplace Podcast Directory with approximately 1,000 podcast feeds shortly. The reason we are doing this is to seed the catalog with a base level of podcasts that Zune users and podcasters can build on over the next few months.

Being a long-time podcaster, I understand that most content providers want to know about where their podcasts are being distributed and thus would want to actually submit his or her feed to us. It has been exciting over the past few weeks to have so many podcasters contact me and request inclusion in the new Marketplace podcast area – the catalog will have the first 1000 or so from us, but the rest will come from the podcasting community.

Please plan on downloading the new Zune Marketplace software on November 13th, then visit the main podcast section in the software to “Suggest a Podcast” for inclusion in the public Podcast Marketplace.

1,000 podcasts is skimpy in this day and age. Apple’s directory includes over 125,000 podcasts and video podcasts. Microsoft’s clout is likely to help narrow this gap.

In addition to the directory, users will be able to add podcasts independent of the directory using a “Personal Podcast Feed Submission” feature in the new Zune Marketplace. This will let users to add a personal list of podcast feeds to their own subscription “Collection” area.

Personal feeds submitted to your collection will be your personal and private collection of podcasts that some may or may not be in the general marketplace podcast library.

UK podcast directory Podcast Nation has announced that it will be expanding its community by offering a new media enthusiasts’ social network, run on the Ning API, at http://podcastnation.ning.com.

Podcast Nation Editor-in-Chief Mark Crook said, “Podcast Nation is a great way for both finding and promoting podcasts, and by developing our community at Ning, which has proved itself as a flexible and reliable system for building social networks, we can put podcast producers and listeners together. We’ve always been behind building communities - we were one of the principal sponsors of this year’s highly successful PodCamp UK - and this takes us further down that path. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people will do with these powerful tools.”

The UK Podcast Forum is also moving to run on the same network.

At the Podcast and New Media Expo, Omaha Sternberg, CEO of MacBroadcast, announced the relaunch of MacRadio.com as a podcast directory and community site for the Macintosh community.

MacRadio will be offering access to Mac-centric podcasts listed in the directory, with the ability for users to browse or search through categories and tags to find the right podcast for them. In addition, users may access the podcast streams, enabling them to enjoy the podcast through the embedded Quicktime Player, rate podcasts, comment and tag them, and subscribe to the original feed.

All MacRadio Internet radio programs are available free as a podcast through the MacRadio website. In addition, Mac-centric podcasts can submit their podcasts to the site, and users can invite a podcast onto the site.

Yahoo’s decision to kill off the Yahoo podcast portal has generated a lot of discussion, and appears to be a sort of Rorschach test that reflects people’s attitudes about podcasting.

Does Yahoo’s Decision Reflects The State Of Podcasting?

At TechCrunch, Duncan Riley suggests that podcasting’s growth rate is the reason for the closing, saying that “podcast directories have struggled, as a medium that years ago held so much promise was surpassed by the rise of video.”

According to Read/WriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick, “Some would argue that podcasting hasn’t caught on like it was expected to, that it’s been dominated by existing media giants and beaten as a medium by the rise of video.” Kirkpatrick also puts some of the blame on Yahoo. “I don’t know how many people ever cared for the site anyway. I hadn’t looked at Yahoo! Podcasts since just a few months after it launched, when there were no RSS feeds and you had to login with a Yahoo! ID in order to download audio files instead of listening to them through a pop-up Yahoo! audio player.”

Or Was Yahoo’s Podcast Portal Just Lousy?

Lisa Barone says Yahoo’s decision wasn’t because of problems with podcasting - it was because of problems with Yahoo’s site. “Frankly, the site could use a little clean up,” says Barone. “The current podcasting directory isn’t altogether user-friendly. There weren’t any RSS feeds and users were forced to log in with a Yahoo ID in order to download any of the content.”

At Web Pro News, David Utter echoes the argument that Yahoo’s site failed to compete with iTunes, calling Apple’s proprietary podcast solution the “elephant sitting in the middle of the podcasting industry.” Or as Utter puts it - “If this were a game of Clue, we would guess Yahoo Podcasts was done in by Steve Jobs, in the server room, with the Cat-5 cable.”

CenterNetworks’ Allen Stern puts the blame squarely on Yahoo. “THE DAMN THING NEVER WORKED,” notes Stern. “I spent hours trying to get CN podcasts to upload and never could get it to work. Emails to support went unanswered and I left. I wonder how many others were in the same boat.”

Probably the most positive spin on Yahoo’s decision comes from mobile podcasting guru Rob Greenlee, who says that the decision is a sign of the podcast industry’s maturity.

“I am not surprised Yahoo has decided to close down its podcast directory site on Oct 31,2007. It jumped on a hot trend and did not have a long-term vision,” according to Greenlee. “Listeners and directories need to have a one-click to subscribe and listen process. This explains the success of iTunes + iPod solution. Any other successful platform needs to have the same equation and Yahoo just did not have this connection to a portable or mobile phone player.”

Yahoo has added a terse statement to its podcast portal, announcing the site’s imminent death:

Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007

Read/Write Web’s Marshall Kirkpatrick suggests that Yahoo’s decision to pull the plug may be a reflection of the rate of uptake of podcasting:

Some would argue that podcasting hasn’t caught on like it was expected to, that it’s been dominated by existing media giants and beaten as a medium by the rise of video. I still love me a good episode from ITConversations, Briefings Direct or our own new show Read/WriteTalk when I’m walking the dog - but Yahoo! users looking for podcasts will soon have to look elsewhere. I don’t know how many people ever cared for the site anyway. I hadn’t looked at Yahoo! Podcasts since just a few months after it launched, when there were no RSS feeds and you had to login with a Yahoo! ID in order to download audio files instead of listening to them through a pop-up Yahoo! audio player.

Yahoo’s decision to kill the site, though, is more likely to be a reflection of the fact that any attempt to create a major podcast directory is competing with iTunes, a widely successful, integrated solution for podcasts, video podcasts and digital media.

Here’s a roundup of portable media news for Saturday, Sept. 15th:

TorrentFreak has an exposé on Media Defender, publishing internal emails that appear to show how the company created a website and leaked copyrighted content to entrap people into infringement. According to TorrentFreak, “The sole purpose of the site is to trap people into uploading copyrighted material, and bust them for doing so.” Remember who’s paying to entrap you, and that there’s an alternative, next time you sit through all the warnings at the beginning of your DVDs.

Apple Screws Linux Users - with the latest round of updates to Apple’s iPod linup, it’s made changes to the database that shows what’s on your iPod. Apple added an encrypted hash that is effectively locking out anybody that wants to use a third-party content management tool - like Linux users. iPodminusiTunes is looking for hackers to break the encryption.

Forbes has a scathing article about the Apple TV, calling it The iFlop. “Steve Jobs tried to design —and dictate—the future of television,” according Forbes’ Scott Woolley, “Here’s how he failed.” The article makes some good points, and it’s true that the Apple TV has failed to become another hit like the iPod or even the iPhone. If you want to understand how important the Apple TV is to Apple’s long-term media strategy, though, and why the Apple TV is a success, you need to consider the 25,000 video podcasts that are now available via iTunes. Apple has created a complete ecosystem for publishing, delivering and viewing Internet media, and content producers are lining up to create content. While big media debates and experiments with Internet TV, Apple’s got 25,000 shows in their system, all of YouTube and more on the way. Where’s Apple’s competition? Forbes is going to wake up in a year and figure out that Apple’s competition has been iSleeping.

Watch YouTube, Get College Credit - Michael Arrington points out a class that California’s Pitzer College is offering about YouTube. About 35 students meet in a classroom but work mostly online, where they view YouTube content and post their comments. While the class is likely to be held up as an example of the decline of higher education, the class isn’t really just giving students college credit for watching YouTube. YouTube is “a phenomenon that should be studied,” student Darren Grose said. “You can learn a lot about American culture and just Internet culture in general.”

StreetIQ.com has announced the launch of a Facebook application (registration required) that provides quick access to more than 400 business and financial podcast channels and integrates them into the social networking experience on Facebook.

Using the recently launched software platform at Facebook, StreetIQ.com lets Facebook members access their favorite business and financial podcasts and to share them with their friends and colleagues. StreetIQ.com will also promote its partners and its community of subscribers exclusively through Facebook Groups.

“This is a bold move for StreetIQ.com driven by a firm belief that the viral nature of Facebook will enable us to market our services more effectively,” said Stephen Malaster, founder and director of programming at StreetIQ.com. “In addition, this platform will enhance the user experience for existing users while giving us exposure to new audiences.”