Podcasting 101:
A Crash Course
Heather Marie Wells
Collections Assistant and Podcast Producer
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History
Springdale, Arkansas

Why Considering Podcasting?
P Why are you thinking of podcasting?
P What do you hope to achieve?

Benefits to Museums
P Age demographics
P Global audience
P Accessibility outside of business hours
P Alternative learning method
P Means of supplemental information
P Inexpensive publicity
P Free from maintenance of audio players

Worldwide Personal Music Player Sales
2005: 128 million
2006: 182 million
2011: 275 million (projected)
http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/1545550.html

MP3 player ownership
Teens: 54% Males: 24%
18-34: 30% Females: 16%
35-54: 13% (over 12 yrs)
Average player usage among MP3 player owners: 12
hr/wk
Average player usage among teen MP3 player owners: 16
hr/wk
http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=3124

Apple Stats
110 million iPods sold so far (source: Apple,
8/5/07)
600 million copies of iTunes Music Store
downloaded (source: Apple, 8/5/07)
125,000 podcasts in iTunes (source: Apple 8/5/07)
1 million podcast subscribers in first 2 days in
iTunes (source: Apple 6/20/2005)

Demographics
Podcast Listener Demographics (Oct 2006):
18-24: 29%
25-34: 14%
35-44: 27%
45-54: 23%
55-64: 5%
65+: 2%
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1004938

Types of Podcasts
P Audio
P Video
P Enhanced

Before You Start
P Make a plan
P Decide the type of podcasts
P Decide what kinds of podcasts
P Think about if you want more than one feed
P Decide how many episodes you'll do in your first
year

Possible Kinds of Podcasts
P Tours
P Lectures
P Newsletters
P Highlight collections with limited access
P Oral Histories

Content Concerns
P Think before you record
P Release forms
P Language
P Subject matter
P Copyrights

Copyright - Theirs
P Types of material
P Performance rights organizations
< ASCAP licenses
< BMI licenses
< SESAC licenses
P Podsafe music
P Sound effects

Copyright - Yours
Shiloh Museum's Terms of Use:
You are free to share (copy and/or distribute) these podcasts
under the following conditions:
1. You must attribute the work to the Shiloh Museum of
Ozark History and provide the podcast name and web page
address.
2. You may not use the podcast for commercial purposes.
All other rights are reserved by the Shiloh Museum, unless
specifically stated otherwise in the episode description.

Copyright - Yours
P Terms of use
P Creative Commons
P Control vs. accessiblity

How to podcast in four easy steps:
1. Record something
2. Edit your recording
3. Upload your recording to your server
4. Get the word out

Record Something
P Hardware
P Software

Recording Methods
P Directly on computer
P Portable digital recorders

Directly to Computer
P Laptop
P Audacity
P External soundcard
P Or Get a Mac

Audacity and Garageband
P Both have time limits
P Audacity has recovery tool
P Audacity is cross-platform, free, and open source
P Garageband does have some built in podcast
features.

Telephone Recording
P Skype
P Recording add-on
P Skype to Skype is free
P Skype to phones are relatively cheap
P Don't use cell phones

Digital Recorders
P You get what you pay for
P Don't look at anything less than $100.00
P Nice ones start in the range of $400.00 - $600.00
P Pro recorders start at $1,000.00 and go up

Considerations
P Battery life & type
P Physical size
P Inputs
P Audio quality
P Memory type
P Recording format
P Accessories

Recording Format
P WAV
P MP3
P WMA
P Some weird proprietary thing

Recorder Accessories
P Memory cards
P Card readers
P Batteries
P Carrying case
P And the most important accessory of all . . .

Microphones
P Audio-Technica
< ATR 20
< $20.00
P Shure
< PG58
– $40 - $60
< PG185
– $365.00

Microphone Considerations
P Type of plug
P Condenser
P Phantom Power
P Direction

Misc. Equipment
P Cables
P Adapters
P Cooling mat
P Headphones
P Mixer

Mixers
P Combine multiple sources
P Control input volume independently

On to Editing, the fun part!

Learn from My Mistakes:
1. Make a back up of your raw audio and make
edits in another copy.
2. Save and save often.
3. Do not delete any related files until you have
downloaded a copy of your episode from your feed.

As Easy as Editing a Word Document
P Selecting audio is the same as selecting text
P A lot of the same keyboard short cuts
< Use of delete key
< To copy - Control C
< To cut - Control X
< To paste - Control V
P Or you can use the edit menu

Common Editing Effects
P Amplify
P Fade
P Noise Removal

Uploading and Serving
P Storage capacity
P Bandwidth

Bandwidth
P The amount of data that can be transferred in a
given amount of time.
P Gigabytes per month (or billing cycle)
P Bandwidth needs = size of episode x number of
subscribers x episodes per month

Calculate Bandwidth
Average episode size: 30 MB
Episodes per month: 4
Subscribers: 50
Bandwidth: 30 MB x 4 x 50 = 6000 MB = 6 GB

Service Providers
P Internet Archive - free
P Our Media - free
P Museumpods - free
P Liberated Syndication - reasonable

Get the Word Out
P RSS Feed
P Directories

Creating and Managing Feeds
P Blogging tools
P Feedburner

Directories
P iTunes
P Podcast Alley
P Podcast Pickle
P Museumpods
P Educational Podcast Network

Now what?
P Public expectations
P Technical issues
P Get help

Thank You for Coming!
Heather Marie Wells
Collections Assistant and Podcast Producer
Hmwells@springdalear.gov
http://www.springdalear.gov/shiloh/
479-750-8165
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History
Springdale, Arkansas