Critical Dissection #2 - Hosting Platforms
(Please note that what will be discussed here will be focusing more on the changes that have developed since the first known record of a LIS related best practice model on podcasting was published back in 2007. A literature review on the context of podcasting in library/information institutions can be found here.)
So last time, I talked about some of the editing software that are out there to use for podcast production - as well as diving a little bit into how much work goes into the process, depending on what you're trying to achieve. The main idea behind knowing what each program can offer is important to know when trying to figure out which would best suit your needs - especially under budgetary constraints. This is also true when deciding on how to publish your podcast episodes.
Hosting platforms exists primarily as a way for users to store and present their media files to the general public and/or a subscribed-based audience. In a generalized (and somewhat over-simplified/extrapolated) sense, hosting platforms more or less act as a cloud-based storage system for multi-media content creators. And we - as consumers of such content, typically navigate to these websites in search for online media to either entertain, inform or even challenge us and our view of the world.
Youtube, Vimeo, and other similar browsing websites can all be labeled as hosting platforms - though they primarily cater to videos content. While there are various examples of people using Youtube for publishing and posting podcast audio, the selection of hosting websites specific to audio content do exist and are available for public use.
The first known audio hosting platform, was first created by in the early 2000s - with several others coming into existence as the years went on. Back then, the majority of media files were being hosted either on the webpages of blogs or organizational websites or websites that were specifically built to house certain types of media. (Think mySpace, or Wordpress/Tumblr with auto playing audio built into the site.) The main issues with keeping these types of files on a website often stemmed from the fact that uploading, downloading, and housing large items like 15+ minutes audio files, would often take up a lot of bandwidth to maintain - and could even affect a website's traffic flow.
Ideally, it's better to make media accessibility easier for the consuming audience. The easier it is to get to the content, the less likely your viewership will be frustrated - and in turn, the less likely you'll end up loosing them in the long run. (Barring possible grievances with the content itself - 'cause that's a completely different story all together.) For the more prominent hosting websites for audio, the user experience from both ends of creator-to-consumer is much more friendly and streamlined compared to those early days.
While both Tech Norms and School of Podcasting both provide an insightful - albeit brief analysis on the top hosting websites, here's an alternate look into three of the widely used platforms:
SoundCloud:
Primarily used as a publishing platform for music, many users - including the New Public Library, and various ALA members, have also published longer podcasting episodes on here. In addition to having a mobile app, and giving creators the option to control over the content access permissions, SoundCloud provides the most amount of free storage without upgrading to its premium membership - with 180 minutes-worth of space right off the bat.
Key Notes:
Allows listeners to seamlessly transition from one audio clip to the next with a built-in media player, as well as the option to listen to content offline (if permissions are set by the creator for this)
Can also set published works as a private file - in which only people who are sent the link to the private post can access it.
Provides statistics on downloads and play rate for each audio clip (will also analyze traffic based on country/region as well as profile traffic when upgraded to Premium)
Gives users option to enter metadata and keyword tagging
Options provided for metadata entry are more specific to music content - which isn't all too surprising
Tags do not appear to be restricted in anyway - but doesn't save previously used tags
Can add descriptions for each audio entry, as well as compiling/group a given selection of audio posts into a playlist or album.
Links and other text features (like making bullet points within the text) are not compatible unfortunately
Has established profile layout - i.e. can't modify the online space of this website (barring pictures for the audio post/profile photo/profile banner)
PodBean:
Created specifically for podcasts and vodcasts (a.k.a. podcasts with video), PodBean is a good alternative to SoundCloud. While I'm not currently aware of any LIS themed podcasts that are hosted through this website, Western's GradCast has their series of graduate research interviews featured through PodBean. Despite the limited audio storage space PodBean provides through its free plan (a meager 50MB per month to start), the interface on both the sides of publishing is actually better suited for podcast - even allowing additional multimedia (like photos) to be posted with the audio file.
Key Notes:
Have more webpage customizations compared to SoundCloud, but not as extensive as Wix or WordPress
Uses pre-defined themes - with premium themes accessible for paid members
User experience for listeners is good - simple and effective navigation, ordering each podcast episode from most recent to oldest and have the podcasts be the main focus within the webpage
Does have a slightly annoying setup of double horizontal scrolling bar though...
Also keeps track of basic monthly statistics on episode/webpage traffic
Google Analytics only available following upgrade to paid plan
LibSyn:
More similar to PodBean than to SoundCloud in terms of uploading process and file hosting, LibSyn is the only one out of the three that doesn't have a free plan unfortunately. (So what I'm about to say should be taken with a grain of salt; in fact, as a general rule - always take anything and everything that you hear from anyone with a grain of salt. But I digress.) Based on what I could dig up from their support site, LibSyn doesn't provide users with a public profile page to feature uploaded content - the majority of their service is geared towards the online storage/publishing of audio files only. On the plus side at least that reduces the amount of webpages you'd need to maintain, since LibSyn does provide you with a media player that can be embedded into your blog/social media site.
Key Notes:
Provides users with a HTML5 media player of the publish content for webpage embedding
HTML5 is an open-source alternative to the Adobe Flash that's universally used for playing either video or audio files online. While HTML5 is a natively supported player, it's unfortunately not as wide used compared to its commerical cousin. Check out DaCast's article on the differences between the two to learn more.
While it may not seem like a good competitor against SoundCloud and PodBean, LibSyn has a better level of compatibility with more social media platforms compared to either of them - as well as having the option of uploading files directly from Dropbox instead of locally
Main downsides - no indication of having options to add tags or other metadata to the audio files
Tags about the audio can be added to the blog/page post that features the clip, they can't be associated to the files directly
Of course, this listed of three isn't comprehensive by any means - there's plenty more platforms out there. But regardless of which hosting site* you're considering on using, here are a few important things to bear in mind:
Be aware the length of the file storage period for each website - some hosters will only keep files for the length of a month before removing them, others will keep files on their servers until they're removed by the user. It's probably best to have additional stored copies in a place that you know can be held indefinitely.
Best to check the terms of uses policies for any clauses that may lead to possible content censorship by the hosting company. (Ourmedia.org has been noted to comb through files before allowing content to be published publicly).
Find out the level of online support that can be found for each host platform. Among the three platforms that I outlined above - only PodBean and LibSyn made it very easy to find their support pages, as well as providing both written and video tutorials on how to use their services; the SoundCloud support page, on the other hand, proved to be rather elusive...
*Please note that you can in fact use Google Drive to store/host your audio files, as an alternative to third-party companies - and given the amount of free space Google provides to its users, hosting via Google Drive does make more sense; thing is that the process of setting that up can be rather tricky. You can read about it (along with various other technical stuff) on the Digital Inspiration web blog.
Now at this point you're probably thinking "what about iTunes?"
Well as it turns out, iTunes isn't actually a hosting platform - rather, it's used as a publishing services of sort to help with file discoverability. The misconception that iTunes is a hosting platform is actually quite common (I myself initially thought that this was the case too). What actually happens whenever you click on an audio file from iTunes is that listeners are directed to the downloading links of said audio. The fact that iTunes used primarily for content discoverability is why you'll see a lot of DIY podcasting guides mention the process of getting RSS data from iTunes (though a lot of platforms will actually provide you with a RSS feed nowadays).
But of course, there's a lot more to content dissemination than just iTunes or blog posts. Developing avenues for online community engagement and building a listener-base is a huge area of importance for podcasting - 'cause without it, there tends to be a greater risk to the success of a podcast in the long run. Having an online presence as well as ways to recruit more people (whether they be guest speakers, new hosts or producers) for future podcasts, are also very much dependent on having a good outreach system; it's also a great alternate way to get free feedback on the content that's produced too - short of sending out surveys...
Now whether I actually get around to talking about this extensively, ... probably not. But that doesn't mean that this won't be picked up some time later in the future. Perhaps in a few months' time...
- V.