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Before radio play lists were computer generated for maximum boredom and going even further back to when a set list was a programmer’s best intention, listening to broadcasted music was truly random and eclectic — an audio spin of the wheel.

Bring on podcasting to display a rainbow of the best of both formats: specific content and anything goes.

Podcasting describes web-based audio broadcasts in which media files (usually MP3s) are made available online. Download simple podcasting software and detect and download your files.
Podcasters are independent producers creating their own "radio shows," which listeners can subscribe to using "podcatching" software (a type of aggregator). Video can also be "podcast," and any digital audio player or computer can play podcasts (not just iPods).

A podcast is like an audio magazine subscription, where the listener receives regular content that they can listen to at their leisure - like audio TiVo.

The phenomenon has been building since 2004. Currently, a search for "podcasts" will return more than 10 million hits.

Some "podfirsts" that have occurred in the past few months:

• President George W. Bush began podcasting (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/) when a RSS 2.0 feed was added to downloadable files of his weekly radio address.

• American astronaut Steve Robinson made the first podcast from space on August 7 (http://www1.nasa.gov/returntoflight/crew/robinson_podcast.html).

Now the BBC, CBC and National Public Radio are among major broadcasting players to have picked up and added podcasting elements.

Because of the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) assault to collect all loose change from music lovers, most podcasts are talk and "podsafe" music.

Podsafe refers to a music track that is legally permissible to play on a podcast. This is because the artist is not signed to a major label on the recording is under a Creative Commons license. Browse the Podsafe Music Network (http://www.podsafemusicnetwork.com) where artists submit podsafe music and podcasters can pluck and paste music for their podcasts.

Some podcasting sites like Odeo (http://www.odeo.com/) tout "a new pod-safe song every day," and music that is “RIAA-free” and linked directly to the artist and label sanctioned sites. The fare on some such podcasts can be more alternative than "alternative."

What can you listen to? There are tech podcasts, business podcasts, the NBC Today Show podcasts, Senate Republican Conference podcasts, sci-fi podcasts, sex advice podcasts, Ebert & Roeper podcasts, story-telling podcasts, and live podcasts from truckers on the Interstate. Established radio shows have offered pre-paid subscription of popular talk shows: Coast to Coast AM and Rush Limbaugh are two examples.

Audio fragmentation means that what was once a neat, numbered dial of listening decisions has been shattered into a million pieces. Broadcasting is now a lot more interesting in its “broken” state.

Fine print

Google (Google Print) has stepped back from its plans to load entire books from the world’s top libraries onto the Web, drafting the text without informing the draftee.

Google claims to be assisting publishers and authors in getting their books into Google Print. If appears to be only after the fact that if you do not want to be included to have to contact Google to be excluded.

Google’s idea seems to transfer responsibility for avoiding copyright infringement from the infringer to the copyright holder.

The Association of American Publishers and Google Watch (a site which examines Google’s record on copyright issues) are watching this very closely.

print.google.com

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