Podcasting

#29

A little over a year ago my brother got into podcasting. A lot of people hear that and ask what podcasting is. Podcasting is defined by Wikipedia (an online dictionary) as: the distribution of audio files, such as radio programmes, over the internet using RSS syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe to, and also the content of that feed. Podcasters' websites also may offer direct download of their files, but the subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming .

Podcasting was started back in 2000. One of the founders of it was Adam Curry, the old MTV VJ from the 80s. He is actually nicknamed the Podfather.

Although this started out as a cool new hobby it has turned into much more for my brother. He has two shows now; Accident Hash http://accidenthash.podshow.com/ and U-Turn Café http://u-turncafe.podshow.com/. He plays nothing but music from independent artists on both of his shows. He is now under contract and gets paid for his shows.

Accident Hash was his original one and had a mix of music. He mainly played heavy loud music on the show. Many of his listeners were commenting on how much they liked the mellower music when he would play it, which is why he started the U-Turn Café.

He gets his music from a website called Podsafe music. The site is designed so that artists can submit their music to be played on podcasts and podcasters can find new music to play. This site is especially good for my brother considering the type of music he plays is all artists that would want their music on a site like this.

Both of his shows have become a huge success. He has people from all over the world listening to his shows. I was visiting his house one night, and he got a phone call from a listener in Ireland. They were on the phone for over an hour.

Not only has he made friends through his listeners but also with other podcasters. Over the summer they had a huge podcasting convention in California. It was really cool for him to get to meet these people he had been talking with through the computer for months.

So if you are reading this and you are a music lover you should check out either of his podcasts. I would definitely recommend them to you if you are not a fan of radio music and need something new to listen to.