What I Expect from a Podcast:
So with this I have bean to have new expectations for most of the podcasts that I listen to. These are; audio quality; different content and people with something to say. Without at least one of these I find it very hard to listen or keep listening (or I suppose in some cases, watch) a podcast. Currently I have iTunes open behind this window and I am subscribed to about twenty-eight podcasts. Each of them, apart from a couple tend to take a different area of (in my case) mostly technology.
For instance; I listen to MacBreak Tech for all the how-to and in depth stuff, MacBreak Weekly for the news, The Typical Mac User Podcast to hear what new switchers and sliders like me are doing, and Mac Focus to hear what mac users of about my own age think.
Each of the undoubtedly has something different to say and something different to add. I have been listening to podcasts since they were first integrated with iTunes, I (not that I count) have probably tried over one hundred and some of them just don’t stick, thats how it goes.
On audio quality; most of the time I can stand the odd guest host with a crap microphone but they really must have something good to say for me to keep doing, that buzzing is one of the banes of my existence.
I know I’m being pretty harsh, I mean my podcast Tech Today doesn’t sound fantastic, but this is where I make the exception. If people are only ten episodes in and only have fifty people downloading the episodes then it may not be worthwhile for them to go out and buy better equipment. My podcast is averaging on thirty downloads a week, if we reach a hundred or so I might see fit to go out and buy a Rode Podcaster mic.
I know that the content that I’m getting is free and I understand that it is your choice. I mean the other day, I was recording an episode for a video podcast that I am working on and the first thing they said was “sought your hair out!” and I argued, “It doesn’t matter it is a podcast” I may be being a little hypocritical about writing this post but I wanted to express my thoughts about the subject.
Anyway, after my little rant… What do you expect from a Podcast and why? Leave a comment or use the contact form!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also contact me. Thanks for visiting!
I agree with you completely about quality. If you’re going to listen to a podcast on a regular basis and especially with headphones, lower quality can grate on your nerves after a minute or two.
I can’t say that I listen to as many podcasts on one topic besides the news, but I do manage to get through all of my 40 or so on a weekly basis (long commute).
I’d also figure into figuring out where the quality is would be your audience. Are they geeky? More quality please. Are they knitting grandmothers? Not too much needed thanks. This of course, only applies to audio, as the knitting grandma would need the quality to view the stitches.
October 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pmI think one of the ways to improve a podcast is to work on the organisation of it. So you know what you’re going to talk about and in what order - and what you are going to say about things. If there is more than one host, you need to have planned beforehand who is going to do what. This eliminates false starts, argument, and tiresome confusion - I know you can edit that out, but most people don’t seem to bother.
That’s my second thing - edit the podcast! Trim out the dross, make sure the precious minutes people spend listening to you are top quality. Then they’ll come back for more.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:48 pmWe try really hard to get a good sounding podcast. There are lots of things to keep track of and I wish that I could have an engineer helping. Somday. The last recording we did is actually the second take. There was too much noise outside the office so I scrapped the show and we redid it on a different day.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:14 am