Why isn't podcasting easier?
My first podcast was recorded in 2005. More than five years later... recording, editing and distributing a podcast isn't any easier.
Isn't that a bit surprising?
I've lamented the loss of GigaVox Audio Lite, which became Podango ShowBuilder Lite, which became totally nonexistent. I figured something would step up to take its place.
Nothing has.
Phone-to-podcast solutions came and went -- Gcast, Garageband, etc. I finally became excited about the idea again when I discovered that drop.io offered the service... only to find they discontinued it. (The phone number reference still appears on accounts but it doesn't seem to do anything.) The few I've come across so far (UHaveAudio.com, ipadio.com -- which has nothing to do with the Apple iPad -- and Yodio.com) don't seem to match the ease/simplicity of Gcast -- nor do they have the posting speed. (I don't want to have to wait a few hours to see if my call was successfully recorded.)
Paul Colligan image by Neezee via Flickr
Paul Colligan offered PremiumCast.com which seemed to do some of the same things as ShowBuilder, but that's now become "Nanacast" but from its features list I'm still having a hard time figuring out what it can do for "automatic show assembly". And with it starting at $97 a month, it's not really good for the academic/hobbiest market.
And for what it's worth, years after I first mentioned it to Paul, both the PremiumCast terms of service and Nanacast terms of service still list as one of its "Restictions on Use" that "you may not (and may not authorize any other party to) ... (iii) hyper-link to this site, without the express prior written permission...." I don't know about you, but if I'm offering a podcast at a site I should would like to be able to link to that site. (I know that's not what they mean, but that's what they say, and the fact it's still not fixed causes me to worry about what else might be lurking in the TOS...)
I figured, "Maybe I can do the 'best of breed' thing and use multiple services, then combine those different feeds into one..." but the only tool around (other than the "running out of some guy's basement" level of developer service) is Yahoo! Pipes and reports are that it's flaky. In my experience, it works fine except that it won't sort the feeds by date and just tacks one onto the end of the next, which isn't very helpful.
Is there something out there that I'm missing?
Isn't that a bit surprising?
I've lamented the loss of GigaVox Audio Lite, which became Podango ShowBuilder Lite, which became totally nonexistent. I figured something would step up to take its place.
Nothing has.
Phone-to-podcast solutions came and went -- Gcast, Garageband, etc. I finally became excited about the idea again when I discovered that drop.io offered the service... only to find they discontinued it. (The phone number reference still appears on accounts but it doesn't seem to do anything.) The few I've come across so far (UHaveAudio.com, ipadio.com -- which has nothing to do with the Apple iPad -- and Yodio.com) don't seem to match the ease/simplicity of Gcast -- nor do they have the posting speed. (I don't want to have to wait a few hours to see if my call was successfully recorded.)
Paul Colligan image by Neezee via FlickrPaul Colligan offered PremiumCast.com which seemed to do some of the same things as ShowBuilder, but that's now become "Nanacast" but from its features list I'm still having a hard time figuring out what it can do for "automatic show assembly". And with it starting at $97 a month, it's not really good for the academic/hobbiest market.
And for what it's worth, years after I first mentioned it to Paul, both the PremiumCast terms of service and Nanacast terms of service still list as one of its "Restictions on Use" that "you may not (and may not authorize any other party to) ... (iii) hyper-link to this site, without the express prior written permission...." I don't know about you, but if I'm offering a podcast at a site I should would like to be able to link to that site. (I know that's not what they mean, but that's what they say, and the fact it's still not fixed causes me to worry about what else might be lurking in the TOS...)
I figured, "Maybe I can do the 'best of breed' thing and use multiple services, then combine those different feeds into one..." but the only tool around (other than the "running out of some guy's basement" level of developer service) is Yahoo! Pipes and reports are that it's flaky. In my experience, it works fine except that it won't sort the feeds by date and just tacks one onto the end of the next, which isn't very helpful.
Is there something out there that I'm missing?
Comments