now/Podcasting with WordPress

now/Content

Featured Article on the 9rules network

I was asked by Matt sometime ago if I would create an entry in Codex describing how to podcast with WordPress.  There is already a nice article there, but I thought I would go ahead and create this tutorial for the sake of completeness.

Welcome those of you surfing here from 9rules, Airbag Industries, Photo Matt and Forever Geek.  I am continually surprised when someone thinks my ramblings here are worth mentioning, so thanks for the linkup Scrivs and Greg!

So here it is, I decided to record this tutorial as a podcast as well as a proof of concept.  Enjoy.

First a little background

For anyone out there who is still unaware of the phenomenon known as podcasting, lets take a moment to reflect. Podcasting is the brainchild of washed up MTV VJ who has found new life as the godfather of podcasting, and the always fashionable person to hate Dave Winer.

In a nutshell podcasting allows you to create your own audio programming and then deliver it via the web.

The socially acceptable way to distribute podcasts are through RSS enlcosures. RSS enclosures allow you to reference binary data, in our case an audio file, from within your RSS feed.

Podcast readers then subscribe to an RSS feed and download the audio files contained in the enclosures, and some like the forthcoming iTunes update will then move those downloaded audio files to your portable audio player for later consumption.

So lets look at how to podcast with WordPress shall we?

Steps to podcast with wordpress

  1. Create an audio file with the software of your choice, I am using Quicktime Pro, but there are great free alternatives like wavepad for the windows operating system, Rosegarden for Linux and Audacity for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux et al.
  2. Upload that mp3 to a server, either your own or one of the myriad, nay veritable cornacopia of servers that are available for this task. I am a big fan of the Internet Archive myself. If you use the Internet Archive you can grab the Creative Commons Uploader to make your life easier.
  3. Create a post in WordPress, in which you reference the URI of said mp3, and then hit publish.

And that’s it. Now just pimp out that RSS URI so that people can find an download your stereophonic masterpiece.

now/Information




comment/Content

comment/Information


  1. personal avatar

    Hey now, there is the “voice” behind the sillyness. Another great article Chris. That is the first podcast I have ever listened to and I must say it seems pretty cool. So does iTunes not handle podcasts at this point? Or will this update you speak of have specific features for podcasts? I listened to this with foobar for windows and on my iPod so would it still be considered a podcast?

    Bah, sorry for the rambling, I’ll stop now and head off to bed right after I add a del.icio.us link for this article.



  2. personal avatar

    rofl!



  3. personal avatar

    Just gotta say I love the jazz music in the background. Makes everything so much better. Good voice as well, kinda reminds me of Kevin Smith, then again you’ve got that Kevin Smith style going on and don’t think I haven’t noticed your favicon. Good post though. I might try it as well.



  4. personal avatar

    Waiting patiently for Sillyness Radio Episode II… ;-)



  5. personal avatar

    […] Uma destas preciosidades foi o tutorial escrito pelo Chris J. Davis a respeito de uma t



  6. personal avatar

    Shoot me, I am an idiot! :-/ I was reading on a different section (for live music or something, I believe). That’s what I get for posting from work on a “semi-hectic” day. My apologies Chris.

    Cheers!



  7. personal avatar

    […] Another Great Tutorial. Leave a Comment […]



  8. personal avatar

    Hey David long time no see eh?

    Yeah I have thought about that, I am not sure what I want to do as yet. I have an aversion to flash, but I recognize the usefulness of having the files playable on the page.

    Looks like I have some thinking to do.



  9. personal avatar

    […] Chris J. Davis ha escrito un mini-tutorial sobre como hacer podcasting con WordPress: 1. Crea un archivo de audio con el software que quieras (Chris usa Quicktime Pro, pero hay otras alternativas como  Audacity) 2. Sube el mp3 al servidor (el tuyo o uno de los muchos que permiten alojar podcasts, como archive.org. Si usas éste último puedes utilizar el Creative Commons Uploader para subirlo facilmente) 3. Crea un post en WordPress en el que incluyas una referencia a la URI del mp3, y publícalo. Eso es todo. Sencillo verdad? La versión en inglés original de Chris está aquí: Podcasting with WordPress. Entrada publicada a las 6:35 pm en wordpress, podcasts | Tags: wordpress   podcasts    […]



  10. personal avatar

    Podcasting with WordPress

    Chris wrote a nice tutorial on podcasting with WordPress, which is delightfully short.



  11. personal avatar

    Try and try :)



  12. personal avatar

    Hear hear for SR2.



  13. personal avatar

    […] As blogging continues to become more and more popular so do the technologies and innovations that surround it. Podcasting is one of those have many people left in the dark, Chris J. Davis has a wonderful article on how to get started Podcasting with WordPress. […]



  14. personal avatar

    I’ve incorrectly learned it as URL ;)



  15. personal avatar

    Humm… I wonder how I could convert this for MovableType, maybe change something in step three?



  16. personal avatar

    […] One of the WordPress gurus in the network, Chris Davis, has written a nice tutorial for all the WordPress users out there who are interested in Podcasting. And to make it even better he has decided to do the tutorial with a Podcast showing you how to get things done. […]



  17. personal avatar

    Hmm. FeedDemon didn’t show any enclosure icon. I checked your atom feed, and the enclosure tag is there. I guess I’ll go submit a bug report.

    Personally I’ve been using a separate (currently hand-written) feed for my podcasts, but that may change in the future.



  18. personal avatar

    errr scrap my previous comment - my post was because i had been linked through to your post from Photo Matt feed (which naturally does not have the enclosure icon….I think I’ll go get a cup of coffee and wake up.



  19. personal avatar

    I’m not convinced that this podcasts properly as this post is not showing up as having an enclosure. Newzcrawler normally has an audio icon on a podcast feed but this particular entry doesn’t. Surely all you are doing in your instructions is to link to a hosted mp3 as part of your content?



  20. personal avatar

    Chris, as far as installing a second version of WordPress just for podcasting, this is a good solution, but it also seems like overkill for many. The multiple enclosures per item is debatable, WordPress does it, but which podcatching clients will honor multiple enclosures and acknowledge them all? As for Adam Curry, “wahed up” just seemed kind of harsh, am I a “washed up serigrapher” because that was my career 15 years ago? As for Winer, I’ve been dealing with Dave for the past 10 years on mailing lists, etc, and I suppose the phrase “always fashionable person to hate” fits, I’d just try to avoid using it myself.

    Besides all that, I’m not trying to be nagative in any way, and thank you for the guide. It’s a good introduction to podcasting with WordPress.

    Oh, as far as adding a flash player, I’ve been working on integrating XSFP playlists into WordPress, and adding in the XSPF Web Music Player would probably be dead simple for a WordPress plugin developer. (Anyone interested in working on it with me?)



  21. personal avatar

    […] Looks like Podcasting with WordPress is pretty easy. I need to get my music going in this medium and start my own podcast for those of you who wish to here my not so professional music that I produce whilst the wee ones are asleep. […]



  22. personal avatar

    I think this is a simple guide, but perhaps a little to simple. If you ask people who have been using WordPress for podcasting, they may have a few issues to bring up, like the whole single/multiple enclosures per post debate, and the fact that if you post very often, but don’t put in enclosures as often, podcatching clients could miss your enclosures. It also seemd like unnecessary digs on Adam and Dave, who both helped foster this technology.



  23. personal avatar

    Hey Pete,

    Yes I agree that it is overkill but at the moment it is the only viable solution when dealing with WP.

    From your previous comment I thought you were lamenting WP’s inability to generate multiple enclosures, my apologies.

    As for the my comments regarding Curry and Winer, you probably have a point, but I say what I think and what I mean… gets me into trouble sometimes. As for not saying the bit about Dave, it was my intention to bring the stupidity of that statement and the underlying sentiment behind it to light.

    I was not thinking you were attempting to be negative, I want people to speak their mind here. You did that, I am very appreciative of that.

    Hmm that is interesting. If I wasn’t already writing four plugins I might take you up on that.



  24. personal avatar

    As a side note, the Internet Archives does not accepts MP3 file format yet.



  25. personal avatar

    Hi!…
    well.. why don you create a category only for podcasting?…
    that way you should have a Feed just for it.. like wp-rss2.php?cat=X with X the number of the podcasting category..
    So.. you don’t have to install a separate WP and your podcatching clients will not miss your enclosures…

    …or did i miss something?



  26. personal avatar

    […] Bryan would like you to be nice to your web developers. Owen give us a preview of some new features in WordPress v1.6. Michael is still pounding away at K2 (Kubrick v2). John discovers a legal guide for bloggers. Brian has an obsession with books and television shows about disasters. Khaled ruminates on WordPress admin panels and Shuttle. Phil has some thoughts on rest and practice. Rick receives three packages. Jon discusses Forbes.com and integrated audio. Sarah reports on the most expensive musical instrument ever to be purchased at an auction. Chris provides a short tutorial on podcasting with WordPress. Angsuman would like to hear your input before developing a plugin that would add a copyright notice to your WordPress feeds. And, Mark reviews Batman Begins. […]



  27. personal avatar

    […] Pretty Pink Ponies Edition… » Podcasting with WordPress […]



  28. personal avatar

    It works Chris.

    I tried it yesterday to upload a Podcast (about Out of Office Reply policies - a real hot topic ;-)) and I had the uri back in the amount of time it took to upload the mp3 file!

    The only problem with this solution is you don’t get to see stats on your masterpiece!

    Tom



  29. personal avatar

    Hey Tom,

    My suggestion would be of course to upload and wait for approval before you post on your blog! It only took 24 hours for mine to be approved and ready.. thats not so bad of a lag time all things considered.



  30. personal avatar

    One annoyance about the Internet Archive suggestion is the wait for the uploaded file to be approved. When I post in WordPress I want my content available immediately - having said that, you did mention that you need an actual listenership before your bandwidth starts being affected so I should be ok!



  31. personal avatar

    […] Pretty Pink Ponies Edition… » Podcasting with WordPress (tags: wordpress wp podcast tutorial) […]



  32. personal avatar

    Now that is a nice idea, they might fold, but since IA is used for storage, no problems.

    If the uploading is as fast as you say Pete, then this is a real solution.



  33. personal avatar

    Ah,

    I’m too impatient Chris! I want everything and I want it yesterday!

    As a side note, I created a similar post about blogging on my own site (blatantly ripping off your good work!) and I got a comment mentioning that it is possible to host podcasts on podblaze.com free and they are available immediately. I haven’t tried it out but thought you might be interested.

    Tom



  34. personal avatar

    […] Chris J Davis has posted a very simple 3 step tutorial on how to Podcast using WordPress. […]



  35. personal avatar

    Tom, instead of uploading to the Internet Archive, upload to Ourmedia.org, which uses the Internet Archive for storage, but dramatically speeds up the uploading process. In the last week we’ve been seeing uploads happen pretty much immediately. (Well, 10 or so minutes versus 10+ hours anyway.)



  36. personal avatar

    […] Sembra che il podcasting, di cui abbiamo gia’ parlato qualche giorno fa, stia per arrivare anche nei blog creati con WordPress, e c’e’ chi (come Chris J. Davis) ha addirittura voluto fornire qualche utile consiglio su come inserire parti audio con l’ausilio di semplici software gratuiti disponibili su varie piattaforme. Anche se non conoscete l’inglese, i link sul suo blog vi permetteranno comunque di ascoltare il podcast dimostrativo e scaricare i programmi consigliati. […]



  37. personal avatar

    […]



  38. personal avatar

    I’ve never attempted to a podcast or really any of that, but I’ve heard a couple. They seem cool :)



  39. personal avatar

    Thanks for the very useful guide. I was with you until the last sentence. What the heck does pimp out mean?



  40. personal avatar

    […] Podcasting with WordPress. […]



  41. personal avatar

    I had a heck of a time getting WP to support my enclosure automatically. I decided, meh, and just used the manual method of using the “enclosure” custom field instead. Not sure what happened, I have two links in the post but neither would show as an enclosure automagically.



  42. personal avatar

    […] From Sillyness Buchstabierte Falsch Absichtlich […]



  43. personal avatar

    Much to my own dismay… the problem was on my end of course. Grr. WP worked perfectly ;) Just make sure the link is valid… triple check if you have too :)



  44. personal avatar

    Podcasting is so easy!

    I’m a little (very) non-plussed by the joyful exuberance of the Wordpress community in regards to Podcasting. “Rha-rha, podcasting is sooo easy with WordPress!”. Here is, word for word, apparently THE tutorial on how to podcast “using Wordpress”: …



  45. personal avatar

    […] At this point I was curious to hear a few Podcasts and started doing a bit of searching. The first one that caught my attention coincidentally was recorded by Chris J. Davis and it covered the subject of Podcasting with WordPress. After downloading it and listening to how elegantly simple and un-annoying Chris had done this Podcast I wanted to hear more but didn’t know where to look. […]



  46. personal avatar

    Hi Chris,

    Enjoyed your podcast. The sound quality was Sooooo much better than most.
    What type of microphone were you using? Did you use any special soundcard?

    Thanks,
    Ruth



  47. personal avatar

    […] […]



  48. personal avatar

    Nice tutorial…I have one question. Which software or procedure you use to include the background music?



  49. personal avatar

    […] Easy-peasy:Tutorial […]



  50. personal avatar

    Thanks for the information. I guess that was too easy. I’ve been using a free service who wants to start charging for bandwidth overages. Go figure: one week after they roll-out the ‘pay service’, my podcat results were off the chart. riiiight.

    I see that you mention creating a different feed for the Podcast category. I would like to do exactly that, but cannot figure-out how.

    I’ve been searching the WP forums, but cannot locate help on this.

    Thanks again!
    Alan



  51. personal avatar

    […] Podcasting with WordPress (用WordPress做Podcast)



  52. personal avatar

    […] Now I’ve finally done the mp3-files to podcast Finity Essentials 001, but now I’ve have to just solve the issue how to make the podcast work. Can it really be this easy? […]



  53. personal avatar

    […] These blogs are built using WordPress — IMHO WordPress is the best single user blogging system available (did I mention its free? And that I use it for my other blog as well?). The concept of podcasting has been getting a lot of press — and with Steve’s iTunes 4.9 demo at WWDC it appears as though it could be hitting the mainstream. What most people fail to realize about podcasting is how easy they are to serve up with the right tools. Aside from producing the podcast, getting it out to the Internet with an updated feed is daunting to some people. I came accross this really simple tutorial on how to use WordPress as a podcasting engine … take a look at it. What is so amazing is how easy it really is! Before you know it, you’ll have thousands of listeners, be listed in the iTunes 4.9 Podcasting Directory, and be a media darling. […]



  54. personal avatar

    Thankyou, I now have a much better understanding.
    Have a great day

    G



  55. personal avatar

    Dear Chris,

    Thanks for your post!!

    See, my problem is: I do have a podcast, and it has a nice feed for the AAC episodes. But people are requesting feeds for mp3’s!! How can I create a second feed that directs for the mp3 version of the podcast?

    Cheers,

    Francis



  56. personal avatar

    how about an embedded podcast wherein viewers dont have to download? is a plugin required?



  57. personal avatar

    very handy… thanks for the easy steps.



  58. personal avatar

    Hi Chris,It is very easy guide but it is too simple one .
    but please can you tell me How can I create a second feed that directs for the mp3 version of the podcast?

    Look forward to hearing your response.



  59. personal avatar

    […] Some additional resources: Wordpress’ Site



  60. personal avatar

    Hey. It is very simple and useful. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.



  61. personal avatar

    This solution doesn’t work for me. I’ve followed the steps, but the RSS seems to point to the entry title, which is a WP page, not the link in the post. Ergo, it won’t load the mp3. Any ideas?



  62. personal avatar

    …roject_studio/20051028_12_ways_to_promote_your_podcast.html” target=”_blank”>Promoting Podcasts
    Podcasting with WordPress
    Podcast Directory Podcasting Tutoria…



  63. personal avatar

    Thank you for this post. It is a good introduction for podcasting in wordpress.

    I didn’t understand well how to direct the version .mp3 to podcast. Can you explain it to me, please?

    Thanks,




comment/Body

comment/Meta



media/Flickr





media/LastFM

http://www.last.fm/music/Cake/_/Stickshifts+and+Safetybelts
http://www.last.fm/music/Poor+Old+Lu/_/Bones+are+Breaking
http://www.last.fm/music/Billy+Joel/_/Hey+Girl
http://www.last.fm/music/Gorillaz/_/Feel+Good+Inc
http://www.last.fm/music/ZZ+Top/_/Certified+Blues
http://www.last.fm/music/Da+Vinci%27s+Notebook/_/Blue+Moon
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/_/Can%27t+Buy+Me+Love
http://www.last.fm/music/KISS/_/Nothin%27+to+Lose
http://www.last.fm/music/KISS/_/See+You+Tonight
http://www.last.fm/music/Natasha+Bedingfield/_/These+Words
http://www.last.fm/music/Cake/_/Sheep+Go+to+Heaven
http://www.last.fm/music/Model+Engine/_/Drawing+Lines
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Temptations/_/Sugar+Pie+Honey+Bunch
http://www.last.fm/music/Sting/_/This+Cowboy+Song
http://www.last.fm/music/Barenaked+Ladies/_/The+King+of+Bedside+Manor
http://www.last.fm/music/Billy+Joel/_/The+Downeaster+%27Alexa%27
http://www.last.fm/music/Alanis+Morissette/_/You+Learn
http://www.last.fm/music/Barenaked+Ladies/_/I+Love+You
http://www.last.fm/music/ZZ+Top/_/Waitin%27+for+the+Bus
http://www.last.fm/music/Foo+Fighters/_/Another+Round