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MAKE: Blog: Audible does Podcasts - the complete guide (and HOW TO)

Phillip goes through Audible's podcasting support in great detail noting a great many of the issues with it.

I think I may have the same problem with the formats, especially if iTunes does this as well. Right now, I'm preparing for a day visit to Montreal and am loading my Pocket PC with podcasts. If I had downloaded an ACC file, I would be out of luck.

Podcasts as a distribution method need to be free (unless they ARE DRM'd - not the other way around). All of the companies offering this need to figure that out a bit better, if Phillip's take is any indication.

MAKE: Blog: Audible does Podcasts - the complete guide (and HOW TO)

Comments

Ted Roche said…
"Podcasts as a distribution method need to be free (unless they ARE DRM'd - not the other way around)."

Free as in... ?

If you mean the audio codec needs to be free from patents and encumbrances, then you would need to use .OGG, since MP#s are a patented technology of Fraunhaufer that can only be used with a paid license (your media player vendor paid it). Or do you mean "free" as in "not AAC?" Isn't that why it's a PODcast?
June 29, 2005 at 1:50 PM
Andrew MacNeill said…
"free" as a distribution method.

A "podcast" does not require an iPod despite the name.

The issue that I had was that if I download a podcast from Audible, it needs to be done so that I can easily move it to my device for listening.

If you read Phillip's guide, you'll see that because Audible DRMs them.
From the article:
"Now on to some bad news for folks like me. You can't convert the file you bought to MP3. Since I have a ton of devices that support MP3, but not AA, I'm out of luck. You can burn the file to a CD, but from what I've read, you can only do that once. I tend to think the type of customer who buy audio over the web is pretty good with computers and if they have many computers, MP3 playing phones, etc...

There are, or "were" programs to convert the AA format to MP3, but it seems like Audible went after them?"

He then went on to copy the file to his PC and try it from there, but once again it wouldn't work.

I think this is going to be the issue with getting the larger software to support podcasts properly and in some way you can understand it.

If they are going to make the changes in their infrastructure to support Podcasting, then they should have the "right"(?) to want it to run on their own system.

Audible's approach will likely work best for those authors who choose to do podcasts through their network to make $$.

On your other point, Ted, I didn't mean that the codec should be pree from patents - just the distribution method.

On that note, I heard..(oh I'll just post about it - excellent talk by Lawrence Lessig)
June 30, 2005 at 6:12 AM
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