Getting music into your podcast with Audacity

I’m still talking to myself…err I mean I’m still podcasting. Last week after writing up the post I set about trying to figure out how to get music into my podcast. I succeeded in doing so and I wanted to share.

First thing you need to do is find the music that you want to put into your podcast. If you plan on taking your podcast to the big time you’d better make sure that you have permission to use the music that you are putting in (even if you don't go big it's probably best to get legal music). Once you have decided on the music you need to pull it into Audacity. Simply put you just open the file in Audacity (File->Open)

Once you have opened the file you will have a track in Audacity just as if you had recorded something. From here you need to decide which part of the music you want. I just chose the opening of a song (first 20 seconds I believe). So from there I cut the rest of the song out so all I have is the first 20 seconds. You may want to add an effect to the music so that it fades out. Additionally I would recommend that you play with the volume for that track. I found out in my experimentations that the music was drowning out my voice so I lowered the volume on the track (perhaps to low now that I go back and listen to it.)

Once you have your music setup all you need to do is press the record button. Once you press the record button your music will begin playing and you can begin recording.

I haven’t figured out how to get music into the middle of a podcast or at the end, but once again if I do I’ll let everyone know.

Enjoy podcasting.

The iPod turns 5

Engadget takes a brief look at the 5th birthday of the iPod. While it wasn't the first mp3 player, it certainly revolutionised the consumer electronics industry.

For a bit of nostalgia, check out Jobs' original launch presentation. Great stuff.

Further thoughts on podcasting

So I’ve now produced 2 podcasts and I’m about to record my third podcast (you can download them here: http://www.strengthnews.net/podcast/. Both of them have gone fairly smoothly, but I’ve not been trying to do anything out of the norm. They are what I’d call “raw and unedited”. Here’s some thoughts that might serve you well if your planning on doing a podcast.

Know what you are going to talk about. There’s only so much “ahhs” and “ummms” and dead air that people can stand. I think I do a decent job of avoiding these, but I still find myself doing it. I would probably do a bunch more of it if I didn’t write down what I wanted to say. For a podcast of less than 10 minutes, like mine, I think you really only need to jot down the main idea. However if you are going to go for a much longer podcast you’d better look at putting more thoughts into your ideas and fleshing them out.

Talking to your self is a bit weird. I don’t know how I’d do a podcast longer than 10 minutes with only myself. For myself if I was going to go much longer than 10 minutes I’d have to do some sort of intro or fancy up the podcast (music, intro’s, exits etc).

I’ve been using Audacity to record my podcasts. It does a pretty good job, but I think there’s a learning curve to it and I’ve not yet found it. On the podcast I’m going to try and record today I want to include some music. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that or not, but if I am I’ll let you know.

Despite not posting in awhile that’s what I’ve got for you at this time. If I figure out how to get music in using Audacity I’ll let everyone know how I did it.

Enjoy podcasting!

Demise of the Starbucks podcast

The Podonomics Blog has an interesting piece on the fact that the Starbucks podcast has been abandoned after only 3 episodes, potential reasons for the failure and some suggestions for other companies considering making a similar move. Very interesting.

Incidentally, if you're looking for a great coffee-related podcast, go no further than CoffeeGeek. If you've never heard it, you're in for a treat.

International Podcasting Expo 2006

If you missed last month's Podcast & Portable Media Expo, take a look at this. The International Podcasting Expo is an online event (so there's no travelling involved) with some great speakers. Sorry about the short notice - it's on this weekend. Wherever you are.

Podcast ad on TV

Noticed an ad for a local podcast (Channel Nine News) this evening on TV; which is definitely a good thing. The TV advertising that is, not the podcast in question.

Does this mean it's commercially viable? Not yet. But it's a good start.

Autofill Podcasts on an iPod Shuffle

Recently I purchased a device largely for the purpose of listening to Podcasts - an iPod Shuffle. Up until then I'd assumed (always a slightly foolish move) that it'd be a simple matter of getting iTunes to keep me hooked up with the latest episodes of my favourite podcasts.

Downloading them is great. Syncing them to the Shuffle isn't.

Poking around for more information on this - with the vague notion that there must be a solution out there somewhere - I came across this enlightening post by Matt Taylor. Problem solved.

2 Degrees of content

When putting together your podcast you have to think about what you want your topic to be. As I see it there’s 2 ways in which you can do this. The first way, and the way that I’m taking with my podcasting, is to take a topic that you know about and are passionate about. This makes things so much easier. The second route and the one less traveled is to choose a topic that you know nothing about or very little about. In this type of situation you are forced to produce and learn about your topic. I can see where this would make you more passionate about your posting because you are learning as you go along.

Once you have chosen your topic to podcast about you need to get more in depth content for your podcast. This may not apply to personal podcasts, but for those that are speaking about a specific topic, you may need to come up with content. Some areas for content are pretty obvious: blogs, newspapers and other websites. Below I have listed some other areas in which you can get content.

Google News – This is more a combination of papers, but the best thing about this is that you can RSS it and watch it.

Forums – Forums are great areas for discussions that can be hot topics.

Interviews – If you know a professional in your topic see if you can interview them. You’ll need special equipment to do this, but it can be done (I’ll discuss this later).

Re-download podcasts in iTunes without subscribing again

For whatever reason, occasionally a podcast download in iTunes stops part-way; leaving you stuck with a partial file. iTunes merrily tells you that it has the entire download, though when an entire episode of Diggnation comes in at a whopping 2min 11secs you have to wonder.

There's no obvious way (at least on the Windows version) to get iTunes to re-download the file. An anonymous poster to MacOSXHints found the solution (short of unsubscribing/resubscribing, which is annoying at best):

In the 'Podcasts' section of iTunes, click the arrow to expand the episode listing of the podcast in question. Select and delete (Windows: Delete button | Mac: Backspace key) the offending episode. If prompted to relegate your partial file to the trash, do so. You won't be needing it again.

Click the arrow again to close the listing.


Now, this is the crucial part. Hold down the Shift | Option button whilst clicking the arrow to expand the listing. This will force an update of the podcast, and the formerly deleted entry will reappear with a shiny new Get button beside it. Simply re-download the episode, kick back and enjoy.

You got to perform

I’m sitting here getting ready to create my first podcast and I’m nervous. Why am I nervous one might be asking themselves? Well here’s why: I am not a performer nor am I someone that likes to be in front of the spotlight. I’m sure I’m not the only one like this, there has to be at least a couple of other people like me, right?

I’ve been thinking about this all day trying to figure out how to get over this nervousness and along the way I discovered how to get over it. The simple answer is just get over it. There’s no other way. But there is actually more to it than that I’ve discovered. Well at least for me. I’ve wanted to be a writer for a long time which I consider putting yourself out there in the spotlight. I’ve let a few people see what I have written, but not enough to get comfortable with it. Photography on the other hand is different. I used to hate having my picture taken. But I took up digital photography a few years ago and I snapped away at just about anything in site (as my hard drives can attest to). Somewhere along the line I didn’t mind being in front of the camera. I still don’t take a good picture, something to do with not smiling or always scowling, but I honestly don’t mind it. I actually kind of enjoy it when given the chance. So I’m really hoping that by just jumping into podcasting and doing it, I will come around and not feel like a total fool by talking to no one.

So I’m off to “just do it”. We’ll see how it turns out.