Richard Farrar's Blog

Have you ever wondered what a podcast actually is and how it differs from a plain MP3 track? If so, then this article should shed some light on the matter.

In our quest to dissect the true nature of a podcast, it may first be helpful to understand the origins of the word itself. Podcast is actually a combination of two words; iPod and broadcast. Knowing the derivation of the word should give us a clue as to what a podcast is, and by association, what podcasting is all about.

MP3 Players and iPods

While the word iPod was originally used in the derivation of the term podcast, this has more generically come to refer to all MP3 players, regardless of make and model. So don’t think that you can only make use of podcasts if you own an Apple iPod; it’s not the case at all, they will work on pretty much any MP3 player or personal computer, in fact anything that can play an MP3 file.

Broadcasting

As the word podcast is an amalgamation of the words iPod and broadcast, it may also help us to define what is typically considered to be a broadcast. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, broadcast is defined as:

disseminate (news, music, etc.) by radio or television

In this definition, radio and television are two examples of media through which the information (the news or music) is transmitted or disseminated to the consumer (listener or viewer).

The key point is that information is sent (e.g. news) from the author or content provider (e.g. the BBC) to numerous users through some delivery mechanism (e.g. radio).

Internet Broadcasting

While broadcasting has traditionally been considered to be either via radio or television, we now have a new medium for the global transmission and transfer of information, the internet.

So, looking at the definition of a podcast again with the new transmission systems available on the internet (e.g. e-mail, web pages etc.), podcasting can be considered to be broadcasting information through the internet to MP3 players. Typically, this information will be a non-musical audio file in MP3 format.

How does a Podcast Differ from an MP3?

Well, in some ways it doesn’t, in other ways it does, but the difference is quite subtle.

For example, you could download an MP3 recording of your favourite radio show from a web page on to your MP3 player, and listen to it at your convenience. This is considered to be a podcast in loose terms, even though you’re just downloading a plain MP3 track from the web. However, in this example, you are going to find and fetch the MP3 track yourself, where as in traditional broadcasting mechanisms, the track would be sent directly to you.

A true podcast is sent directly to you. The podcast file could be sent to you directly, but to save on bandwidth and associated costs, the podcaster will normally just send you a link to the podcast for you to download at your convenience.

Isn’t this just like the previous example? Well not really, as you are sent the information about the new podcast becoming available instead of having to hunt for it. Very subtle I know.

You may be sent this information by an e-mail, if you have subscribed to a mailing list, but by far the most common mechanism for distributing podcasts is by RSS feeds. If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, don’t worry, as a previous article on this blog explains all about them, helpfully titled: What is RSS?

In Summary

So, in summary, as broadcasting is the dissemination of audio or video through a communication channel like radio, then podcasting is simply a way of disseminating audio or video files in common formats (e.g. MP3) via the internet for later playback on your MP3 player or PC and a podcast is essentially one of these files transferred over the internet, usually via an RSS feed.

Clear as mud! Or if you’re still really confused, let’s just simplify it:

Podcast = MP3

or

MP3 = Podcast

…when you want it to be.