Blog Relations

Millions of people found an iPod in their Christmas stockings and will be listening to podcasts on the move, but I still think it’s important for podcasters to have a “Listen Now” option, so that people can sample your podcast without downloading. It takes time down to download, and some users are reluctant to clutter up their hard drives with heavy audio files. Quite a few are wary of downloading a virus.

Here are four “Listen Now” options for podcasters.

1) The del.icio.us engine.
This is a line of script which you put in the header template of your blog. Get it here. This creates a little blue icon by each and every audio link. Pressing it plays the audio file using flash movie.

Pros Every post has a listen now option and your feed validates. It’s one line of script which you insert once, and the rest is automatic.
Cons It significantly slows down the time it takes for users to load your page. It’s not obvious to all what the little blue icon means.

2) Pupuplayer
Pupuplayer is another flash option. You put it in your sidebar, rather than each and every post. Pupu reads your podcast feed. It generates a “Listen Now” button. If you press it, it starts playing your latest podcast. There is a play list of earlier ones. The free version contains adverts – but nothing offensive. For $10 you can customise it with your logo.

Pros. You just put the code in once and you are done. It generates a nice play list. There are a choice of looks.
Cons Your users need to have flashplayer – not everyone does. It usually works well, but sometimes there’s trouble loading.

3) Podcast Pickle Player
The Podcast directory, Podcast Pickle, offers you a Pickle Player for each of your posts. You enter the url of the file you want it to play, and it generates some code for your post. I’ve not installed it, but these are my impressions.

Pros It’s a post by post option – which is convenient for the user – and generates the player icon for you.
Cons The Pickle Player part of the icon might be a bit confusing for the user. You have to enter the code each time you publish.

4) Streaming Media Playlist.
If you use a web host that offers streaming media, you can create a playlist (an M3U file) and put it in your sidebar. This is what generates Blog Relations “Play Podcast” button. (We use Bluehost which offers streaming media.)

I create the Playlist using WinAmp and each time we publish a podcast, I enter the URL of the audio file, re-save and upload. There is a link to the playlist in our left sidebar and a background image for the “Play Podcast” button.

If you press the “Play Podcast” button, the latest podcast will start playing in your default media player – say RealPlayer. There is also a play list of earlier editions.

Pros People are familiar with their own Media Player. One day you might add some slides to play with your audio. You can design your own icon to fit in with your blog. It doesn’t slow your web page. Your users don’t need to have Flash Player. The engine runs off your own server, not a third party that might be down or running slowly.
Cons You have to update it manually each time you publish – although Winamp makes this fairly simple. You don’t always see the play list on the media player without another click. Your web host needs to offer streaming media.

It probably takes me a couple of minutes to update our playlist when we publish a podcast.

I was relieved to drop the Del.ic.ious option from our Storynory podcast. The pages load up so much more quickly now.

Any one got any other “play now” solutions? Please drop us a comment, or do a post on your blog and we will link back to you if you let us know about it.