The end of podcasting, chapter 60

Well, my faithful readers, it’s time for the next chapter of my ongoing documentary of the end of podcasting (it’s been over a year since I last addressed this topic!). I listened to a podcast on podcasting recently (saw it on Dave Winer’s linkblog), and suddenly felt myself turning into Keith Olbermann….no….stop…stop!….

Recently, I finished listening to an episode of the On The Media podcast, which had two stories about podcasting. The first story was something of an origin story, and was glad that Dave Winer and Adam Curry got a mention. It was interesting that Kevin Marks was a featured interviewee, as a person who created a script to copy podcasts to iPods back in the early 2000s. I have not thought of Kevin as someone who was a primary or secondary player in the development of podcasting, so it was curious how he made it into this segment. The show focused on the impact Apple has had on podcasting, with the main feature being that Apple maintains a directory of podcasts based on submissions from podcast producers. This is it? This is how Apple controls podcasting? The producers left out how there is another podcast directory maintained by Adam Curry and his group PodcastIndex.org. The producers also seemed to forget that there are some little things called…wait for it… search engines…I think one of them is called Google…The second story was about the business of podcasting, reviewing the ups and downs of the “podcasting industry” since 2014, and the cost of producing “prestige podcasts” (I had never heard that before!) or long-form journalism podcasts as opposed to “talk show” podcasts or other interview podcasts requiring much less resources to produce. I am sorry to have to bring this up – but – WHO CARES? Do people write stories about production company problems for television networks or streaming services? Do people get upset that Disney+ has not made a profit? Why do people think that the podcasting industry is a “darling” that should be mourned over or lamented about economic downturns? Get a life, people! If an organization is spending more money than it brings in income, they either figure out ways to increase revenue or cut expenses, or say goodbye! The technical term, I believe is called “business”. Whether it is a publicly funded organization (NPR, WNYC) or commercial companies (Spotify, Gimlet Media, iHeart), the business aspects are the same. Let’s get out there and compete people! Come on!
Keith Olbermann taking over this post…

Whew…what happened? Hmm, looks like someone named Keith left me a podcast….wonder what it sounds like?

This morning I remembered that I used to read a feed of photos from Flickr for a river of news site I created. I found that feed and added it to my River5 install, generated a river file, and created a photocasting site with the flow of photos from Flickr, using the same code from my artcasting site – excellent!

While I was looking at the page for the FeedLand WordPress plugin, noticed this list of feed OPML files…interesting….

WordPress plugin to get content from FeedLand – I should try this out sometime…

Staying away from the shopping crowds, listening to the iHeart Christmas Jazz channel to get in the spirit!

Did some more work on my artcasting site today, figured out how the riverBrowser package renders each item from a River5 river file, added a new utility function to riverbrowser.js to get the enclosure URL and create HTML to display the picture – looks good!

Decided to shift my artcasting focus to creating a river of art (think River of News or the current “news product” feature in FeedLand). I created a new River5 river file and have the first cut displaying at artcasting.andysylvester.com – still need to modify the riverBrowser toolkit to display the images.

Followup on artcasting test – I did not see anything appear on the admin page of my MyStatusTool install. Checked to see that I could read one of the BlueSky art feeds using reallySimple, that worked. Looked at the myItems.json file from my server, did not see any items there, so I am wondering if the rssCloud part of the BlueSky art feeds is working. Will continue to investigate…

Decided to try reading artcasting feeds in MyStatusTool (following Colin Walker and Dave Winer’s lead). I noticed, however, in the artcasting test feed that there is no cloud element, which MyStatusTool relies on for updates. Looked at Dave Winer’s river of art feeds, saw they had the cloud element, and added them into my feed list. Will check periodically to see if I see anything…

Adding podcast cover art to a WordPress podcast

When I decided to create the Georgia v. Trump podcast, I wanted to have a more professional look, with some cover art. In my previous podcasts, I did not do anything extra, so the title in the RSS feed was all that would appear in my podcast app.

I was going to use WordPress for the website and the podcast, since I have used WordPress for other podcasts. I looked at the settings for the site theme, but did not see anything that let me add an image to the feed, so I decided to look for a plugin to help.

Before that, I looked into ways to create the podcast cover art. I tried Edit.org, and was able to create an initial image. Next, I looked at several WordPress plugins that supported podcasting features. The first I tried was Seriously Simple Podcasting, but it was not as simple as the plugin title. I also had some problems with post settings and image settings, so I decided to look for another plugin, and went with Simple Podcasting. With this plugin, I was able to add an image for the podcast feed, add a podcast block within a post, and use the regular post structure for podcast posts.

During testing, I wanted to update the podcast cover art. The previous graphics tool created images that were smaller than the minimum size for Apple Podcasts, so I went with Canva. I still had to use Microsoft Paint 3D to resize from 3000 to 2000 pixels to get the image to display properly in PocketCasts. My final test was to make sure that the post text would show up in PocketCasts. It took 3 posts before I could see the text. if I had been more patient, the post text probably would have showed up on its own. I know from some previous WordPress troubleshooting that my hosting company Bluehost sometimes caches RSS feed updates.

I hope this helps future podcasters to see that WordPress provides an adequate platform for hosting a podcast – no need to use Libsyn or other podcast hosting services (at least until you have the audience of a Joe Rogan….)!