The Podcasting for Communities’ podcast is part of a project that includes the podcastingfor.com blog and the Podcasting For Communities' e-book which you can find on Amazon. There are links on the blog: www.podcastingfor.com   In this episode, Davy Sims talks to rock journalist and podcaster Mitch Lafon. He has been writing and then podcasting about music since he was 11 years old.   One on One with Mitch Lafon offers something that many music podcasts don’t. I have mentioned several times in earlier episodes that using music on podcasts can be problematic – rights, costs, permissions all can be difficult. But even though Mitch is talking to musicians – he doesn’t use music. Instead he allows his interviewees time to expand on their ideas. He also runs the full interviews, with a minimal amount of editing and tidying.   If you are starting out in podcasting there are several very useful tips here including planning an interview, relationships with your interviewee and your listeners and managing your reputation.   There is a lot more too.   Find Mitch here:   Youtube   Facebook   Twitter   iTunes   Spreaker     Davy Sims davysims.com        You can download or subscribe to the podcast from iTunes   The Book – Podcasting for Communities Podcasting for Communities is not meant to be a book you begin reading at page one and work your way through. It is intended to be something you refer to when you want to understand or learn more about radio production and podcasting. The book is available for Kindle from Amazon.  

How long should a podcast be?

When I was about 12 or 13 and at school, a teacher would tell the class to write an essay or a report on something or another and the first question from my classmates would be “Sir, sir” – they were almost all sirs. “Sir, how long sir?” When we were younger the answer would be one or two pages. When we got older the length was measured in words. 500 words was a lot. 1000 words was a punishment.

Pity the poor teacher who had to read 30 500 word essays or worse 30000 badly written and smudged words, scribbled in exercise books as quickly as we possible could.

We were not thinking about our audience. If we were, we would probably have done a better job, and got a better mark.

In radio, we are trained to work in blocks. A commercial radio station might work in 12 or 15 minute segment. BBC tended to work in 15, 30, 45 and 60 minute segments which included announcements, credits and time removed to trailing other programmes. These days the shortest scheduled radio programme I know is BBC Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day at just two minutes.

If a programme is too long it will “Crash the pips”. That is get caught up in the Greenwich time signal. No? The noise that goes: pip, pip, pip, pip, pip, piiip. Too short and there will be dead air – silence. Crashing the pips and dead air are the second greatest sins of radio the first two are failing to turn up on time and swearing in front of a microphone.

You don’t get those sins in podcasting. Except being too long because you have taken a lazy approach to editing. Or being too short and you don’t tell all the story you set out to do.

Put the listener first. The only important time, is the time you are going to talk from them. Make their time worthwhile.

People listen to podcasts differently. I have often sat in my car to hear the end of a programme or interview. Now, I can catch up on demand. If I am enjoying a podcast, I might listen to the end, but if I must stop listening, I’ll return to the story next time.

So don’t get too obsessed about the length. Focus on the narrative, the story you want to tell or your interview wants to tell. Edit out all that distracts from the story. Add pauses and music and your own commentary as you need them to move the story along.

When it’s finished, check the duration. Does it feel right? Can you remove more?

And you will have your own variation on the quotation, “I’m sorry this podcast is so long, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.”

In this series I’m  talking to podcasters, producers, writers and broadcasters about their work and their approach to podcasting. In this episode I’m talking to Belfast journalist Malachi O’Doherty who I have known and worked with for around 30 years.  His was one of the first voices in this series.   For the price a pot of tea and a bowl of soup Belfast’s legendary Book Finders shop and cafe allowed Malachi and me sit for over an hour to talk and think about what it is that we do.   Malachi is an early adopter of putting audio on his websites – long before podcasting existed he was using the web to archive his work. Trying to Malachi into any convenient category is far from easy. His work, hobbies and interests constantly overlap. But the core is journalism. Malachi is always searching for a story to tell. He is a podcaster, photographer, journalist, writer, commentator in print and broadcast media. But he uses the web as his archive where he shares more than just reports.   Some people may know Malachi as a columnist for the Belfast Telegraph. I first met him when he was a freelance radio reporter in BBC Radio Ulster . He still reports and makes documentaries.   Malachi loves the kit: a fountain pen, a crisp new notebook, a Sony audio recorder, an SLR camera. He enjoys the platform and the format, YouTube, Podcast, Belfast Telegraph, Speaking to a crowd in a lecture theatre.   Chiefly he is a story teller; he has more stories to tell than there is time to tell them all. And a good podcaster is a story teller.   Links to Malachi's work: Facebook Twitter Malachi with an eye Malachiodoherty.com YouTube   Old sites: www.myowntwowheels.com www.thestreet.ie www.artstalk.net   Music in this edition From the Free Music Archive.   Downhill Racer– Blue Dot Sessions     A Calendar Spread– Blue Dot Sessions     Whispering Poetry @Jukedeck   Davy Sims davysims.com     You can download or subscribe to the podcast from iTunes   The Book – Podcasting for Communities   Podcasting for Communities is not meant to be a book you begin reading at page one and work your way through. It is intended to be something you refer to when you want to understand or learn more about radio production and podcasting. The book is available for Kindle from Amazon.  

 

Once again we turn our attention to music.   I like music. I like music in podcasts. But as I have pointed out on the blog and in earlier episodes, using music is complicated.   You can’t use just any song or instrumental, unless you have a license and that can cost a lot of money – see the blogpost on PRS.   In an earlier podcast I spoke to Cheyenne Hohman of the Free Music Archive which is a fantastic resource of over 100,000 pieces of music, many of them free to used in a podcast or video.   In London a new start up called Jukedeck is using artificial intelligence to create unique music. Anyone can use it – musician or not.  And there is no cost.

All the music used in this edition of the podcast comes from Jukedeck.

  The website says “Unlike other music sites, we give you our music completely royalty-free. Once you’ve downloaded it, it’s yours to do with as you please - you’ll never pay any royalties.”   Jukedeck has its origins at Cambridge University, where a team of composers, producers, engineers, academics and machine learning experts got together.   There is a pricing plan if you want a more serious relationship with Jukedeck. So for example if you subscribe to Jukedeck Gold, you can download your music with higher quality audio - in WAV form instead of MP3.   Find out more about Jukedeck at jukedeck.com.   If you want to learn about podcasting you can find out more than you ever thought you needed in the book Podcasting For Communities on Amazon.   More details at podcastingfor.com  

 

You can download or subscribe to the podcast from iTunes

 

The Book – Podcasting for Communities

Podcasting for Communities is not meant to be a book you begin reading at page one and work your way through. It is intended to be something you refer to when you want to understand or learn more about radio production and podcasting. The book is available for Kindle from Amazon.

 

Lets talk about Music   In this edition of Podcasting For I’m talking to Cheyenne Hohman, the Managing Director of the Free Music Archive   When I started planning this Podcasting For podcast, I searched around the Internet to find music I could use. I knew expensive licences were needed for using commercial music. Read about using commercial music here in the article about PRS.  
So I searched “rights free music”. Many of the sites I found offered music that was rights free, but you still needed to buy a licence – sometimes an expensive one.
 
Then I searched “open source music” and found a treasure trove called the Free Music Archive. That’s where I found the music I use in the Podasting For podcast – Cloudline from the Blue Dot sessions.
 
There was a massive resource of all types and genres of music. I was a happy as a pig in well, you know.
 
  But I wanted to find out more, I wanted to know if I could recommend the Free Music Archive at freemusicarchive.org to other podcasters – but also to friends who love to explore music – and right away I can say, yes I do recommend it.   Cheyenne told me about the site, where it emerged from, how music lover, podcasters, video makers and musicians use it.  
If you are not a podcaster, but love to explore music, freemusicarchive.org is a place to expand your music experience.   Find out more than you thought you ever needed to know at podcastingfor.com or search Amazon for the ebook Podcasting for Communities.
The Book – Podcasting for Communities
 
Podcasting for Communities is not meant to be a book you begin reading at page one and work your way through. It is intended to be something you refer to when you want to understand or learn more about radio production and podcasting. The book is available for Kindle from Amazon.   It is equally relevant to community radio broadcasters, producers and managers

About 20 years ago  some of us had our first experience building websites with Angelfire  and Geocities. They gave ordinary untrained people their first chance to be creative on the web. Yes, many of the early websites we built were ugly – well, mine were. They were certainly unplanned and a bit embarrassing.   As people developed their skills, so the websites improved.   I think that is just where we are now with podcasting. People are hearing about podcasts. They are subscribing, downloading and listening to them. And now they are making podcasts. Now, everyone can make their own radio programmes. We can all be podcasters now because the production tools have never been so cheap (and free!). You can experiment with podcasting without having to spend any money. Even listing our podcasts  on iTunes is simpler than ever before. There are more tools available to us and they are easier to understand.   So, why should community groups and organisations start podcasting? First – podcasting is mobile. People listen on the go; walking, running, driving. If you want to reach busy people podcasting can be a very direct – and intimate - way of doing it   You can use podcasting to talk directly to people who make things happen.
 
Who are the people who really need to know what your organisation is up to? Politicians, decision makers, grant making bodies, local businesses who you want to recruit as supporters and funders?   You might want to change government policy. There might be something going on that concerns the community and you want to bring that to the attention of people who can do something about it. You might want to campaign for change. These are all vital community exercises and a podcast – while it’ll not fix a problem alone – is one of the tools you can use to get those people to listen to you, especially people in power and perhaps even the mainstream media.   You might just want to promote your organisation, tell people what you are up to, recruit new members, get talked about in a positive way. Organisations need promotion and publicity. They need people to know about the difference they are making.   A podcast can get directly to your audience without having to ask the support of other media.   So what do you say and how do you say it? Well, you don’ t berate and bark, shout and complain. You don’t want to boast or brag, either. As much as you might want to do all of those things. Your listener is just going to switch off.   You should tell stories, stories about people, their lives and experiences. You need to carefully chose those stories and use words and voices to conjure up images. Podcasting done well is storytelling. You can use the audio along with your blog or website to tell your story for others to hear and understand. Be interesting, be amusing, captivate your listener, charm your listener. In a world where media seems almost entirely video driven, tell stories in your own words to inspire the cinema of the mind.   Find out more than you thought you ever needed to know at podcastingfor.com or search Amazon for the ebook Podcasting for Communities.  

There are two versions of this edition. This is the shorter one. The other is the downloadable version. You can find it on Johnny Seifert's page on podcastingfor.com. In the longer version my guest Johnny Seifert spends extra time talking about editing on Audacity. Stick with us, all will be explained.

Johnny Seifert is part of the production team at TalkRADIO in London.

He is the showbiz expert and a producer on the Paul Ross Full Set Breakfast show. For his day to day work, he does the recorded and live showbiz bulletins, and he books and interviews celebrity guests.  He also produces a weekly podcast made from the best bits from Paul Ross’s show.   He is something of a radio enthusiast as well as being an award winning radio professional and a member of the Radio Academy.   Johnny’s a radio producer and that’s what I wanted to talk to him about. I wanted to hear what it is that he does to produce a podcast. That’s mostly in a studio cutting and mixing audio.   He talks about structure, planning and mixing a podcast and he talks about editing on Audacity in the longer version of this podcast.   In the book Podcasting for Communities, there is a long section on structure, … how and what to plan, simple approaches and more complex structures. But don’t get caught up in that as you are starting out. Sometimes the structure is no more than "Hello --- Here’s the story --- Bye bye".   One of the thornier problems for you and me is using music. TalkRADIO and other professional radio stations will have licences for playing music. You and I can buy a licence, but they are expensive.   You can read about using commercial music on your podcasts here in this article about the Performing Rights Society.   Johnny also talks about microphones and recording on an iPhone. There is more about microphones and audio recording here.   This is Johnny’s Web Page Follow him here on Twitter The Paul Ross Full Set Breakfast show is here

Just yesterday, I got a call from a young magazine publisher. He had heard about Podcasting for Communities from a mutual friend and wanted to find out how to start a podcast for the magazine.

He said that they had been thinking about it for a while and wanted to ask me about what equipment he should buy.

That's where a lot of people think the starting point is. To be honest, so did I at one time. But it is not. The starting point is exactly the same as any other project - you don't buy the kit before you know what you want to do.

You start with The Purpose. Yep, you and the people you're starting out with might be all excited about the shiny new things - and let's face it, who wouldn't be? - but that is for a little later on.

Larry Gifford has had an extensive radio career in the USA and now in Canada. He produces The Radio Stuff Podcast. He says that having an intention is really important. Larry told me in an interview you can find here on podcastingfor.com that the intention for The Radio Stuff was and is to connect radio lovers around the world and share great ideas and be positive about the radio industry. He told me "It's really about following our curiosities and talking to interesting people.”

If you are in a community group, discuss the project with the whole team so everyone buys into the idea. Even if you are a one person operation – many podcasters are – you should still think this through for yourself. And yes, write it down and every few weeks, re-read the purpose and ask, “Is this what we're really doing?." And maybe once every six months ask yourself if the purpose is still relevant. As other volunteers join your team you can talk to them about the purpose and describe what it is you are all trying to achieve together.

Once that's sorted out, you are probably going to think about the format or formats you are going to use. You'll be a few steps closer to the shiny new things.

As your podcast or project continues, you are going to wonder if you are having any impact. Only you can define what you want to achieve with your project.

Even though seems like early days, this is also the time to decide how you are going to evaluate the podcast. To know if you're making any difference, you need to know what to measure. I strongly suggest you build in how you are going to evaluate the podcast at this early stage.

The magazine publisher was off to a good start. The magazine had a very specific purpose. We talked about that and began to discuss formats.

What's the takeaway from this? Podcasting is like any other project you do. If you want to start something, start at the beginning.

It’s more than 10 years since Olly Mann began podcasting. He’s now one of the most prolific and popular podcasters in the UK. When he and Helen Zaltzman started Answer Me This, hardly anyone knew what a podcast was.

 

When the Guardian stopped making their weekly media podcast, Olly, who was a contributor became part of the team that established The Media Podcast which is still going strong.

 

To The Media Podcast, you can add The Guardian's Tech Weekly, and more recently his new podcast The Modern Mann plus his work in radio.

 

Olly has plenty of advice for podcasters who are just starting out.

 

The whole show this time is an interview with Olly Mann.

 

This edition of the Podcasting for is all about recording audio. I’m talking to an old friend Willis McBrier – we talk a lot.  The conversation is in two parts.  

 

First it’s about sound itself, ambience, record levels, psychoacoustics.

 

In the second, we talk microphones and there are some examples of what a podcaster might use.

 

Willis McBrier lectures  in Creative Media at Belfast Metropolitan College. His career began over 30 years ago at the BBC as a broadcast and communications engineer and more recently, a trainer.

 

Sound … the recording of sound … the creation of sound … the celebration of sound and music runs in Willis’s family.  Both his daughter and son have their own music projects: Sarah runs an Audio Visual Arts festival of electronic music   Audio Visual Arts and Matt is a music entrepreneur – his project is called Feel My Bicep.

 

Willis and I met in Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre.  A place that also celebrates sound in particular the history of music in Northern Ireland.  And it nurtures new music in Belfast and beyond.

 

The music is Cloudline from the Blue Dot Sessions’ Album K4 – you can find it on the Free Music Archive: that’s freemusicarchive.org

 

I’m using it under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Licence.