What Is Podcast? A Quick Start Guide to Podcasting, Online Radio, Free Music, Podcast Download, Video Podcast and How to Make a Podcast

A podcast feed is a way of sharing files over the internet. It involves the use of a small, machine readable file that is regularly updated to reflect changes in the files available for downloading. The internet addresses of these files are embedded into the feed file and can be automatically downloaded when wished. At this time, podcasting tends to refer to the use of feeds to share only media files. Podcasting originally occurred as a way to share audio mp3 files, and has only recently begun incorporating video into podcasts. However, the technology that allows the files to be shared is not limited to such media files and there is no reason that other files may be shared via podcast in the future.

Today, however, a podcast feed tends to refer to the use of a feed to share media files. Most podcasts are done with audio files, and the individual files that are created and shared are called episodes. These audio files may contain a variety of things; there is music, comedy, news, technology, even podcasts about wine. Podcasting, because of the low entry cost, especially for audio podcasting allows nearly anyone who believes they have something to say to broadcast it over the internet.