Spine Breakers Podcast - Taking ideas

Coldguy

After a long and tedious journey, I can finally say that a podcast idea I had for over 6 months has finally arrived:

Spine Breakers on TGWTG.com

I know the audio is bad, getting that taken care of for the second episode. However I would like to ask the book readers on here if there is anything I can include or remove to make the podcast more appealing to readers. Any suggestions and idea are appreciated, let me know what you think.

Luke Burrage

First, you should fix that link.

Luke Burrage

Quick tip before I even get around to listening to it: Sort out your titles and ID3 tags right now!

Not every single person downloads podcasts via iTunes, which re-titles and stores the audio files using the information in the RSS feed. Many, many, many people, even regular listeners, download each episode with their browser, then transfer the file to a player.

So the following instructions goes for anyone starting a new podcast. You have the name of your podcast, right? Good. Now make sure you do the following from the very first episode:

- Begin the file name with the name of your podcast. If the name is really long, go for an acronym.
- The next part of your file name should be the episode number. This should be at least three digits long. Start with 001.
- The last part of your file name should be the topic or title of the episode.

If you do the above, the collected files from your podcast line up perfectly in any list of files, on immediate import into any software, etc. If you start at "1" and go on to "2", when you get to "11" it'll be listed before "2" in many situations.

And so, even without ID3 tag information, you listeners will be able to quickly see what is what.

On to ID3 tags:

- Make sure the "genre" is set to "Podcast"! Spine Breakers is a blues track! WTF?
- Make sure the track number matches the episode number. Spine Breakers has no info here.
- List the hosts and the guests in Artist category.
- Make sure the album info is the same in EVERY podcast from then on.
- Set the year to the year you published the podcast.
- Adding artwork is nice, but not crucial. iTunes and iPods like it though, as they display really nicely.

By the way, all of this takes seconds in iTunes. The only problem is that it can change the name of the file (not a bad thing) to include the track number at the start (the bad thing). In this case, just copy the file to a different location and change the name before you upload it.

Coldguy

Advice

Thanks for the tips, yea I had help with the last podcast hence the tags not being organized. I will incorporate this into the next episode to be more iTune and Podcast friendly. Once you listen to it let me know what you think. Again thanks for the tips.

Luke Burrage

I already listened, and wrote down some notes as I went. They're not the kindest words, but you did ask:


NO MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND! I often listen to podcasts with music playing in the same room.

Put all audio in the center. Not mono, if you don't want, but at least all in the center. Some people listen with only one ear bud.

TALKING OVER MUSIC WITH LYRICS? What the hell are you thinking?

I like the 20 question-like info/review. Pity I could hardly hear it over the music.

Didn't catch the name of the book though, and couldn't find it anywhere in the episode information.

The news section is good.

This music is REALLY loud compared to your chat though.

Just a point: you said this was a podcast with a higher reading age than forth grade. How old is that exactly? The first book was about children's book illustrators, and one of the news stories was about a Disney fairy story comic product. This really isn't my kind thing. Sorry.


I'm skipping forward, because once more you are talking about children's books. And the music is continually massively distracting.

I've land on a fake advert that has audio quality so bad my ears are almost bleeding. And I think it's voiced by cartoon voice actors. Only put in "comedy" bad quality audio if the actual audio quality of your podcast is super clean.

Stopped listening completely. I don't mind non-perfect audio quality, but when it is being drowned out by music it is unforgivable.


So, those were my notes. If you cut the music out COMPLETELY I'd certainly give it another shot. If you start focusing on slightly higher-brow material I could become a regular listener.

Luke Burrage

Also, don't wait until next episode. Go back and fix the title and ID3 tags on this episode now. Replace the episode on the server with a better one before too many people have to struggle with it.

And fix the link in the first post too. It's like you're trying to get as few people to listen as possible.

Rochelle

NO MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND! I often listen to podcasts with music playing in the same room.

I take it music was playing while he was talking?

If he added music in the background is post production, that might work. They add songs to Kevin Smith's SModcast, and it isn't distracting. The person who adds the songs to the background during their dialogue, add certain songs that relate to the topic they are currently talking about.

One example in episode 23: Good Vibrations, they are talking about masturbation and you suddenly hear the song "(You've Got)The Magic Touch" by The Platters in the background. I started giggling when I realized what song it was.

I haven't listened to the Coldguy's podcast, but I'll give it a go.

Luke Burrage

No, the music had nothing to do with the content. I think when you listen you'll realize this, as the style of music changes from jazz piano renditions to classical to thrash metal, all within a segment, then cuts to jigs and shit.

Also, the music isn't "in the background." No, it's like listening to a music track and spoken word track at the same time, with the spoken word SOMETIMES being slightly louder. And sometimes, when a track ends, it just begins again from the start. And the music with vocals is far more distracting than all the rest...

Funfetus

Put all audio in the center. Not mono, if you don't want, but at least all in the center. Some people listen with only one ear bud.

YES YES FUCK YES A BILLION TIMES YES.

Coldguy

Well the audio editor is going to be replaced with a guy who knows what he is doing, so those audio issues will be gone next time, also I do agree with you about the lyrics, those will have to go.

2nd I am trying to tag it up properly, having some issues with it due to the fact of my not having iTunes...however will have that corrected soon as I can.

Music is actually added in post production, we were not sure whether or not to include music due to the fact that it might sound dull without something in the background, I will play around with it. Also the crib sheet somehow didn't make it on the site with the books that we mentioned. To answer your first question the book I reviewed is Show and Tell, its a good read if you are into the art of children books.

Thanks for all of your ideas, keep them coming, I am compiling a list to try to produce the best podcast I can and thank all of you with your suggestions.

Luke Burrage

Music is actually added in post production, we were not sure whether or not to include music due to the fact that it might sound dull without something in the background, I will play around with it.

Play around with it by removing all the music completely.

Try an experiment: listen to an episode from the top 100 podcasts on iTunes. How many of them play music in the background throughout the entire show? None. None of them. There's a reason for this. In fact, there's many reasons. But you don't have to worry about them. Just follow this advice: don't play music throughout the entire podcast. Just don't.

If you think your content might be dull, spice up the content. I didn't think the content was dull. You know what I found dull? The music repeating over and over. It was painful to listen. The only thing that kept me listening was that the content WASN'T dull. However, even if the content gets way more interesting, but you keep the music, you'll not keep listeners, certainly not me.

Do yourself a favour; make it as pleasant for your listeners as possible. Podcast listeners are very forgiving, they don't mind non-perfect sound quality, but there is a limit. Re-edit this first episode and post a better version. If not, make the next one the official Episode 001 and delete this one off the feed and server. Because, if I decided to try out your podcast and this was the first taste I had, I'd not listen again.

VinceA

Quick tip before I even get around to listening to it: Sort out your titles and ID3 tags right now!

I wish every podcast sorted out their ID3 tags. Currently I'm listening to the most recent GeekNights with a dearth of ID3 tags. I use FeedReader to pull down my podcasts so it doesn't supplement the ID tags from the XML

Coldguy

You know I never thought about that with the music, I will head your advice and elimate the music all together, makes my life easier in the long run and if it is better for the listener too, no arguments about that.

I am working on the ID3 Tags and getting to the big Tunes location, just working hard on making this the best that I can.

Andrew

Try an experiment: listen to an episode from the top 100 podcasts on iTunes. How many of them play music in the background throughout the entire show? None. None of them. There's a reason for this. In fact, there's many reasons. But you don't have to worry about them. Just follow this advice: don't play music throughout the entire podcast. Just don't.

Smodcast does it.

Luke Burrage

Smodcast does it.

Smodcast has already been discussed. The tracks are picked for comedy reasons, not random tracks used because "the talking would be dull without it." Also, I have a feeling new listeners will be more forgiving towards Kevin Smith than three random guys talking about childrens books.

Kate Monster

Smodcast does it.

Smodcast has already been discussed. The tracks are picked for comedy reasons, not random tracks used because "the talking would be dull without it." Also, I have a feeling new listeners will be more forgiving towards Kevin Smith than three random guys talking about childrens books.

I stopped listening to Smodcast because the music drove me crazy and it became a bit one note. As amusing as it was at times, there are only so many jokes about anal sex or dog vagina mumbled over distracting music that a human being can take.

Coldguy

Quick question to all: Besides PW is there any other website that reports on book news (outside of interviews and upcoming releases)?

Coldguy

Thanks for all the suggestions. After some workings here is Episode 2. Note: you can download the MP3 on here by selecting audio only mode, just an FYI for your iPod people.