Difference between a Podcast and an Archive

I’ve written about this before, but since I’m going to start paying more attention to this, here we go again since a lot of people in radio either don’t get the difference or don’t care.

A “Podcast” is a feed of programming that announces the availability of a new edition via a mechanism called RSS. People who subscribe to the podcast get a message saying “Bill Schmoe has a new podcast and today he talked with the Keebler elves”. You typically don’t look at the RSS feed yourself, but using an “RSS Reader” that looks at the RSS feed and follows the rules you set – you might tell the reader to download the program automatically, and maybe transfer it to your ipod when it has a chance or just keep the header and let you download the podcast when and if you choose to listen about the fascinating story of the Keebler Elves. Very often podcasts have the commercials removed and may allow skipping (scrubbing) through the parts you don’t want to hear.

An Archive is the content creator making the content available online on demand – you go fetch it when you remember to do it. The web site may launch the archive in their own player on the web which is useless if you’re wanting to listen later on your ipod/pad/phone or other MP3 player. The archive may also permit you to download the audio as a file so you can listen to it later, but there is no uniform way to do that.

I keep the links separate because they behave differently. Access to RSS and program archive may be free or may require payment of a subscription fee. For RSS feeds, I show a green or red icon to let you know if you need to pay to hear it.

If you visit the RSS link with a browser that is RSS aware, it will automatically invoke the mechanisms for you to subscribe to the podcast rather than having to be a techogeek and try to get iTunes to do it for you.