First post/Podcasts

So, this is the first post of this new blog. If anyone is reading this, thank you, if nobody is reading this… well, I'm as good as talking to myself. Anyway… I figured a good first post would be to talk about what I have discovered to be quite a misconceived internet phenomenon… PODCASTS!

I think they are great. There I said it. Personally I listen to them 90% whilst on my laptop, and perhaps 10% of the time on CD whilst driving. If you've done your homework you'll know that these podcasts were originally devised as a way to listen to radio shows at your own leisure on an iPod.

However, times have changed and so many different things are badged as podcasts these days and there are plenty of methods of listening to them. In hindsight I think the name given to this service has been, in an ignorant sense, a hindrance. It was only after really getting into listening to them and mentioning it to my friends that I realised where the misconception occurs. It seems that being called podcasts immediately associates them with Apple's iPod – quite a large group of people are anti-iPod (or Apple) and as such ignorantly dismiss podcasts as being things only for people that own an iPod.

But… they are a great way to catch new music, talk shows and the such via an RSS feed. If you aren't one for all the technical jargon, just know that through most audio players (iTunes, Winamp, WMP, etc…) you can subscribe to a particular podcast. Once you have subscribed, your media player will regularly check the feed to see if a new episode is available – if one is, your media player will download the new episode and let you know – if there isn't, obviously it wont. Either way your media player will continue to regularly check for updates to the stream. No fuss needed.

There are loads and loads of different podcasts available online, enough to suit anybody's needs. So, anyway, here is a list of the podcasts I am currently subscribed to, along with the URL for each feed. You can use these URLs to add the podcasts to your subscriptions…

• East Village Radio (Mark Ronson show) – weekly show hosted by Mark Ronson. Mainly hip-hop, but generall funky – URL: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/auto-archives/MARK_RONSON/dircaster.php
• BBC 1xtra Homegrown – weekly podcast from 1xtra, featuring the best of Britain's homegrown black acts. – URL: http://download.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/1xtra/homegrownmix/rss.xml
• IndieFeed Hip-Hop – New podcast comes out about once every three days. The podcasts are just one song long. But each podcast features one fantastic independent hip hop track – URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/IndiefeedHipHop
• KCRW's Today's Top Tune – A daily podcast featuring one track as selected by KCRW – URL: http://www.kcrw.com/podcast/show_itms/tu
• Mad Decent Worldwide Radio – Diplo and his team present a once monthly podcast featuring hip-hop, dance-hall, and other funky beats – URL: http://rss.mac.com/diplo1978/iWeb/mad%20decent%20radio/mad%20decent%20radio/rss.xml
• Radio 1's Best of Unsigned – Radio 1 regularly feature unsigned British acts for your listening pleasure – URL: http://download.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio1/radio1sbestofunsigned/rss.xml
• Solid Steel – Roughly weekly podcast from Ninja Tune, featuring a mix from a different guest DJ each week. Typical Ninja Tune sounds – URL: http://ninjatune.net/solidsteel/rss.xml
• Stones Throw – Monthly podcast from hip-hop label Stones Throw – URL: http://www.stonesthrow.com/jukebox/podcast.xml
• The Xfm Sessions – Radio station Xfm provides a weekly podcast featuring one artist. Within the podcasts are interviews and music – URL: http://www.xfm.co.uk/sectionalRSS.aspx?id=6199
• Rapnews.co.uk – Rapnews.co.uk provide a regular podcast featuring the latest in UK hip-hop – URL: http://rapnews.co.uk/?feed=rss2

If anyone has any questions bout podcasts, feel free to give me a shout, I'll try my hardest to help. Also, if you know of any other decent podcasts that may have sneaked past my eagle internet eye, let me know!