What is a podcast?

Podcasting is a form of audio broadcasting on the Internet. The reason it became linked with the iPod (the name being a mix of broadcasting and iPod) in name was because people download podcasts (audio shows) to listen to on their iPods. However you don’t have to listen to podcasts only on iPods; you can use your computer with some music software such as Windows built-in Media Player. It really doesn’t matter, as long as you have a way to play music on your computer, you will be able to listen to podcasts.

Podcasts usually contain talk back radio style content rather than music. This is mainly because of copyright law. If you broadcast music you don’t have the rights to use then you are taking a risk.

Podcasting is different from simply searching and then downloading a music or other audio file, and listening to it as an MP3. The key difference is all about having the files come to you through syndication instead of you going to the files through search.