The Podcast Voices Glossary

As with many new technologies, Podcasting has technical terms, names and jargon associated with it, to help you out, we have put together a Glossary of the most common terms you are likely to come across:

AAC - (Advanced Audio Coding) a proprietary audio file format used by Apple within iTunes where a copy protection system is added to limit its use to Apple software and hardware. See Apple’s Web site for more information. Standard, unprotected AAC formats are supported by a limited number of portable devices such as mobile phones.

Aggregator – web based or installed on your computer, it allows you to subscribe to podcast shows, such as Juice.

Atom – An XML based file format that has similar functions to RSS in that it syndicates content.

Audio Blog – another name for a podcast.

Bed – music and sound effects used as a background to compliment vocals.

Blog – short for weblog, a frequently updated online journal, generally written by individuals who are passionate about a particular subject, offering their thoughts and opinions - see our blog.

Chicklet – a name often used to describe the small orange logo’s used as links to RSS feeds.

Compression – good quality production starts with raw media files, which are very large, so through a series of software engineering techniques, files are compressed and re-created into a smaller, quicker to download format. An mp3 is an example of this in audio format.

DivX - is a video codec created by DivX, Inc. (formerly DivXNetworks, Inc.), which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining high visual quality.

Enclosure – a section of an RSS feed, which includes or encloses a file, enabling automatic download by the RSS subscriber.

Enhanced Podcast – a podcast delivered in Apples AAC format which is able to include section markers, which can include pictures, links and text descriptions viewable through itunes or your iPod.

Feed – an XML / RSS file containing headlines, descriptions and enclosures. They allow subsribers to download the most up to date shows automatically using an aggregator / podcatcher such as itunes or Juice when a new piece of content has been added.

Feed Catcher – another name for an aggregator.

Feed Validator – used to test an RSS feed to ensure that they are formatted correctly, such as feedvalidator.org.

Flash Player - is a media player that is embedded into a web page, enabling browsers to easily play and audio or video file without having to subscribe to an RSS feed. See our samples page for an example of this.

FX – abbreviation for effects, often used when describing sound effects.

Geo-targeting – targeting of content online to specific countries, territories or areas depending on the physical location of the individual, most likely acheived through IP address identification.

ID3 Tags – embedded identification tags which describe the contents of the multimedia file, so that is can be shown on a player. Typically, ID3 tags display graphics and text showing information on authors, titles, genre, comments and copyright messages.

Imaging – the collective description for the audio “image” or branding of a podcast referring to styled jingles, beds, voice-overs and idents.

IPod – a digital portable media player produced by Apple used to download and listen to mp3’s. It should be noted that podcasts can also be listened on other devices such as mp3 players and mobile phones. A podcast is not exclusive to ipods.

iTunes – multimedia software player from Apple, it includes a store where users can download music, videos, television shows and podcasts. Includes a directory of podcasts and allows users to subscribe to podcasts.

Mixdown – when multiple elements of an audio production like music, speech and sound effects are brought together into one single file or track.

Mp3 – MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard technology and format for compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played.

Mp4 – the file extension for MPEG-4, a compressed file format for audio visual files, used as a standard format for video podcasts and can be safely renamed to .m4a or vice versa to play properly in audio players.

Podcast – an amalgamation of iPod and broadcast. Describes audio content similar to a radio show or programme downloaded directly or via automated subscription from the Internet onto a personal audio player. A podcast is not exclusive to iPods.

Podcatcher – a name for an aggregator / feed catcher. Allows the user to subscribe to and manage podcast subscriptions.

Podcast Directory – a website containing constantly updated lists of podcasts series and links to their RSS feeds. Directories may be searched by listener looking for podcasts on a particular subject. Such as Podcast.net.

RSS – Really Simple Syndication is a dynamic web page which is used identify and distribute content automatically to subscribers.

Skype - downloadable software which enables telephone calls over the internet via your computer.

Stab – a short sound, jingle or musical phrase used to punctuate sound.

Syndication - distribution of your content to other sites or subscribers.

Videoblog / Vlog– see videocast.

VideoCast - an online video or film distributed via RSS or Atom feeds

Weblog – the full name for a Blog.

WMA – a form of compressed audio developed by Microsoft used by Windows Media Player.

XML – Stands for Extensible Markup Language. RSS is based on XML.