The new form of internet subscription audio called podcasting has become wildly popular. Not only because it offers such a wide area of free entertainment, but also because it's so easy to become a podcaster. Producing a podcast can be as easy as recording with the internal microphone on your computer into the free Audacity sound editing program. (Check out "What Is Podcasting" for a step-by-step guide to getting started.)

But once the MP3 of your podcast is created, where do you put it? Podcast MP3 files are significantly larger than HTML files or JPEG images. On average, a podcast MP3 is ten to 20 megabytes, sometimes going to 40 megabytes or more. That's not only a problem for file storage on the server; it also becomes a bandwidth issue as more listeners subscribe to the podcast.

This article offers several solutions to the hosting problem. These ideas are pulled from the pages of my new book, Podcasting Hacks, on bookshelves now.

Dedicated Podcast Hosting Services

With the advent of podcasting, a new breed of ISP was born: the dedicated podcast hosting service. Traditional ISPs provide a set amount of disk space and a bandwidth limit. The new podcasting hosting services offer different service and pricing models that work better for podcasters.

Liberated Syndication

Liberated Syndication is a popular podcast-hosting service that hosts a number of highly regarded podcasts. One in particular is James Palonco's excellent Fake Science podcast, which combines music reviews, music industry news, and fascinating interviews with influential people (like me). ;-)

There are several different Liberated Syndication hosting plans that range from $5 to $30 per month. Each level has an associated amount of megabytes per month. At the $5 level you get 100 megabytes, which, if each of your podcasts is 10 megabytes, allows for 10 podcasts a month. Not too shabby, if you are just starting out. Bandwidth is unlimited, so you will never pay overage charges.

Related Reading Podcasting Hacks Tips and Tools for Blogging Out Loud By Jack Herrington

As with other podcast hosting services, it's more than just disk space you are buying. Liberated Syndication also provides a complete blogging/podcasting package, where you can upload your podcasts, write an associated blog entry, and have the RSS 2.0 feed created for you automatically.

This RSS 2.0 feed is critical, because that's what is required for listeners to subscribe to your service. And it's your entry ticket into the Apple iTunes podcast list, which will make your podcast available to millions of iTunes users worldwide.

AudioBlog

Another long-term player in podcast hosting services is AudioBlog. In fact, they have been around since before podcasting was, well, named podcasting. For a fixed fee of $49.97 per year, you get unlimited podcast uploads. Each of these podcasts is limited to 60 minutes, but that's not much of a limitation. There is a bandwidth limit of five gigabytes per month, with a $1 overage charge for each additional gigabyte.

As with Liberated Syndication, the AudioBlog service provides an easy interface to add blog entries, podcasts, and now, videocasts as well. To make it even easier, they have an integrated blog recorder that allows you to create podcasts very quickly through your browser. They also have a nifty Flash MP3 player that is attached to each podcast on your blog page, so that people can just start playing your podcast without going through a download.

Odeo

Odeo is a kind of mystery service. You can't sign up for it today, but you can ask for an early-access account to try the service out. The service, once you have an account, has easy blogging and podcasting interfaces as the other services do. There is also a handy downloader application that your listeners can use to automatically download your podcast. But in general, I would recommend pointing your listeners towards iTunes, since it's very easy to use and opens up the whole world of podcasting to them.

OurMedia

OurMedia is a podcasting service that works in conjunction with the Internet Archive. OurMedia has one particularly appealing feature: it's free. You start by creating an account on the service, which automatically creates a home page and a blog. Podcasts can be attached to the blog using a simple file-upload mechanism. And listeners can subscribe to the blog using an automatically generated RSS 2.0 feed.

The only drawback is that the podcast must be licensed under the Creative Commons. Creative Commons is not a particularly daunting license. Use of the audio can be restricted from commercial use, or restricted from further modification. But in general, it's best just to let people do what they will with your content, unless it's particularly important for them not to repurpose it. (Check out "An Interview with Ourmedia.org's J.D. Lasica.")