Got this message from our resident teacher at the Zen Center...
"Techsmith, our audio file hosting folks, have suddenly stopped supporting audio files and we need a new space.
We can upload our video files, and Nadine has done that for the last two talks. However, uploading video means that people with less bandwidth or no video capability or who want to listen on their audio devices would be in trouble. Since I want to reach everyone, I'd rather continue with audio. We can make good quality sound available to everyone.
Do any of you have any thoughts on what options we should pursue? I looked online and it seems as if there are a number of places that do this sort of thing, but I don't have the technical knowledge or the time to research them. I'm hoping that you and other sangha members can come up with something.
Let me know your thoughts."
So we upload them to Techsmith and then have the on iTunes (I havent' done it so I assume we link to them because if we upload them to Apple why would she need host them if not? )
Any recommendations?
Are these audio files supposed to be podcasts, or are they for-pay content?
I think GWJCC uses https://libsyn.com/, which through some amount of magic, shows up in podcast form on iTunes. Another alternative might be something like SoundCloud, but I don't think there's any way to get that into iTunes.
GWJ Vanilla Minecraft Server
They are podcasts - the weekly dharma talk - so free to all.
So I am not sure I understand the flow of this system. She records the talk, converts it to an audio file on her PC and uploads it to Techsmith - then something happens and it appears on the iTunes feed
I guess I am fuzzy on that end part. Does the audio file get uploaded to Apple or just linked?
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It looks like it's linked. iTunes is essentially acting as a search engine, and providing the content URL to the browser/Podcast app; the content is still hosted and served up, in this case, by screencast.com (Techsmith). Example:
iTunes podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...
Enable network tracing in your browser's F12 panel, and you'll see when you click play on the podcast, it actually serves up this content: https://content.screencast.com/users...
Edit: I suspect this means you could host the files anywhere that has a direct-download option (i.e. not an HTML page with a "Download" button). It doesn't have to be something that specializes in podcasts, though that's probably going to be the simplest migration path.
Edit 2: I've never done any of this stuff before, though; someone else around here surely has better and more useful feedback to give you.
GWJ Vanilla Minecraft Server
The odds are Techsmith is hosting the audio files and supplying an RSS feed*, which is registered in iTunes and other podcast services. So when you need to change your audio host, your RSS feed will change too. Luckily there's fairly easy ways to do that now.
I do recommend Libsyn in general. They have a page dedicated to transferring an existing podcast over to their services. Reaching out to their support is probably the best bet since Techsmith isn't a very "known" podcast host like Libsyn or Podbean.
*it's also possible (but not likely) the RSS feed is hosted by your Zen Center's website, but I doubt it. That's something Libsyn or another podcast host can help you figure out.
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