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None have dared pee in the direction of Podshow until now. I had heard all of this Podshow contract information over the past 4 months from a variety of sources, and that had inspired many of my cautionary comments in the Podcheck Review. Now, thanks to some outspoken podcasters, you can now hear the entire Podshow contract.. [Updated 3/20/06 8:15am for spelling, etc.]
Listen in horror and disbelief as Keith and the Girl essentially read the Podshow contract in their podcast. I listened to a few minutes of the show, and then kept listening, and kept listening…
The moral of the story: Remember - ALWAYS read your contracts carefully, and assume that the other guy is trying to screw you. It doesn’t matter if it’s Podshow, Libsyn/Kiptronic, Podtrac, CitiBank, your employer, or whomever - no one is more interested in your success than you. Protect your passion, and understand your long-term commitments.
Here are some interesting interpretations of elements in the Podshow contract as read by KATG:
(Updated 3/27/06 9:42am to fix Comments posting bug) Longer show today at around 30 minutes, though we share the joy of a head cold! Warning! Dangerously scattered and incomplete show notes ahead!
Random also said “I wonder who actually remembers Marlin Perkins. :)” - Now, let’s see how Jim is doing with the wild alligator. Sure looks like he has his hands full!”
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Holy moly, been busy.
Voicework - If you ever go to Geneva Switzerland and ride one of the tour busses, you might hear my pre-recorded voice describing the sights. I slaughtered some of the French words, but we stupid Americans will never notice. It’s Jeaque Cluseau meets Jeaque Cousteau. (my French spelling sucks, too).
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Someone famous once said: You don’t work because you’re inspired;
you are inspired because you work!
Howdy! As promised, the site may be up and down today (Wednesday 2006-03-08) as we upgrade to WordPress v2.1. You will probably not notice any changes to the front end of the site, but the backend administration system will be greatly improved for us. (I’m also hoping that the upgrade will not cause everyone’s podcatchers to download all of the shows again!) Thanks for your patronage! - mgmt.
Update: Holy cow, I think it’s done. It only took 2 minutes and everything is upgraded. Being a software developer myself, I am grateful for such an easy upgrade! WordPress rocks.
Update March 19, 2006: Damn. I forgot to update/modify the new version of the feed-functions.php file to connect the mp3 enclosures through Podtrac! None of the podcatcher downloads for show #23 got tracked through Podtrac. I knew things went too smoothly! Not a really big deal, but it does put a hole in the stats for March 2006 that I might need to explain to people in th future.
With two quick tests under our belt, here’s what we’ve learned about recording live:
Lesson #1: Don’t let the machine set the audio levels. I need more control of each clip’s volume!
Lesson #2: Don’t record the show at 2:30am
Lesson #3: 10 minutes is just long enough to say hello and goodbye.
Lesson #4: Intersperse pre-recorded clips at regular intervals to give myself time to regroup.
Lesson #5: Don’t record the show at 2:30am
Lesson #6: Practice makes perfect, but maybe we shouldn’t subject our friends to it.
Lesson #7: “Driving CastBlaster” consumes 40% of my attention, leaving only 60% of my brain for off-the-cuff commentary.
Lesson #8: No one really cares that “I need more practice with CastBlaster,” not even myself.
Lesson #9: “Fluid is better than constant.”
Lesson #10: Turn the headphones down. Hearing my own voice so loud through the headphones throws my brain into a feedback loop similar to what stutterers experience. It also changes my annunciation as I subconciously try to speak more softly to compensate.
Lesson #11: Develop a ‘button layout’ or use a sequencer to order the bits and beds in the show. My brain gets derailed when I try to find the next button to click to start the next audio clip.
… more to come.
I’ll resist my better instincts to take these two test shows off of the feed, but I may take them down eventually. I’ll be upgrading the server software sometime in the next week, and I’ll be trying to find some other audio applications to test drive.
Thanks again for participating in the Podcheck Live experiment!
Tuesday March 7th, 2006 - Part 2 - The late night test continues…
Podcheck version 2.0 - LIVE AGAIN, baby! Another 10-minute test run with the trial version of CastBlaster.
The site will go up and down over the next few days (the week of March 7th, 2005) as I upgrade WordPress to the latest version, v2.1. I need the WYSIWYG editor, and some other features. It’s all part of streamlining the Podcheck process!
CORRECTION! It was Charles Hodgson of Podictionary that did the “podfader” audio clip. It was totally my mistake. The audio file that *someone* sent me was labelled “WordNerds” and, in the midst of my battle with the live show, I completely missed the fact that it was Charles’ voice talking! My humblest apologies!
A couple of listener e-mail/comments
Keeme writes:
Show #20 and that crazy song… I had to stop it and compose myself (I had to come back and say “YOU ARE A podcast DEITY”).
Kevin Crossman:
I was **this** close to sending you a “jump the shark” note during the beginning of your opera/pink floyd number. But you pulled it out in the end. Looking forward to the rap more though.
Big Shout Out - Paul at Barefoot Radio.com - Trying to live the dream, live shows every Sunday night. 8:30-10:30 Eastern Standard Time - Call in! SayRadio.com, along with Sledge from I Love Knights podcast and Tim Henson’s Distorted View Weekly Roundup… thingy. SayRadio.com
Shoutout to RedBoy, just a few miles away from the Podcheck studios, here in the Heartland.
Since Podcheck is Live, would you be interested in a live show? I don’t know, either. It sounds cool, but would it still be Podcheck?
Thanks for listening, and we welcome your e-mail at show-at- podcheck.com or you can call our voicemail line at (206) gag-ipod.
CastBlaster - What’s your favorite podcast production suites?
Hopefully, only take 20 minutes to do a 15-minute show
New music beds - www.iamusic.com - using their mini-license - free downloads of 30-second beds. No looping alloowed. Buy the CD with a zillion of the beds for $250.
Holy Crap - Hello Frappr! Digger, and Andy, and Aaron, Chris, Len, David, Diana, Kevin, Martin, Phil, Chris, Bruce, Dan, Evo, Lynne, Stephen, Dan, Sam, Steve, Paul, Jeanette, Ed, Janes Daddy, and… The Architect. And, if I left your name out, please say it out loud for me here. Better yet, send me an MP3 greeting.
ID3 Podcast Magazine Contest Winners
Contest #1 - Brian Parks - Bakersfield Ca
Contest #2 - John M. Leary - East Northport, NY
Some great slogans for ID3 Podcast Magazine:
Andy Bilodeau - ID3 Mag…it’s audio for your eyes!
Dave Shepherd - The Journal for Tomorrow’s Media
Aaron - Weekly Anime Review - Because regular media is for ass-clowns
Chris Christensen - Bring broadcast media to its knees, all from your parent’s basement
Ravsitar - ID3 Podcast Magazine: Becuase Scott Fletcher is NOT a F@#cking podfader!”
..and here are some more great slogans!
Dave Jackson - Because we think podcasters can read - or - It’s great shitter material
John M. Leary - - Get inside your podcast.
Worth Sparks - “Podcaster sight listening tours” - or - “Sight listening tours with podcasters for podcasters” - or - “Podcaster listen reading tours”
Karsten Povlsgaard -(Denmark) - ID3 Podcast magazine, the future in podcasting!
Len from Jawbone Radio says: Geeks You Can Hear - or Your Definite Source for Digital Entertainment
Kevin Crossman - The Audio and Video Web Media Revolution
Digital Dan - PODCASTING A REVOLUTION IN MEDIA
Ron Briscoe: AVAST! UNSURPASSED PODCAST SASS AND CLASS
Ed Roberts: Putting YOUR voice in print - or - The voice of new media
Perry in Chicago - what_to_do_with_your_other_free_10_minutes
Greg Smith - Hardcopy for your ears
Tim LeBlanc - The World of Portable Media - or Pioneering the Future of Portable Media - or - All Things Podcasting
Podcheck Review is about to evolve. The goal is simple: Maintain the “podcheck-ness” of the show while streamlining the production process. As you might have guessed, the only other option is “to become extinct.”
Mental note: I already hate the sound of this post. I hate it because it sounds like hundreds of other posts/letters/press releases that appeared right before something started to suck. It sounds like a post that might appear right before someone quit producing a podcast. It sounds like some kind of doomsday ultimatum, but I won’t bother trying to say “We’re not going away” because it would make this post sound worse.
Why change? The previous 20 episodes of Podcheck Review have been lovingly hand-crafted through a laborious process as described here. Each of the previous 20 episodes required between 5-12 hours to produce including research, scripting, pre-producing bits, recording, editing, post-production mixing, and publishing. While each of these 20 episodes are unparralleled in quality and astoundingly entertaining, they are simply too expensive to continue producing in that manner.
The solution?
record “Live-to-tape” using automation software.
brace for some imperfections to be permanantly etched into each new episode.
I am currently test-driving a couple of software solutions, including CastBlaster. If you have any thoughts on your favorite podcast production suites, I’d like to hear them.
Why tell you this? You might not even be able to tell the difference. The Podcheck format will remain the same: Intro, hello, news, [possible “bit”], feedback, goodbye, and I’m keeping the music the same. Long-time fans will hear some changes in the way the the music beds cross-fade, and they might also hear some changes in the way that I deliver the stories. In fact, I could have just made the change and waited for you to notice, but Podcheck is about truth and transparency, and one of our missions is to share information about how podcasters get the job done. In accordance with that “thruthparency,” I often reveal details about the Podcheck process that other shows would not reveal.
As a result of these changes, I hope that it only takes 20 minutes to do a 15-minute show (not including research and any pre-producted “bits.”) If that is the case, Podcheck will appear more frequently in your mp3 player.
Will Podcheck Review ever become weekly again? It’s not out of the realm of possibilities. A legitimate sponsorship deal would increase the chances of a weekly show, and a weekly show would increase the chances of a legitimate sponsorship deal. (While Podcheck Review is not all about the money, cashflow greatly influences how Caraworks, Inc. prioritizes its projects.)
In the end, I am your fan. Thank you for listening, sending your feedback, and staying subscribed. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
UPDATE: Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central was driving his “geek-fu power bus” and is keeping his inside informationSO inside as to prevent anyone from knowing what the hell it is he’s talking about. He originally reported some vague details about some company sending some letter to some podcasters whose show names contained some word that infringed on some trademark. I (like some other people) assumed it was Apple’s claim on the word “pod,” but I have since stopped caring and assume that it is all some other issue of little relevance… doh! I.. just.. ran.. out… of . . . . interest. Must . . . stop. . . . Here’s my original “pod” post anyway:
We posted last October about cease and desist (C&D) letters from Apple Computer company regarding shows/companies/websites that used the word “iPod” in ther names. I saw a post over at the Podcast Pickle today that indicates there may be another round of C&D letters. The (so-far unsubstantiated) rumor is that letters are being mailed to folks using the word mark “pod” in relation to portable audio devices (and by extension, shows implicity or explicity branded as portable content, a.k.a. podcasts). I have not seen any letters (yet), nor have I heard from anyone (yet) who has received a letter (yet). Unlike other sites that might tease you with ambiguity and inuendo, we here at PodCheck Review openly admit that we have no facts. We prefer to proceed, unencumbered by such things.
Therefore, rather than wait for hard facts… Harrumph. Rabble-Rabble–Rabble.
Apple applied for (and has been granted?) the trademark in “pod” as it relates to audio devices, yada-yada, but plenty of other people have also been granted trademarks by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that incorporate the word pod…
The Pod Shop- (Owned by The MacShop, Inc.) Retail store and mail order catalog services featuring portable and handheld digital electronic devices for recording, organizing, transmitting, manipulating, and reviewing data, audio, video, and multimedia files, and accessories therefor Podcast Ready - computer software, comprised of Internet-based software applications and client-based software on portable media players, for selecting, subscribing, managing, and downloading digital media content from the Internet directly to portable media players and devices Pod Jockey - Entertainment services, namely, an online activity where you create your own music videos… Podvertise - Advertising and advertisement services. Pod Lounger - Holders for desk accessories PodKitchen and PodCabin and PodSportsman - All very similarly defined as… Webcasting of a continuing recorded entertainment talk show over the Internet, yada, yada…
Some other notably similar marks unrelated to portable audio-
- Concentrates, syrups or powders used in the preparation of soft drinks; Energy drinks; Flavored waters… PODS - Computer software in the field of electronic health and medical record management AirPod - Carved ornaments of fragranced wood FirePod - Electric Hand warmer assembly Red Pod - leather bags; bags made of imitation leather… Hot Pod - Hair appliances, namely hair dryers for domestic and commercial use TotPod - Toddler activity center PlayPod - Play and nap mats for infants and toddlers with attached toy activity center
For those not familiar with Trademark law, it is possible to have two overlapping/similar marks. I am absolutely no expert, so here is my completely innacurate, wrong-headed, juvenile, idiotic understanding of how it works: The trademark attorneys (who get paid plenty of money - I know because I hold two trademarks) sign affidavits indicating that they have performed searches and found no other existing marks with which the application [in their opinions] infringe. The Patent Office’s role is to judge the validity of the application and apply some rudimentary tests to the application. Beyond that, there’s not much science. ALL NUANCED DEBATE appears to be reserved for the courtroom, where Company A can challenge Company B for infringing on their trademark, even though both companies have been issued trademarks by the USPTO. While some weight is giving to the holder who has used the mark in commerce longer than the other, and some more weight is given to the holder whose mark is most obviously visible and associable with a product, and more weight is given yada-yada-yada… Welcome to America’s court system.
So, just because some guy owns the “The Pod Shop” trademark does not mean that the owner of the “Pod” trademark can’t challenge it. Against a company like Apple Computer, and with lawyers that charge $300 for typing a form letter, I can only assume that it would suck to be the little guy.
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