The world of podcast Web hosting is becoming more crowded each and every day. Once of the new faces out there in the industry right now is Podcast FM. Podcast FM claims to be “the one-stop solution for podcast hosting and syndication”. Do they live up to these claims? Well, I figured I’d go right to the source and ask.
I recently had the chance to do a little “Q and A” with Podcast FM’s Fergus Hadley. Fergus is a Web designer and developer, specialising in dynamic PHP applications. He is also responsible for Pi Internet’s Homebuild, a richly-featured, template-based content management system marketed to those on a tight budget who want a do-it-yourself website without the necessity of learning web design/development.
What is your history in the podcasting and the Web hosting industry?
Fergus: While we’re relatively new to podcasting, Pi Internet has been providing hosting services since ’99. building up a good reputation as a reliable, helpful business host over that period. Many of our customers have been stung by cowboy or cheap and cheerful hosts and tend to stay with us once they’re here.
Pi Internet’s parent company, Serif Systems, has been working in Apple and PC networking even longer – since the mid eighties – again priding itself on offering good support and service to it’s customers.
Pi Internet has also been providing design and development services since early in its lifetime, often for the same satisfied customers who came to us through Pi’s hosting services or Serif Systems. In this role, we’ve specialized in dynamic sites that allow those without great technical know-how to utilize the web to develop their businesses. This included easy to use back ends to e-commerce, marketing, content management and other interactive web applications.
Not every Web host decides to go after one type of Web hosting account. What made you decide that you wanted to go after podcasters?
Fergus: It our experience with making complex sites usable to those without technical backgrounds which convinced us that we have something to offer podcasters. Even as a seasoned developer and internet user, I had trouble finding out what this podcasting craze was all about and figuring out all the technicalities, but once I understood it, I realized a lot of the technical elements involved could easily be automated. We already had the hosting capacity, it was just a case of leveraging our web development know-how to make advanced podcast hosting a reality.
Sure, we couldn’t do the actual recording, but pretty much everything else could be handled by a well designed Web application. Why should a podcaster need to even really know what RSS is? Or enclosures? Or the Apple DTD? They needn’t even have to learn to wrestle with an FTP program (or be forced to buy one) or a graphics program for their images, let alone a program to fill in their podcasts ID3 tags when that can all be handled by the host. And I’ve not even mentioned bitrates, lengths (in seconds for media enclosures, in minutes and seconds for iTunes, etc.), iTunes categories and subcategories vs. Winamp ID3 genres, the list goes on.
On top of that, by letting the site handle everything, we would be able to build in the ability to track podcasts and channels, and also to promote them in different ways. For example, once uploaded, they could easily be listed in a built-in directory without the user having to go through another stage after creating a channel of getting it listed somewhere. The podcast’s information is only ever being entered once.
Once we mapped it out, it became clear that we had something special to offer podcasters.
What is it that you offer that you don’t think people will get or experience at other podcast Web hosting sites?
Fergus: At the time of conception, the idea of unlimited bandwidth was unique but even with other services offering it, Podcast FM has a lot to offer. By processing podcasts as they’re uploaded we aim to save our users time and allow them to buy in to the world of podcasting with a much lower level of technical expertise.
Plus we pride ourselves on customer service – something that can be hard to come by on the web.
Podcast FM is going to grow, too, so we are giving our users a chance to get in on the ground floor. With our upcoming affiliate scheme, users of our service will be able to earn themselves free subscription time by helping take part in that growth.
You told me earlier, “best selling points are that we offer unlimited bandwidth to our users”. How are you able to live up to that promise? If somebody becomes super successful, how do you handle the bandwidth limits then?
Fergus: We have recently upgraded our Internet connection here at Pi Internet and now have plenty of bandwidth to spare. We have talked about putting limits on the downloads of our users’ podcasts but feel that it isn’t something we want to do at the current time.
Do you have any plans for the future of the hosting? (Such as new features or improvements?)
Fergus: Sure. We’re currently developing a built in affiliate program where users are provided with a code that if used by others when signing up will buy the original user and the new user free subscription time.
We’re also planning to build a pinger into the upload system, automatically informing sites like freshpodcasts.com that a channel has new content. We’ll be adding new subscription mechanisms as they come along, as well as exploring more traditional (for the web anyway) means of promoting the podcasts we host. We already have a tell a friend feature, but will probably add the ability to get updates by email, too.
A user forum is also planned, to allow users to exchange tips and ideas. The idea of giving each user a free blog has also been raised. If we get enough interest, we’ll throw that into the pot, too.
What else? A ratings and comments system has been suggested as well as a more advanced stats package. We’ll just have to see what peaks our users interest and go from there.
Why the choice of name, Podcast FM?
Fergus: We wanted something that would suggest to prospective users the idea that podcasting would allow them to broadcast their… well, whatever it is they’re interested in – thus the nod towards radio with “FM”.
We also chose a .co.uk domain name to appeal to UK users who find all the prospective podcast hosts are offshore. Not, of course, that we want to put off non-UK podcasters.
What would you say to the folks out there who say that podcasting is just a fad and you can’t base a business around it?
Fergus: It’s not unusual for people to underestimate broadcast media (after all didn’t Alexander Graham Bell famously dare to brag that one day there would be a telephone in every major city!). With the advent of Web 2.0, podcasting has a definite place in the panopoly of tools that are allowing ordinary Joes to spread their message: blogs, forums, podcasting, video-casting; they all add up to make web community building a reality.
If you look at traditional media – print, radio, TV – you can now see them being echoed on the web. Podcasting, the web analogue of radio, has a definite place in the future of the web.
By offering a combination of ease of use, time saving, marketing and a wealth of user features, we believe Podcast FM can be a major player in the way the web is going.
What type of podcasts do you listen to yourself? Could you give me a few examples of some of your favorites?
Fergus: Personally, I’m more of a blogger, but I’ve certainly explored the world of podcasting. I subscribe to From Our Own Correspondent from the BBC, Ricky Gervais’s comedy meanderings and listen to the New Scientist podcast. Other members on our team enjoy listening to Christian podcasts (godcasts) from across the globe.
I want to thank Fergus Hadley for his time. Please be sure to visit Podcast FM’s Web site to get more information on what they offer to the world of podcast Web hosting.
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