Vince Outlaw's Weblog

Test Driving Streamload - Visions of RSS 2.0, Podcasting Integration, and The Bi-National Mambo Orchestra

After audio-blogging about Streamload earlier this week, I jumped in today to solve my first problem: Making interviews from The New Jazz Thing (and other potential show tidbits) available for downloading and podcasting in MP3 (and other) formats...while running out of server disc space with my website host package and contemplating a space-enlarging / cost-increasing package upgrade. So I'm looking for different ways to serve these files without spending too much money (and keeping things as simple and fun as possible). As we're playing, we'll also monitor how many downloads happen to see how Streamload sharing pans out and pays off.

Result: Bill Caballero Drops In On The New Jazz Thing, Thursday, November 4, 2004 - Listen In!

After basically cutting the interview segment out of a digital copy of the TNJT, doing some fade-ins/outs, and creating a high-quality MP3, I figured out how to upload the file to Streamload via the web interface (on a Mac). Also figured out the difference between the Inbox, the File Storage, Hosted Files, although I'm still sorting out where the right place to upload files to make best use of other features. Like copying the high-quality MP3 within Streamload and then, also right within the browser interface, converting the MP3 to a lower bitrate / quality format, which may be necessary to make my purchased download quota (currently 1GB/month) go further (more people download less each time). This is also cool in that it offers listeners (downloaders for now) the abilty to choose a file size 'worth it' for them (and me). And I can also convert to the royalty free OGG standard if I want to...again offering downloaders a choice of formats. I used the Streamload web interface to listen via streaming MP3 (no file download, quote decremented for as long as listener streams), but could not find out how to share that 'stream' link with listeners. This would be a great feature to allow folks to listen while they were on-line or 'try-out' the audio before downloading. The way I see it, this scarcity of server-based bandwidth (if that's the right way to call / see it) is a bigger question when subscribing to a Streamload-enabled podcast is considered...where mulitple files might be downloaded and download quotas decremented even quicker: Will people, once subscribed to a podcast and downloading all feed enclosures, not unsubscribe to that feed when they stop listening...and kind-of recycle the podcasters bandwidth to share with others who WILL listen)? I can't imagine hitting my 1GB month Streamload download quota from people downloading my interviews...though that would be nice (!!!)...it is a possiblity if something got popular, you could hit that.

Anyway, I think I like what I've experienced with Streamload so far, so I'll dump a couple of the issues on my mind that will make it more usable right now (stream hosting) and potentially for the future...

Can I publish a URL for an MP3 Stream in the same way I can for an MP3 Download? At different bit-rates to offer on-line listeners connection-appropriate audio streams?

How could RSS 2.0 feeds automatically created from Hosted Files be used as a podcasting platform? Could I 'sell' access / subscription to a Hosted File folder that had the RSS 2.0 Feed and the Feed Content...maybe to sell a higher quality / bitrate feed content?

Could using a feature like Website Upload be used to subscribe to an RSS 2.0 feed and automatically create a server-based archive for podcast content...and a launching point for re-podcasting syndicated multi-media content?

There seems to be lots of other ideas flowing from this, so we'll continue using and report here.

Posted by outlawv at November 7, 2004 02:33 AM | TrackBack