Aztec Media

I will be at the New Media Expo 2007 this weekend (Sept. 27-30).  I am giving a presentation on 'Getting Started With Audacity' in the Podcaster 101 track:

Session 8 - 3:15pm to 4:15pm
Ballroom B
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2007
http://www.newmediaexpo.com/saturday2007.htm#Audacity

If folks are bringing their laptops to the session, then it is highly recommend that the come with Audacity pre-loaded ... http://audacity.sourceforge.net. I also have upload some demo audio files in zip format that I will be using if folks are interested in working hands-on with the same material: http://www.newmediaexpo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1634.

If you'd like to meet-up at the Expo please drop me an email or post a message to me on Twitter.

The latest digital online version of Blogger And Podcaster magazine has been released. There is a lot of good articles, opinion pieces, and reviews worth checking out.

They have an interesting ad on page 6 for USA Today's "Introducing Blogger & Podcaster Guide".  Getting listed will cost $295 per week in the print addition and $195 per week for the online addition.  If you order before 9/30/07 there is a combo deal of $195 per week.

The new recently announced Apple iPods have apparently caused some pretty standard price reductions on a variety of MP3 players from several vendors.

For instance, the advertised price at many stores in the US for the 30-GB Microsoft Zune Digital Media Player is now $199.99.  And the San Disk 8-GB Sansa e280R MP3 player is now coming in as low as $129.99.

The new iPods are definitely pretty feature rich and will have a premium price for a while.

The marketplace continues to be dominated by Apple, and that will probably not change anytime in the near future even with the price drop/rebate that Apple is doing with the iPhone.

I continue to monitor the price changes in mainstream consumer advertisements for MP3 players. 

They haven't changed much in recent months until this week.

Some things I noticed:

• Office Depot: SanDisk 2-GB c250 for $50 plus Archos 4-GB 104 for $100.
• Circuit City: Creative Zen V Plus 4-GB for $100 plus Zune 30-GB for $230
• Fry's: San Disk 2-GB C150 for $40 (after rebate) and RCA Lyra 5-GB for $50

It is my prediction that as per GB costs for Flash MP3 players gets below $25, and per GB costs for hard drive players get near $7 that more people currently not on the mobile digital media band wagon will have less of a financial reason to stay out of the game.

This should help generate more people looking for podcast content. What do you think?

According to Future Tense Podcast there are now two organizations that have recently started up to help define how future advertising should be integrated into downloaded media like audio and video podcasts.

The groups are:

• Association of Downloadable Media
• Association of Podcasters and Online Media Producers

There are some interesting related comments from Eric Rice and Podcast Brothers.  I think the concept is good and something that should be monitored for those interested in taking advertising for their new media content.

There is also a very interesting thread related to this topic called "How To For New Media Makers" that has some interesting ideas worth digging into.

I will be presenting a 'Getting Started with Audacity' session at the 2007 Podcast & New Media Expo on Saturday, September 29 from 3:15-4:15 p.m.

This session will be very hands-on with the expectation that participants come prepared to follow along with their own laptops. 

If you have questions or comments about this session, then please check out the Forum @ Podcast & New Media Expo.

If you use a Macintosh for your audio and video production work flow, and need a straight forward tool to do file conversions, then I suggest checking out Monkey-Tools Sound Grinder 3.0.1.

The new version has some pretty compelling features, and it is a very inexpensive tool ($39) for converting WAV or AIFF files to MP3s with RMS leveling.

Since Monday (6/11) I have been troubleshooting an issue with the Jersey Boys Podcast RSS feed.  After posting the latest podcast I notice that iTunes was not picking up the file for download.  I use TypePad to host the blog/website, Feedburner to host the public RSS feed, and Libysn for the MP3s.  This is really the first major issue I've had with any of these services.

After doing some troubleshooting on Feedburner per suggestion from their help desk, I ran into a situation where now all the iTune tags went missing from all the podcasts in the feed.  This was causing players from Podtrac and Odeo to have issues also.  So, effectively I had no iTunes or podcast enclosure tags in my RSS feed.

At first it looked like there might be an issue with Libysn not returning the audio/mpeg tag to Feedburner in a timely manner, but I moved some files off Libsyn to make sure that wasn't the issue.  Neither Feedburner nor Libsyn could identify an issue on their end, and they were responsive and as helpful as possible.

So, I then did some digging on Typepad troubleshooting site, and noticed that they recommended that the feed you give out to podcast listeners be the website/rss.xml instead of website/atom.xml.  So I went into Feedburner and changed the URL, and things went back to they way you'd expect it.  The RSS feed now had iTunes and podcast enclosure tags!

So the Jersey Boys Podcast is now completely back online ... but it was a complicated troubleshooting experience that required a high level of expertise and flexibility. 

USA Today has an interesting article on how American Eagle Outfitters is planning on creating 'comedy' ads for their products in a 3 minute format for some TV shows, and then 'replay' them as content on the site in 5 minute formats.  A total of 12 episodes will be done.

The article also had some interesting stats on the current state of advertising, especially on the 12-25 year old demographic.

I really enjoyed VentureCast#21 that included reviews of Web 2.0, NAB, and an update on what is going on at Six Apart.

I also have to recommend Chris Gondek's Invisible Hand Podcast interview with Philip Meza about his book "Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech, and the Future of Entertainment".