Discovering Podcasts
Find a free podcast.
The
iTunes Store puts hundreds of thousands of free podcasts at your
fingertips. To find them, select iTunes Store on the far right of the
iTunes navigation bar, then select Podcasts from the same navigation
bar.
Search
podcasts by popularity.
To
find podcasts that appeal to your interests, browse the Podcasts page
to see featured podcasts selected by our iTunes editors. Or use the
iTunes search field in the upper-right corner to find topic-specific
podcasts.
For
more editorial selections, check out our iTunes favorites on
the iTunes
Essentials: Podcasts page.
See what tops the podcast charts.
Take
a look at the right side of the Podcasts page on the iTunes Store.
iTunes displays the Top Episodes and Top Podcasts based on a
combination of recent subscriptions, downloads, and customer reviews.
Click the header at the top of each chart to see the top 200 podcasts
or episodes. You can filter the charts to view only audio or video by
clicking the Audio or Video button located at the top of the Podcasts
page, below the navigation bar. And to see the most popular podcasts
by subject, simply navigate to the desired category from the Podcasts
pop-up menu. Continue to dig deeper by clicking subcategories located
in the bottom-right corner of most category pages.
Find more from your favorites.
If
you find a podcast you like, it’s easy to find more from the same
podcast creator. Just move the pointer over the creator’s name, and
if the creator has more than one podcast, you’ll find a link that
leads to a page containing all of them.
Playing Podcasts
Listen up.
iTunes
provides you with several options for enjoying your podcasts. Stream
an episode directly from the iTunes Store just by clicking it. Or
download it to your iTunes library. When you find a podcast you
really like, you can subscribe to it by clicking the Subscribe
button. New episodes download automatically, so they’re right there
waiting for you when you’re ready to enjoy them.
Listen at your own pace.
If
you prefer to hear spoken audio content at a faster playback rate,
it’s easy to speed things up on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod. While
listening to an audio podcast in the Podcasts app, use the speed
indicator to adjust your playback speed.
Watch the way you want.
When
you stream a video podcast on your computer, playback starts in a
pop-up window within the iTunes Store. Clicking anywhere in the store
outside the pop-up window stops playback. To view a video podcast
that you downloaded, select Podcasts from the Library pop-up menu and
click the podcast. A list of downloaded episodes appears, and you can
double-click a title to begin watching. To watch the podcast full
screen, just click the Full Screen button at the bottom of the
player.
Read the fine print.
In
addition to video and audio podcasts, iTunes also features text-based
podcasts. You can open these PDF or ePub files on your computer, or
use the Apple iBooks app on your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad.
Save it for later.
If
you can’t finish a podcast in one sitting, just press Pause in
iTunes or on your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. When you’re
ready to resume, press Play. With iCloud,
you can start listening on one device and finish on another.
Fixing errors.
When
iTunes encounters a problem downloading a podcast episode, it
displays an exclamation point icon to the left of the episode title.
Generally, such errors are related to the feed set up by the
podcaster. In many cases, the episode will be available again in
about a day.
Play it again (and again).
When
an episode finishes downloading, a number appears next to the podcast
title. This number indicates how many episodes you haven’t yet
played. Click the podcast title to reveal the list of episodes. Those
you haven’t played are marked with a blue dot. As you play an
episode, the blue dot turns into a half circle, indicating partial
playback of the episode. When you’re finished, the blue dot
disappears completely.
Enhance
your spoken word experience.
iTunes
allows you to change the EQ settings for playback. If you listen to a
lot of podcasts, the “Spoken Word” EQ setting may enhance the
sound quality for you. This EQ setting reduces bass frequencies —
especially handy for amateur podcasts, where mic pops and other noise
might otherwise distract.
Managing Podcast Subscriptions
Make playlists.
When
a podcast finishes playing, iTunes doesn’t play the next podcast
episode by default. To keep a steady stream of episodes playing,
create a podcast playlist. Or create a Smart Playlist that includes
podcasts based on artist, genre, episode length, and more. For
example, you might create a Smart Playlist for news podcast episodes
longer than 40 minutes.
To build an all-podcast Smart Playlist, choose New > Smart Playlist from the File menu. To include only podcast episodes you haven’t listened to, choose “Plays” from the first pop-up menu, choose “is” from the second, and enter 0. Add more filters to further refine your Smart Playlist.
Create your own station.
The
Podcasts app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch lets you create a
personalized station of your favorite podcasts in My Stations. New
episodes download automatically. You can choose whether the app
begins playing the newest or oldest unplayed episode. And since
iCloud stores your personalized stations, you’re always up to date
on all your devices.
Keep a few. Or keep them all.
After
playing a few podcasts, you might find that there are some you’d
like to save. Or maybe you want to save all of them. Either way,
iTunes makes it easy. While you’re browsing the podcasts you’ve
downloaded, a gear icon appears to the right of the podcast title.
Click it, and iTunes opens your Podcast Settings window. Use the
“Episodes to keep” menu to decide how many episodes you want to
keep in your library.
Not in the store? Not a problem.
If
you come across a podcast on the Internet that you can’t find in
the iTunes Store, you can still subscribe to it. From the File menu,
choose Subscribe to Podcast and enter the podcast feed URL. iTunes
subscribes you to the podcast and begins downloading immediately.
Hold on to your hits.
If
you like the auto-remove feature for most podcasts but want to keep
all the episodes of a particular podcast, you’re in luck. Select a
podcast (at either the episode or podcast level), Control-click or
right-click the title, and choose Do Not Auto Delete. iTunes holds on
to the podcast’s episodes until you manually delete them.
Expand or collapse.
Once
you subscribe to a podcast, iTunes checks for new episodes at regular
intervals. But over time, the list of available episodes can get
long. To hide or reveal all available episodes, click the display
triangle for the podcast. You can also hide or reveal all your
podcasts at once by holding down the Command key and clicking one of
the display triangles.
What’s the frequency?
You
can check for episodes once a week, once a day, or even once an hour.
Just go to Podcast Settings by clicking the gear to the right of a
podcast title at the top of your podcast download page. Then change
the rate at which iTunes checks for new episodes.
Time to unsubscribe.
Podcasts
are like audio or video magazines. Once you subscribe, you can expect
a new episode of that podcast at a regular interval. But if you find
you have more than you can handle, it’s easy to unsubscribe. Just
select the podcast and click the Unsubscribe button to the right of
the podcast title. To unsubscribe and delete all files related to the
podcast, simply press the Delete key after selecting a podcast.
If
five new episodes come and go without your listening, iTunes pauses
your subscription to the podcast. It won’t automatically download
new episodes until you’ve had time to catch up by playing at least
one.
Sharing Podcasts
Links
to share.
When
you find a podcast you like, you may want to share it with others.
And iTunes makes sharing easy. You can send an email with the link
directly through iTunes by clicking the triangle to the right of the
Subscribe button and selecting Tell a Friend (requires an iTunes
account). Or select Copy Link and paste the link into a chat, blog,
or website. To share links for individual podcast episodes, just
click the triangle to the right of the Free button for that episode.
You
can also share your favorite podcasts via Facebook and Twitter.
Simply follow the process above, then select Share on Facebook or
Share on Twitter.
If
you already subscribe to a podcast you want to share, drag it from
your podcast’s source to your desktop. That creates a .pcast file
that you can email to friends as an attachment. If they have iTunes,
clicking the .pcast file automatically subscribes them to the
podcast, and iTunes immediately begins to download the most recent
episode.
Share your whole playlist.
You
can export a list of all your subscriptions, either as a personal
archive for yourself or to share with others. This option comes in
handy when you’d like to introduce someone you know to podcasting
because it allows you to send a file of “starter podcasts” for
your newbie friend to subscribe to — all at once.
To
export a list of your subscriptions, first turn on the iTunes Sidebar
by choosing Show Sidebar from the View menu. Then right-click or
Control-click Podcasts in your library and select Export. Choose OPML
as the format. (OPML is a generally recognized format for sets of
subscriptions.) Name the file and save it wherever you want. At any
time, you can reimport the file and iTunes will subscribe you to all
the podcasts inside. Or email it as an attachment to your uninitiated
pals.
To
subscribe to the podcasts in an OPML file, choose Add to Library from
the File menu and choose the OPML file. iTunes begins downloading
immediately.
