Two of my favorite podcast subscription and management services, Odeo and Big Contact have undergone some key changes recently. I think that all of these are positive changes that other services can take a cue from.

Odeo has added The Odeo Player which allows users to listen to podcasts streamed on the fly. If you have an Odeo account, you can access your Odeo subscriptions. If you don't have an Odeo account then you can listen to a feed by entering the feed address. Another recently added feature at Odeo are RSS feeds for comments. So if you produce a show you can subscribe to the rss feed for comments on your show to insure that you're in on the conversation when people have something to say about your podcast. Both of these additions were recommendations that I'd made early in the beta phase and I'm glad to see that Odeo has implemented them.

Meanwhile, Big Contact has undergone a makeover and added some nice functionality to their site. Big Contact makes it real easy to create your own RSS 2.0 powered blog while facilitating sharing of music on your blog/podcast. Musicians can go there and link to sample tracks which people can then add to their own podcasts with the click of a mouse. The folks at Big Contact call this being a PodJay. This is a quick and easy way to start your own music or podcast review podcast. Another great feature of Big Contact is their newly updated Feed Player. The feed player is basically a flash streaming audio player that you can use with any RSS 2.0 feed. Just input and RSS feed and the site generates the code for you to add to your site. Oh and it's free!

So two good developments in the podcasting world and I'm sure that there will be many more to follow in the coming months.

Got word today via Samantha Murphy's newsletter that Derek Sivers of CD Baby is planning a podcasting directory made up of music from artists who sell through CD Baby. Nice move, and a natural extension of CD Baby's business.

In general I've been positive about Odeo's approach to facilitating the distribution of podcasts. But I can't understand why they would follow the lead of Apple who are caching podcast MP3 files for distribution through iTunes. They are doing this, as is Apple, without giving podcasters a choice of whether or not they want their files cached. As such, my Libsyn stats do not accurately represent the audience for my show. Odeo does allow a person to view the number of downloads for each show, but those stats are not syndicated and it's otherwise a pain to try and stitch together stats from LibSyn, Odeo and iTunes.

So here's what I'd like to see from Apple and Odeo. Please allow me a choice of whether or not I want my audio files cached. And if you can't do that then please allow me a simple way (via password protected RSS possibly) to keep track of my stats related to your services.

***UPDATE***

Odeo does not cache podcasts according to a recent comment from Rabble. They are performing some kind of a url re-direct that points to the original file. My latest New York Minute Show podcast has the following Odeo url http://www.odeo.com/show/download/210247/4/ libsyn.com.media.podcastnyc.PodcastNYCKatrina.mp3 vs. the original url http://libsyn.com/media/podcastnyc/PodcastNYC-Katrina.mp3. I'm not sure how my Libsyn stats are interpreting this redirect as there is still a delta between what the two services report for this episode. That's another fish to fry. So the verdict is Odeo is not guilty on caching. As for Apple, it will be a long time I'm sure before I hear from them.

I've produced a podcast over at The New York Minute Show specifically to highlight the need for Hurricane Katrina relief. Other podcasters are heeding the call to action as well. There are many different ways to contribute and this is a great way to get the message out to the world.

Other members of the podcasting community have been doing their part as well. Libsyn is donating a portion of their revenues in September to The Red Cross. In addition, LibSyn is giving one year of basic podcast service for free to anyone who donates at least $50 to the Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. Feedburner is now in on the act as well with a new service that will automatically add a Red Cross banner and link into your Feedburner hosted RSS feeds.














This is great stuff and one more reason why podcasting may just save the world someday ;)

America Online has launched their own guide to podcasts. They're listing fifteen podcasts and even appear to be hosting a couple of them. It's very curious that instead of a top ten list they have a top eleven list. According to the site the podcasts located on the guide can also be heard on AOL Radio. Swing by and take a look if you have a moment but you certainly won't find anything new here, at least not yet.

Via Micro Persuasion.