Podcast hosting?

[GunForHire]

Hi there!

I'm quite new to the world of podcasting, only been listening to some of it for a few weeks now. I run my own (non-commercial by the way) site, and was thinking of starting a podcast for it within the next few months. I have my own host, with plenty of space, but I'm a little unsure about bandwidth issues. I was wondering where you all host your podcasts, and roughly how much of your bandwidth gets used up by hosting them.

Thanks

GunForHire. :shock:.

[Craig]

That's a really hard question to answer. It depends on how large your podcasts files are, the frequency with which you publish them, how long you leave each show online, and (of course) how popular your podcast is. Popularity is obviously the wildcard. It can be all over the place depending on whether people are interested in what your podcast is about, what kind of exposure your podcast receives, etc.

Not very helpful, I know, but hopefully it gives you a place to start. It never hurts to look into bandwidth options early on though, just to make sure that if there is a need to expand down the line that your ISP isn't going to hit you with unexpected surprises. (There's also no reason why you can't split your podcasts between servers if necessary.)

Craig

[Brian]

I'm a big fan of BlueHost. For the 6.95/month, you get 75GB of bandwidth, which was more than enough for me until my show's popularity rose. They allow you to buy additional bandwidth for 50 cents a GB. They give you plenty of disk space, and email addresses, and they're compatible with MovableType.

They're also very responsive to tech support requests (they just solved my RSS feed issue within 2 hours of notifying them), and they're very generous with their affiliate paybacks. (Because of that, if you do decide to go with them, I plead that you use the link on my site at www.coverville.com .)

However, I'd recommend them even without the affiliate $$.

[Funtime Ben]

I use Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?wac) to host my MovableType weblog and podcasts. They have the best deals on hosting I have ever found - 2.7 GB of storage with 120 GB of bandwidth for 9.95 a month. Combine that with the ability for 7 hosted domains, 35 sub-domains, a free domain registration, 1400 e-mail accounts, MYSQL, PHP, WordPress pre-installation... the list goes on and on.

One of the most impressive features of Dreamhost is the ability to set a throttle to your bandwidth.

My site just hit 50 Gb download mark for my podcast sub-domain. Now while this is far under my allowed bandwidth I have set a 100 GB throttle which will stop me from going over my monthly limit. Many sites do not have bandwidth throttling and find out that they have used up their bandwidth when their site goes POOF! there goes their website now they're paying by GB. It's really invaluable.

Plus the Dreamhost folks are really awesome to deal with. Their affiliate program is very good and you get credits toward hosting through them... so far I've gotten 2 free months per year (and yes it is reoccurring so that's 2 free months as long as the people stay with them). Of course if you do go with them, I would love the referral because it partially pays my hosting costs (WAC). Check them out you'll like them and if you don't you have 91 dyas to cancel for full money back. Love that :D

[rizzn]

I offer free podcast hosting with my service, Rizzn's Podcaster (http://rizzn.net). No bandwidth limitations. I host a couple popular podcasts (Violet, RevTim, Sean Kennedy). It's pretty simple to use.

/rizzn

[Ifthensoft]

I have been using Rizzn for a few days and I must say, it does work! I do have to mail the PodCasts into a special eMail address, but other than that, it's a great solution. For mailing large PodCasts, I send them out with gMail due to my normal service provider sending limit. I'm not sure how long they are going to be free, but they do work and I would give them a try if I were you--they even create the XML for you to link to as you send in new shows.

[Insomnia Radio]

I would say without a doubt that Liberated Syndication is the end all/cheapest/simplest podcasting solution. And that's not just cuz they sponsor me ;-)

They charge for storage space, not bandwidth. Check em at http://libsyn.org

If you DO decide to sign up, please use Insomnia Radio as your referral code, I would appreciate that.

Take care.

[korntee]

anybody here using rizzn to host their podcasts?
they're site seems to be down...any word from them on when they will be up?
http://rizzn.net


evilsigntist.com

[Ifthensoft]

I posted that very question on a different area of Podcastally about 1/2 hour ago--The last I remember reading was that there were "big changes" coming, etc., but that was a day or 2 ago. I'm not sure what happened, but I hope they return fairly quickly--I have all of my older shows posted there!

[violet/blue]

Okay, what the...? Rizzn's site is gone. That means no podcast for me, which is unacceptable. I was already getting enough complaints from my listeners about the date/time issues, and the fact that the service stripped all my encoding off the MP3's... that means no ID3, very sucky. A while back I emailed about a few of these issues and got no reply so started to look for another similar service to make a move. Then when I announced in my last podcast that I was looking to move, Rizzn emailed me asking what they could to to keep me...

And now the site is awol, with no announcement to users, nothing. Ultra lame.

[Ifthensoft]

Rizzn was up yesterday, today--gone! The last update I saw was that they were moving to new servers. I don't know about them--I can't keep up. I guess I'm back to looking at non-free hosting.

~X

[stupod]

Mr Curry might be willing to help you guys out, especially since you run popular shows :-)



Geoff (yes i am stupod)

www.stupod.co.uk

[camilian]

I have been using Lunarpages. www.lunarpages.com - Both Bandtrax.net and my show are on the same account and have been rock solid.

[deppeler]

I would say without a doubt that Liberated Syndication is the end all/cheapest/simplest podcasting solution. And that's not just cuz they sponsor me ;-)

They charge for storage space, not bandwidth. Check em at http://libsyn.org

If you DO decide to sign up, please use Insomnia Radio as your referral code, I would appreciate that.

Take care.

Has anybody had dealings with this host?
I've tried emailing twice but have not got a reply to a question.
I need to know:
I am wanting to host my Music Trivia Podcast includes (4) 5 second clips 60's -90's, is this acceptable usage (copyrights)?

thanks

[violet/blue]

I've been in contact with libsyn in the past few days but have not used their service. They only allow PayPal for payment. I have a sex-ed website (not porn), but PayPal closed my account and cited my site as the reason, and will not allow me to reopen or use my personal account. I threatened legal action to get my money out of my account, etc... but the end result is that PayPal bars me from using their service in any way, so I contacted libsyn to ask if they had other payment options. They don't, but sent me a very cordial email stating that I wasn't the only one with this inquiry and they were exploring other options.

But it sounds like some others in this forum use them and like them?

In the meantime I'm getting set up to host by myself. I pay $25 a month for unlimited b/w and have a decent amount of space on the server I just moved to. I'm working with a woman who gets off on geeking out like this, and she's excited about the idea of making upload/post/podcast a simple process...

Yet I still want to find a one-stop shop for podcasting, at least to recommend to friends...

[Cookiepuss]

Well I am not sure if this will help but I wrote a howto on using Blog Torrent to distribute Podcasts:
http://www.blogtorrent.com/wiki/index.php/Podcasting_with_Blog_Torrent

Being that you can use most Podcast clients to download via BitTorrrent you can throw up Blog Torrent on cheap/free hosting and seed from your home DSL. It does not even require mySQL only PHP which most all servers have.

NOTE:

I went into more detail in this post:
http://www.podcastalley.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=953#953

[HyperVista]

Unlimited Bandwidth is a critical requirement to podcasting because without it, just when your site becomes more frequently used by a wider audience, your site can shutdown when it hits the bandwidth limit -- embarrassing and damaging -- and then to restore it, even worse, you lose control of your costs through excess charges, similar to cellphone plans.

:idea: For $4.95 per month, highly-rated INFINITECH (http://www.infinitech.cc) provides Unlimited Bandwidth, 200 MB including MySQL, Windows Server 2003 with ASP, CGI, PHP, PERL, WAP-enabled (for cellphones, etc.), 10 email and 5 ftp accounts, unlimited multiple domains and subdomains, with more features accessible via Control Panel, 24/7 Help Desk support, 99.9+% reliability, and inexpensive upgrades to .NET, SQL Server, disk space, dedicated servers, etc.

[allthewhile]

Unlimited Bandwidth is a critical requirement to podcasting because without it, just when your site becomes more frequently used by a wider audience, your site can shutdown when it hits the bandwidth limit -- embarrassing and damaging -- and then to restore it, even worse, you lose control of your costs through excess charges, similar to cellphone plans.

:idea: For $4.95 per month, highly-rated INFINITECH (http://www.infinitech.cc) provides Unlimited Bandwidth, 200 MB including MySQL, Windows Server 2003 with ASP, CGI, PHP, PERL, WAP-enabled (for cellphones, etc.), 10 email and 5 ftp accounts, unlimited multiple domains and subdomains, with more features accessible via Control Panel, 24/7 Help Desk support, 99.9+% reliability, and inexpensive upgrades to .NET, SQL Server, disk space, dedicated servers, etc.

Um, thanks for the blatent advertising.

[deckard0]

anyone use Streamload to host their mp3's for podcasts? seems like a reasonable monthly rate. i was thinkin of using Streamload as the host and using my Blogger to post the podcasts. btw, im new at this.

www.streamload.com

[Insomnia Radio]

Hey Violet....I have no doubt Libsyn would be willing to work with you on the payment issue....

Besides, they're a ton cheaper than $25/month :-)

If you'd like, I'll talk to Dave over there and see what we can do...

[notyourusualbollocks]

Yip - Libsyn is probably the best choice out there. I joined a month ago and it's been fantastic. The service was set up specifically for podcasters and I have no complaints. I do sometimes worry how they actually make money out of the popular podcasts (i'm assuming in excess of 2000 downloads a month - 40 mb a file) but they're still going so fingers crossed! :)

MK

[Cookiepuss]

. . . (i'm assuming in excess of 2000 downloads a month - 40 mb a file) but they're still going so fingers crossed! :)

MK

Well if you look at it, that is not very much (bandwdth that is) a month. Since 2000 files at 40MB a piece would be 80,000MB which is 78.125GB. So it is not too hard of a hit. Being that you can get dedicated servers for $85-$100 a month with 600+GB of traffic included. :)

[notyourusualbollocks]

Alright Mathematician.... ;)

[violet/blue]

Okay, Libsyn has totally been above and beyond gracious with me re: no PayPal, among many other things. They are working on an alternative to Paypal, too. Now I have an account, and I have to say that it's really a beautiful host. The interface is clean and easy, upload is super-simple (and you can upload more than one at a time, discovered by happy accident), and they also give you a blog as well. You don't have to use the blog (I won't be; isn't very customizable, at least yet). I think this is the ideal solution for a lot of reasons, and it's excellent for people who want to get into podcasting. So worth the (minimal) cost so far -- I'll be re-launching my podcast at a new address and I'll report back as I cast and get feedback from listeners. It'll be really great to finally see my stats; right now I have no idea how many people listen to my show...!

[peteryorke]

DownloadRadio.org hosts BitTorrent downloads of reviewed Podcasts.

If you are interested in having your podcast reviewed, send some e-mail to rob@downloadmedia.org

Peter Yorke
http://downloadradio.org
http://downloadmedia.org

[Cookiepuss]

. . .I'll be re-launching my podcast at a new address and I'll report back as I cast and get feedback from listeners. It'll be really great to finally see my stats; right now I have no idea how many people listen to my show...!

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I had a look at your site too. Good stuff. I have been a big fan of SRL for many years. As I recall I first heard of them back when Ministry was still a hip band. . .hmmm. . .that was a long time ago. ;)

That was where I first saw SRL creations. Any group that can come up with the "Flame Hurricane" has gotta be onto something great.

Off subject. . .yes. . .but forums are for banter after all.

Good luck with your show.

[Boyneboy]

After reading through these and other postings on the net, I've decided to go with bluehost for hosting my podcast. However, in looking at how folks use combinations of blogger, feedburner, and other host sites, what is the process for posting podcasts with bluehost?

Second, what web design tool do you folks use for your main web page? I see Movable Type and others, including Frontpage. What have you found for ease of use and creative flexibility?

I hope to have my podcast up and running within two weeks and while I have a creative bent, I try not and reinvent the wheel if I don't have to, so the help of you veterans would be much appreciated.

[Cookiepuss]

. . .
Second, what web design tool do you folks use for your main web page? I see Movable Type and others, including Frontpage. What have you found for ease of use and creative flexibility?
. . .


The new version of WordPress (http://wordpress.org) supports enclosures. As well as the ability to make multiple custom feeds bt catagory etc. Which it has had for some time. This allows you to make a seperate catagory for various podcasts or topics in your blog. Along with support for static pages and more. I use it and love WP. Plus it is truly Open Source. . .

Making templates is a breeze too. With a lot of free plugins to expand its functinality as needed. See http://codex.wordpress.org for more information.

Good luck. . .

[daxxon]

I'm from The Netherlands (Holland) and hosting prices here are really sky-high :(

I've been reading this topic and saw Dreamhost and Bluehost being mentioned so I checked out their sites. They have very nice deals, especially where bandwidth is concerned. Does anyone know if they also serve customers from outside the US?

[Cookiepuss]

Does anyone know if they also serve customers from outside the US?

Might be easiest to drop them a note via their support email forms. But I don't see why they wouldn't host you. as long as you abide by the Terms of Service (TOS). Many foreign (to the US) owned sites are hosted in the US. I know of a few hosting companies that are Australian but their servers are in the US. ;)

[Brett]

From comments I read here, I ended up going with Dreamhost for my podcast and man...they rock! The setup was cake, and the bandwidth is plentiful. Pay up front for a year and there is no setup fee. I even moved my other domain over and it was accessible within hours. Excellent host.

Brett

www.ex-static.com

[martymulligan]

Hi all-

I just wanted to comment that we replied to the emails about the trivia show, but the messages were bouncing back to us?

Brett and anyone else who has questions about hosting a podcast at Liberated Syndication, please visit our forums - http://www.libsyn.com/forum

We appreciate everyone's support as we work to build the net's premiere podcasting service.

Marty

[Boyneboy]

Been pleased with bluehost and WordPress 1.5, but I'm missing one thing - I can't figure out how to get the blog to access the podcast. I've created a link to the mp3 but I keep getting a 404 error when I go to the web page and click. I'm guessing its a directory problem but I have created a subdirectory www.wiredjesus.com/podcast/ and then put the file there.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? So close to starting - just one more leap.

[Cookiepuss]

Rename the file with a "-" between breaks.

But the links work fine for me. You might want to use permalinks to make the URLs nicer and more search engine friendly. Under Options > Permalinks in the Admin section of WP.

The WordPress forums and codex are good place for help with WP too:

http://wordpress.org/support
http://codex.wordpress.org

;)

[oldejoe]

for easy & cheap creating & hosting the new Sparks! application from BlogMatrix seems to be the answer ... there is a beta release right now and it looks like the official release is next Weds. ... looking for feedback and suggestions ... www.blogmatrix.com

[rizzn]

Are you looking to make blogmatrix exclusively work wih your hosting solution,or are you going to open it up ot other hosting providers. I'd be interested in trrying to make it compatible with posting for rizzn.net, as a lot of our users tend to be newbs to the podcasting world.

/mark

[Chip]

I'm willing to offer free podcast hosting with one webpage. But because of space limitations, I will only be able to allow 20 shows to use this (I gotta save some for my customers LMAO).

I will setup individual sub accounts with 75mb of space and give a subdomain of your choice (i.e. podcast.podcasthome.net) and one e-mail address forwarder (This will be your subdomain name, i.e. podcast@podcasthome.net. Forwarded to an e-mail account of your choice.) You will be able to put up webpages and your shows...

This offer is mostly for beginners. If you decide you like doing your cast, it is recommended you go after a regular web hosting account to host your podcast shows and website. Since I am a web host myself, I will not recommend anyone nor will I give my hosting website so that this does not become spam.

I JUST ordered my domain name (podcasthome.net) so the site won't be up for about 24 hours. But once up, I'll have a cheap signup form....

So, as a recap:

75mb of space
subdomain name under podcasthome.net (no top level domains will be accepted
1 e-mail forwarder to an e-mail address of your choice
FTP access to your space
Maximum of 20 signups
FREE - no strings - no banner requirement - no requirements at all

Chip

[garybibb]

I've been using Powweb (www.powweb.com) and they've been spot on. They offer 5 gigs a day bandwith with 150 monthly for around $8. Tech service is awsome. Unfortunately I will have to leave them as ever time I post a show I just about crash my site with the bandwith usage and receive emails by the bundle from Powweb telling me about this.

Has anyone decided to go with a dedicated server hosting package? That's what I am looking into now.

[Chip]

There are some good ones out there..... 5gb a day for 30 days is quite the deal at 8.00 a month... Do a search for "Cheap Hosting" and you should bring up a few sites that list many hosting sites...

If your looking into the possibility of a leasing a server, check out www.ev1servers.net .... I pay about 150.00 a month for my server and have over 1000 gb per month of traffic.... Plus, with the packages they offer, you can resell what you don't use to help pay for the server...

Chip

[Version3]

My servers start right at $100/month for Linux dedicated and allow 3000GB per month transfer. You'll know where you are headed way before you blow 3 Terabytes of traffic.

An important issue with some of these hosting services that I have not seen mention is the datacenter's actual performace and connectivity. You don't want to be part of one of these newer hosts that have a rack space in some datacenter in Kansas City with one provider connection to the internet. If you can find it for the same money, look for a telco-grade datacenter at the heart of your hosting service if you can find it. You may not need gigabit ethernet connections, but what you do need is a truely multi-homed datacenter so that if a provider experiences major trouble, you won't be invisible to the world. Look at how large their connections are to their providers, this will be important so that you don't suffer during peak times like a few of the more popular shows do. Weigh these things, along with your budget concious hosting plans. You may not find one of these cheap/free providers with these features, or you may (I have no idea). But you will at least know what your performance limitations may be, and what your future hosting plans may be.

There are many other things to consider with dedicated servers... but I don't really think that it's directly on topic.

[TexasMusicForge]

I'd like to give a nod in this thread to bluehost for actually providing what they say they will. 100 gig a month of transfer and more storage than I'll ever use is a good deal, but their servers actually work, their tech people know what they are doing and I've not had any reason to use their support services yet because everything just works like it's supposed to. The website control panel is thorough, the e-mail options work well and the included tools with the account provide a lot of options for managing the site. Highly recommended, especially if you've had bad experiences with your previous webhost or want to avoid them with your next one.

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

Tio Ed

[violet/blue]

A fan just wrote me to tell me that my podcast address has been hijacked, and the guy is saying really bad things about me:

"Hi Violet,
Something VERY strange just happened. I was sitting at my laptop, minding my own business, when some guy's voice starts playing over the speakers.

I was going to cut it off when I heard your name, so I listened. His name is Mark Hopkins and he apparently has a podcast called rizWords. He was badmouthing you. He said you were hogging bandwidth at rizen and that you suck because you haven't told your listeners that you were switching to a different service, so he's taking it over. This ****er's sent me two of his "broadcasts" which quite frankly suck. He actually begged to be listened to even though, as he put it, he's "not a hot chick who talks about sex." Pathetic. I just checked it and iPodder was downloading 52 of this idiots podcasts. I stopped it.

I just thought you should know what this guy's doing, hijacking your subscribers and putting you down. I know you probably don't give a flying **** that some dick's saying bad things about you, but it pissed me off...."

[Version3]

Is he somehow affiliated with the hosting provider? I'd report it to the provider who's not been giving you good attention, and even better, if you can find out what datacenter they are paying for space in, report the hacking/hijacking to them. NO datacenter likes it to be know that site hijacking has been happening on their network, no matter who was responsible for the box it was on. You'd be surprised at what can happen with a few phone calls and some effort.

[violet/blue]

Apparently he *is* the hosting provider:

http://www.rizzn.com/

Also: My new podcast address is http://violetblue.libsyn.com/rss and it's been posted on my site's podcast page for over a month; I just fired off a couple emails to ask podcast services to update my address... Yikes, what an awful way to lose listeners.

I really like your picture, BTW!

[Keeme]

I just signed up with PODLOT and they helped me with setup (was cake to begin with) and I im'd with questions and BAM fast and solutions.

$4 a month ... no setup fees no pay in advance (unless you want).

PODLOT (http://www.podlot.com)

[yaz]

WHERE THE HELL ARE MY HUBCAPS?!?!?