Archive shows? For how long?

[mongrel]

I just discovered that I'm not far away from the server space limit of my hosting account! I can trash some amount of old garbage, but that's only going to free up so much space. More storage doesn't cost THAT much, but it brings up the question:

How many shows should podcaster make available through an archive? All of them? A few months? A year?

[WildeGeek]

How many shows should podcaster make available through an archive? All of them? A few months? A year?
I think they all should be archived, as long as you are still producing the show. That's my plan anyway.

If you're posting your show initially at a fairly high bit rate, say 128_Kbps, you could save some space by re-uploading older shows (say, after they scroll off the bottom of the first page of your blog) at a much lower bit rate (say, 32_Kbps mono). That will save you a lot of space, and still allow peole who like your show and want to hear the whole thing to go back to the beginning.

[paul]

It's definitely a cool feeling when people say they just went back and listened from show #1.

[roadrageradio]

I just discovered that I'm not far away from the server space limit of my hosting account! I can trash some amount of old garbage, but that's only going to free up so much space. More storage doesn't cost THAT much, but it brings up the question:

How many shows should podcaster make available through an archive? All of them? A few months? A year?

It could depend on how timely your content is.

My plan is to keep my old shows available as long as people are still listening to them. I started in April, and I do one show a week, so I'm coming up on 40 shows.

Every week, I scan the logs to see which shows were downloaded, and Show #1 still keeps getting hits most weeks. If an old show gets no hits for a month or more, I'll consider taking it down.

[Steve Pinder]

I like watching the numbers go up on my first show too.

DSC goes back to June or so from last year.

Steve Pinder
www.karatekast.com

[Marilynfan]

If you have die-hard fans why not make a little money with old episodes? Take them offline and package them up on a CD..."My Cool Podcast Volume One".

[WildeGeek]

If you have die-hard fans why not make a little money with old episodes? Take them offline and package them up on a CD..."My Cool Podcast Volume One".
MM: You're so endearing when you go all capitalist on us. :wink:
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It's interesting that I've had a couple of dozen people write me and ask if they could subscribe to my show as a mailed CD. About half of those were government employees, such as park and forest service staff. That number is a little too many to burn, label, package, and mail by hand, and too few to economically have done commercially.

[mongrel]

If you're posting your show initially at a fairly high bit rate, say 128_Kbps, you could save some space by re-uploading older shows (say, after they scroll off the bottom of the first page of your blog) at a much lower bit rate (say, 32_Kbps mono).

That's a solution I think I can live with. My show is mostly music, so I don't think I could go quite as low as 32 Kpbs mono, but I could definitely drop it down some.

And I do agree that, ideally, they all should be archived.

On the other hand:

If you have die-hard fans why not make a little money with old episodes? Take them offline and package them up on a CD..."My Cool Podcast Volume One".
That's not a bad idea. If the bands I feature could be brought on board and I could work out some sort of a royalty scheme, I could actually use JUST the music punctuated by some of my rare flashes of brilliance. :wink:

Or maybe NOBODY would want to hear that, I don't know...

[Marilynfan]

I had a request for my episodes on a CD which is what made me think about it. Of course, my early episodes are not the ones I would really want to showcase on a CD...I think we all get better at this with practice. A best of compliation is probably a better idea.

[kinkysex]

I plan on having higher bitrate archives because bittorrent lets me share the bandwidth.

Think about using bittorrent and offering cd quality files as well.

[WildeGeek]

I plan on having higher bitrate archives because bittorrent lets me share the bandwidth.
I've played with bittorrent but I'm confused by your comment. Usually, when I try to download something using Bittorrent, I get a very slow rate compared to an http or ftp connection. I often give up and move on. Sometimes I'll open a bittorrent file and get a message like, "no peers found."

I can see where Bittorrent would be useful when a show is first released, and everybody is trying to download it an once. I can't see the value for archive material. You're counting on a lot of other people to keep your files around, to keep their computers on and connected, and to keep their Bittorrent software running. For archived shows, that seems like a long chain of unlikely "ifs". What am I missing?

Think about using bittorrent and offering cd quality files as well.
If only one person at a time is downloading your content, how does that save you bandwidth? The original poster was worried about limited storage at their ISP. How would posting Bittorrent files, or making CD quality files (uncompressed audio file of 640_megabyte or so) help them save disk space?

[kinkysex]

I plan on having higher bitrate archives because bittorrent lets me share the bandwidth.
I've played with bittorrent but I'm confused by your comment. Usually, when I try to download something using Bittorrent, I get a very slow rate compared to an http or ftp connection. I often give up and move on. Sometimes I'll open a bittorrent file and get a message like, "no peers found."

I can see where Bittorrent would be useful when a show is first released, and everybody is trying to download it an once. I can't see the value for archive material. You're counting on a lot of other people to keep your files around, to keep their computers on and connected, and to keep their Bittorrent software running. For archived shows, that seems like a long chain of unlikely "ifs". What am I missing?

Think about using bittorrent and offering cd quality files as well.
If only one person at a time is downloading your content, how does that save you bandwidth? The original poster was worried about limited storage at their ISP. How would posting Bittorrent files, or making CD quality files (uncompressed audio file of 640_megabyte or so) help them save disk space?

The answer to both questions is: geek friends.

If you are alone in the wilderness with no one to love you... yeah, you're screwed.

But, fear not, for there is hope. Send me your torrent file. I'll download it, seed it and wait. Get a few others with fat connections to do the same and VOILA! Release to the public.

I'm seeding about 30 files on a linux box in the basement for artists friend of mine.

There's still TONS of room to help out a fellow 'caster. I'm sure others will do the same.

You scratch my back....

[TINKOFF RADIO]

You can always put them on http://www.archive.org for infinite space and no cost. Sounds like a "win win" to me.

Adam