Podcasting Glossary

There’s many terms related to podcasting and it might be confusing for you to find a simple definition for each one.

Here you can find simple to grasp ones for some of them.

Analytics

Podcast hosting providers keep and aggregate listens to your podcast in an easy to understand format. Usually you will find analytics for your podcast on the hosting provider’s dashboard.

Hosting

You can’t upload your podcast and episodes directly to podcast apps and directories. A hosting service will manage all that for you. You upload your episodes on a podcast hosting service (like Nightcast!) and it will automatically distribute them to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc…

Embed

Using a podcast player for one (or multiple) of your episodes on an external website. The player will usually include your podcast’s title and artwork, episode name, description and play/pause buttons. All you have to do is copy a snippet of HTML code that you will find on the dashboard of your hosting provider to your site and the player will appear on that page

ID3

Metadata (title, author, year, …) stored inside your episodes’ MP3 files. Nightcast automatically adds the correct metadata to your files

Mixing

It is the editing of multiple audio files together so they sound good.

RSS Feed

A computer-readable format used for podcast hosting platforms to communicate with podcast listening apps. You don’t have to know more about it, only its link for submission on podcasting apps (you will find it on your podcast’s info on the nightcast dashboard). More info here.

Directory

A directory is an online (like Listen Notes) or app-based (like Google Podcasts) listing of podcasts. Some directories have both browser based and mobile apps. More examples are Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and more

Dashboard

The place on a podcast hosting service that you create your podcast, create episodes, view analytics, edit hosts, edit your podcast’s website and more

Audio Format

An audio format is a type that digital audio can exist on your computer. Some formats are mp3, wav, flac, aac, ogg and more. You don’t have to worry about them. Nightcast will detect the format of your audio file and will convert it to the proper one.

Mono Audio

Audio that is “in mono” has only one track. That means the left and right speaker play exactly the same thing at all times. If you only have voice on your episodes (no music or sound effects) it’s better to use mono as it requires less space and your listeners will not need to download as much data.

Stereo Audio

Stereo audio has two audio channels. That means that the left and right speakers may or may not play the same thing at the same time. For example one host can be heard only from the left speaker and the other only on the right (not recommended). Usually you need to export in stereo when using music and/or sound effects.

Mid Roll

Advertisements played somewhere in the middle of an episode

MP3

It is the most well known and used codec for distributing podcast episodes. Depending on the bitrate, it balances audio quality and file size. Nightcast will automatically convert your episodes to MP3 so they are compatible with every listening app.

WAV

An audio codec, a way to store audio in a computer. However it is not recommended at all for exported episodes as it is an uncompressed audio codec, meaning it will retain all the detail and will be huge in file size. It is recommended only for archiving purposes of your episodes (although it can be better to use high quality MP3 or FLAC in that case also, as they are compressed but still keep a lot of the detail). Avoid exporting your episodes in this format for uploading to a hosting service.