What is a podcast?

What is a podcast?

A podcast is an audio file that you can download and listen to at your convenience on your computer or portable digital media device – be it an iPod or other MP3 player.

How to listen to a podcast

Holland’s Pies podcasts are free and there are two ways to listen:

1. Listen to a podcast online

This is the simplest way to consume a podcast, as each audio file is streamed online from the Holland’s Pies website page you are viewing and won’t be saved to your computer.

Simply click the play button on the audio player and the show should start to play automatically. Bare in mind that it may take a short time for the podcast to start, depending on the speed of your internet connection. 

2. Download a podcast

This means you can download the podcast direct to your computer and listen to it later as often as you like. 

To download the podcast using a PC, right click the ‘download’ link next to the video or audio player and select ‘Save target as…’. This will allow you to save the video or audio file to any location on your computer. On a Mac, press the ‘Apple’ key and click on the link to save the file.

Once you have saved the file, you can play it any time by simply double-clicking it and it will open on your computer’s media player. You can also copy the file from your computer to your portable digital media device or iTunes library.

How to subscribe to a podcast?

You can ‘subscribe’ to receive podcasts, rather like you might subscribe to a magazine and get new shows delivered as soon as they’re published.

Why not try subscribing to PieCast – The podcast show from Holland’s Pies using an RSS ‘feed reader’ – click here to find out more. 

Another option is to subscribe using podcast software that you install on your computer. This software is normally free and can be easily downloaded from the internet, popular examples include:

• ITunes - http://www.apple.com/itunes/ 
• Juice - http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/
• Doppler - http://www.dopplerradio.net/    

Once you have the software installed you’ll need to subscribe to a podcast, but how you subscribe will vary depending on which software you have chosen.

To subscribe, the first thing you need to do is add the ‘feed’ of the podcast to your software. The feed is where the software will go to each time it wants to check for a new episode.

The feed URL for PieCast – The podcast show from Holland’s Pies is http://www.hollandspies.co.uk/join-our-family/piecast.rss

You will need to copy this feed address and paste it into your podcast software. How you do this will depend on which software you are using, but you should look out for buttons or links that say ‘Add’ or ‘Subscribe’.

To unsubscribe, simply follow the ‘unsubscribe’ instructions from your feed reader or podcast software provider.