Podcast FAQ

What is a podcast?

Think of a podcast as a kind of radio show. The radio show is in an audio file format that you can download to your computer for listening at a more convenient time and place. You will then be able to listen to the show on your computer or from a portable digital music player such as an iPod. In this case the radio show is a series of audio piano lessons.

How do I download a podcast?

You will see a listing of our podcasts on the pianofun.com blog. Just click on the title of any program you want to hear, and the recording will start downloading to your computer immediately. You’ll be able to listen to the broadcast within a few seconds, assuming your computer and its operating system are fairly up to date.

If you want to save this file to your hard disk for future listening, right click on the title (or option-click for Macintosh) and follow the prompts for saving the file. Put the file in a place you will remember so that you can listen to the broadcast later by double clicking on it.

How do I listen to a podcast?

Double click the icon you just downloaded, and it should start playing automatically. If the software program you are using doesn’t want to work, choose a different media player by right clicking on the file icon (control-click for Macintosh) and select “open with.”

How do I make the podcast portable?

Once you have the file downloaded to your hard drive, you can transfer it to a portable digital music player such as an iPod. Check with the manufacturer’s Owners Manual to learn how to do it. Once you have the podcast on your music player, you can, of course, play it anywhere and anytime you want.

Why subscribe to this podcast?

To make sure you don’t miss a single podcast, you will want to subscribe to this service. To do that you will need to have a piece of software called an “aggregator.” Many of these applications are free and easy to use. You can use iPodder or Doppler. But the easiest and most convenient of the lot seems to be iTunes, version 4.9 and above. There the aggregator is built right in.

Then every time we publish a new podcast, the aggregator will find it and download it automatically to your computer. If you are using iTunes, the podcast will be downloaded to your iPod the next time you sync it, and you will be notified.

How do I subscribe to this podcast?

This process varies depending on what aggregator application you are using. With iTunes select “subscribe to podcast” from the advanced menu. Cut and paste the following URL, and click OK. It’s as simple as that. If you use iTunes or Windows Media Player, be sure you are using the very latest version.

Here’s the URL you will need:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/pianofun/QgsL

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