By subscribing to your podcast, sermons can be set up to be automatically downloaded to a computer or mp3 player.  Also get listed in iTunes, where your sermons are available to millions of people to download for free.

You may be asking, “what is a podcast”?  Well here is the technical definition pulled from Wikipedia:

“Podcasting, created by former MTV VJ Adam Curry, is a term that was devised as a crisp way to describe the technology used to push audio content from websites down to consumers of that content, who typically listen to it on their iPod (hence the "pod") or other audio player that supports mp3 at their convenience. The term podcasting is meant to rhyme with broadcasting and is a derivative of the iPod platform. While not directly associated with Apples iPod device or iTunes music service, the company did contribute both the desire and the technology for this capability. Podcasting is not unlike time-shifted video software and devices like TiVo, which let you watch what you want when you want by recording and storing video, except that podcasting is used for audio and is currently free of charge. Note, however, that this technology can be used to push any kind of file, including software updates, pictures, and videos.

Podcasting uses an XML-based technology called RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. Content publishers describe new content in an XML RSS file which includes dates, titles, descriptions, and links to MP3 files. This auto-generated file is called an RSS feed. The key to making podcasting work with RSS is enclosures, a feature supported by RSS 2.0.

What makes podcasting special is that it allows individuals to publish (podcast) radioshows, that interested listeners can subscribe to. Before podcasting you could of course record a radio show and put it on your website, but now people can automatically receive new shows, without having to go to a specific site and download it from there.”

 So how does that work for you?  Through our system, you can easily set your audio sermon files as podcasts, and then anyone in the world can subscribe to your sermons and have them automatically delivered to them.  They don’t even have to go to your website to get them.

One of the largest mp3 manufactures handles podcasts directly in their software (iTunes).  Anyone running this software can subscribe to your podcast and your latest sermon will be automatically downloaded and put on their mp3 player.  They no longer have to sit in front of their computer to listen to your sermons.  They can take them with them anywhere they take their mp3 player.

We can also set you up to be listed in iTunes.  That way people can just search for your church right within iTunes and subscribe directly in iTunes.

More information about podcasting is available from Apple, along with their iTunes software and iPod mp3 Player.