Podcasting officially comes to Long Island

As fast as the technology changes, it seems like there is a new device or "toy" that becomes a fad or a permanent fixture in the hearts of entertainment buffs around the island. CD Players, cassette decks, DVD players, and yes, even the 8-track tape have made their marks. However, if you take over 475 CDs and try to shove them all in your pants pocket, what would you look like walking down the street? How comfortable would you be? You would not look too good or feel very confortable. However, take the 5,000 songs from all 475 of those CDs and put them into one Apple ipod. Put that ipod into your pocket and now you look like any normal person, but you have over the equivalent of those 475 CDs in that little box. Plug in your earphones and go. To me, that has to be one of the best benefits of apple ipods.

The real beauty of the ipod is that it has become a cousin to the television or the radio. I say that because since TV or radio programs get broadcasted, the ipod gets "podcasted". Podcasts are simply shows consisting of any topic including talk, music, sports, travel tips, world news, etc that people can download to their ipod and go anywhere that ipod will go. Podcasts, like web sites, come in all flavors, topics, and information.

As web sites created the way for people to express themselves, so do podcasts as they can be provided in audio or video form.

There a few podcasts in Long Island, but the Long Island Podcast Network was started as a music program to give unsigned bands from Long Island a chance to get their music out to the public without waiting for a record deal to come their way. The Long Island Podcast Network is striving to do for bands like The X's from Hicksville, Sigh from Brentwood, and The Mondays from Hauppauge just what TV and the music industry have done for Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, Blue Oyster Cult, Cyndi Lauper, Fran Drescher, Pat Benetar, and Ray Romano.

Although it took the success of the Apple ipod to make podcasting a success, is not limited to ipods. Podcasted shows can be enjoyed from any portable MP3 player and also home computers with high speed broadband connections. All people need to do to listen to a podcast show is stream the MP3 by clicking on the hyperlink from their computers. Or, they can listen to all of them by subscribing.

The Long Island Podcast Network at http://www.LiPodcastNetwork.com puts out a new show every Sunday of bands and musicians from Long Island, but will be moving to a 3 show schedule in April. Other shows of the network will be a sports podcast, a coupon podcast, and we even received an idea from a Suffolk county real estate agent who would review homes being listed on the housing market. We are even planning an idea to podcast restaurant reviews on the island. The Long Island Podcast Network is always looking for new shows to develop and people to host them.

In conclusion, I just want to say that podcasts will follow the same road that web sites took. They are here to stay, but people will need to sift through the effective podcasts and differentiate them from others. Just as there are some web sites that may not be serious, podcasts will do the same. The market is wide open for people to voice their opinions on whatever subjects they feel and the Long Island Podcast Network at http://www.LiPodcastNetwork.com can make that possible for anybody in Long Island who would like to host their own show.