What is audio.weblogs.com?

A web application that provides infrastructure Ping-Server services for audio weblogs and podcasts. The audio.weblogs.com site is a resource for the notification of audio weblog updates and Internet content publishing. The core function of audio.weblogs.com is to provide a list of weblogs that have changed. This information is available in both HTML and XML (changes.xml or shortChanges.xml).

What is "podcasting"?

Podcasting is a new way to create and listen to radio.

The Wikipedia describes , "Podcasting is a way of publishing files to a website that allows users to subscribe to the site and receive new files as they are posted. Most podcasts are spoken word audio created by individuals, often on a particular theme such as technology or movies. Because new files are downloaded automatically by subscribers, podcasting allows individuals to have a self-published, syndicated radio show."

How do I get an RSS/Atom reader?

In order to access RSS/Atom content you must install an RSS/Atom reader. There are many different RSS/Atom readers available, some available at no cost and some available for a small fee. Below is a link to a directory of several commonly used RSS/Atom readers. Once you have installed your RSS/Atom reader, please refer to your reader's instructions to configure your settings.

Directory of RSS readers*

Do I have to have an iPod or other Music Device?

No. In fact, you don't even need an MP3 player at all. You can listen and participate just with your computer. But if you have an iPod or iPod-like device, you can take shows with you and listen to them when you're on the go.

How often does audio.weblogs.com check for new podcasts from feeds?

We currently crawl feeds only when you ping the audio.weblogs.com service.

How do I ping audio.weblogs.com?

In order to ping, you need to be able to send a simple XML-RPC message. Most blogging tools support XML-RPC-based pings. There are lots of toolkits you can use. It uses the same interface as weblogs.com pings.

Send the message to audiorpc.weblogs.com, port 80, path /RPC2.

There's also a way to ping using a form.

How can I configure my blogging software to ping audio.weblogs.com?

Most major blogging tools are already configured to ping audio.weblogs.com. However, you may also view instructions on doing this manually here.

audio.weblogs.com must be told when your weblog changed. It doesn't automatically check to see if a weblog has changed. Even though Weblogs.com must be told about changes, if you use a blogging tool or content management system, it can be programmed to tell Weblogs.com about the change. Many tools and utilities, such as blog search engines, have been programmed to communicate directly with Weblogs.com to get these changes. They then will visit your blog to harvest the information.

audio.weblogs.com has a service to notify us when you post a new show to your podcast. That way all of your listeners via audio.weblogs.com will get the latest shows even faster. We use the standard weblogs.com xml-rpc ping format as well as a REST based format.

Ping from the web: http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/pingform.html

For the xmlrpc ping use the "audioUpdate" method to call this url: http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

For the rest ping use this url: http://audio.weblogs.com/pingform.html

What do I do if I have problems?

1. Ask the feed debugger what it thinks of the feed*.

2. Although the channel-level language element is not required by the RSS 2.0 spec, we require it. This is because, should there be more growth, which seems likely, we'll be able to produce separate lists based on language. This is a common feature request, so I think it's worth having that data for each feed.

3. The version number of the feed must be 2.0 or 0.92, because other versions of RSS don't have an enclosure element. So if your feed is version 0.91, for example, you can fix this just by changing the version number to 2.0.

4. The enclosure element itself must have three attributes, url, length and type, and according to the spec, they must be correct.

5. We've seen feeds with no enclosure elements. There's nothing wrong with these feeds, that's perfectly valid RSS, but audio.weblogs.com only looks for enclosure elements.

6. If you've fixed a problem and your enclosures still don't show up on audio.weblogs.com, wait 1/2 hour and ping again.

When reporting a problem 

Very important: If you want help with your feed, you must provide the URL of the feed. There's nothing anyone can do to help without that vital piece of information.

Indicate if the ping worked...

If your feed has any new enclosures, they will show up on audio.weblogs.com, and in the two XML versions: the long one (with the last hour of changes) and the short one (the last five minutes).

In the future, we hope to have more ways we can help you.

* By clicking on the Directory of RSS readers link you will leave Weblogs.com