Up the Tree

Occasionally there may be a time when you really don’t want to publish all the MP3s of a post in your RSS feed. Unfortunately WordPress will not allow you to remove an MP3 it’s linked to. To be more accurate WordPress will always link to all available media files every time you press *Save.*

This becomes a huge issue when you are recording a podcast and linking to various MP3s you might have played during the course of a show. However with the addition of one letter to one line on one page of your WordPress installation you too can be enclosure free… and by free, I mean you will from this point on never have WordPress enclosing files even if you want them. You may of course manually enclose files, but this may problematic for some people.

# Find the folder in your WordPress Installation named *wp-includes*
# open the file in that folder named *functions.php*
# Scroll down to line 766 which starts preg_match_all and edit the bit that should have *http* and make it now read *httpp*
# Save the file and upload to your server.

*What did I just do?* Well, in effect you have told WordPress only to enclose files which start with httpp://www.yaddayadda…… and since no link can ever be on a server that starts httpp it will never include a file.

*It’s ugly, but it works.*

p(note). This hack has been tested with WordPress 1.5.x Please be cautious of modifying your WordPress code and always have a backup in the wings. I take no responsibility for broken sites.

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*We need some votes!*

If you haven’t voted already, please get over to the “PodCast Awards”:http://www.podcastawards.com/ and give us a vote! Although the prizes kind of suck, we would really like to be able to say we are the *Best Music Podcast* … well I guess I can still say that regardless, hell It’s true ain’t it?!

But since iTunes didn’t list us on their directory, we could really use the spotlight! Hell I could really use a “Chipwich!”:http://www.chipwich.com/chipwich/

_Mmmmm Chipwich!_

p(update). Looks like we didn’t win, but hey don’t let that keep you down! We’ll be here next year!

It’s no secret that Tracks Up the Tree is not yet in iTunes’ podcast directory, but don’t you fear. You can listen to the show, or any other non iTunes listed podcast, in iTunes without a problem. Here’s how…

Continue reading How To Subscribe To Tracks Up the Tree in iTunes 4.9 »

Recently while encoding a CD I noticed that the new iTunes 4.9 now has a setting for Podcasts under the AAC(Advanced Audio Codec) codec. This of course is a little cheeky in that you can only play podcasts encoded with Apple’s AAC on iPods. I would imagine the quality of the recordings is superb, but the loss in market you will get only encoding for iPods makes it a bad choice… I would recommend all you Podcasters to stay away from this setting if possible.

!(photo)http://www.upthetree.com/wp-uploads/encoding.jpg(encoding settings)!

I’ve received a lot of e-mails, over the past few months, on the subject of podcasting and the legal ramifications of playing non “podsafe” music. I thought I would put together this post to open any doors and serve as a resource for anyone thinking of starting a podcast. _Should you have any questions feel free to leave a comment._

bq.. Ben,

I listened to your podcast last night on my drive home. I loved it.

I’ve been wanting to do a music podcast with the stuff that I listen to for some time, but was under the impression that I couldn’t. Then, I hear music that I know and love on your podcast, and realize that the stuff I like might be podcastable after all.

But then I read about the ASCAP license that you paid (”for the cost of an iPod…”). I’d be more than willing to do that to create my own podcast, but then I see that not all the music I like is under ASCAP. For instance, if I wanted to play a Shins song on my podcast, I couldn’t do that because they are not under the ASCAP license.

So are you not able to play a Shins song? Or do you pay multiple licenses (to BMI and ASCAP)? Is this just something you pay out of your own pocket? How much did the whole venture cost you to start?

I’m trying to find out this information through research, but nothing’s clear.

I want to do this, but I’m not a rich man, nor am I an IP attorney.

Any advice?

Matt

Continue reading Podcast Music Licensing For Outlaws »