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Goodbye Podpress, it’s time for a new mp3 player
December 10th, 2007 | Posted in Podcasting |
I’ve been using PodPress, a WordPress plugin that adds an audio player to your posts, for about a year now. But today I’m saying goodbye to this plugin. Although Podpress includes size and duration, adds iTunes tags, and shows download counts, it is filled with compatibility problems with WordPress. It seems every time WordPress updates to a new version, PodPress breaks. Lately PodPress has failed to work entirely, despite supposed compatibility.
I switched to a different mp3 player (mp3-0-matic — see image on right). I had to go back through each podcast post on Tech Writer Voices and add some [audio: tags around the audio as well as list the duration. It was seriously tedious. All the while I was thinking about writing this “Goodbye Podpress” post, so here it is.
The incompatibility of PodPress with WordPress is largely true of dozens of plugins that break each time WordPress upgrades to a new version. It is part of the hassle of open source software. Add this hassle to the lack of professional support at the PodPress forum, and the “free” aspect of open source software starts to add up — my time is worth some value.
The mp3-o-matic player is largely obscure, but it seems to work well. It allows you to pause and restart the audio, and it sends a clear message to the reader that there’s an audio file to play. If you have any feedback about the player, I’d like to hear it.
Also, if you wouldn’t mind providing a little more feedback, I have another question. Since its inception, I’ve hosted the audio for Tech Writer Voices on a separate blog. My rationale was that when you look for podcasts, you want to find immediate mp3 files to download. Now I’m thinking of making the podcast a separate category on my blog here at idratherbewriting.com, available as a clear tab at the top. What do you think?
12/28/2007 Update: I didn’t like this mp3-o-matic player so much after all, and switched to the One Pixel Out Audio player, which is more popular. The main reason I like it better is because when a user clicks the One Pixel Out player, something immediately happens (it expands, starts showing the dynamic sound gif), whereas with the mp3-o-matic player, it seems to freeze while loading.
Related Posts
- Embedding an Audio Player into Your Site Without WordPress
- Combining Podcasting with Technical Writing
- My Blog and Podcast Site Are Now Merged into One — Steps on How I Did It
- WordPress and Podcasting — Wordcamp Utah
- Podcasting FAQs
Tags: audio files, mp3-o-matic, one pixel out audio player, PodPress, Tech Writer Voices
December 10th, 2007 at 5:22 am
[...] post by Tom and software by Elliott [...]
December 10th, 2007 at 6:44 am
As an avid reader/listener of both your sites, I find them complementary in style and contents and would appreciate having one source for all my Tom Johnson/Tech Writer needs.
Thank you very much for keeping me plugged in to the latest developments in tech writing, Kai.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Thanks for the feedback, Kai. I’m glad to hear from you. I think I will merge the two sites into one. It would be so much easier to maintain on my end.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:49 am
All in one and I’ll listen more often. One click is easier than two. Glad to hear you fess up to having hassles we all face and think it’s just us or due to being down here at the bottom of the world (New Zealand). Whew, relieved and inspired by you, Tom. I look forward to using the new player.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:42 am
-title-song.html. Okka Magadu – Telugu Movie | Mp3 | Title Song Track | Free & Fast Download. CAST: Balakrishna, Simran, Nisha Kotari, Anushka … IndianPad - All Stories - http://www.indianpad.comGoodbye Podpress, it’s time for a new mp3 playerBy Tom My rationale was that when you look for podcasts, you want to find immediate mp3 files to download. Now I’m thinking of making the podcast a separate category on my blog here at idratherbewriting.com, available as a clear tab at the top
December 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I think one page for both will be good.
To be honest, I only listen to podcasts I can get from iTunes, because they show up in the podcasts directory on my iPod. (And since you asked in another post, I have a 60GB 5-Gen video iPod with about 18GB of music/audio and 6GB of video. I have imported movies using thrid-party software. I manage my music with iTunes. Most of the music is from CDs I own, but I have purchased around 100 songs or so from the iTunes store.)
December 12th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Thanks for sharing your iTunes details. There are a lot of podcast directories out there besides iTunes, but iTunes is definitely a major one. iTunes isn’t the most friendly directory for podcasters, though. Google the phrase “iTunes podcast not updating” and you’ll find tons of frustrated podcasters (myself included). I think when I combine the blog and podcast site, I’ll remove and readd my feed to the iTunes directory to see if I can fix it that way.
December 29th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
[...] casually surveyed some blog readers to see if they’d be opposed to the idea of consolidating. Not many responded, but those who [...]
January 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
’t happen. People who record podcasts usually want to publish them on their own sites. Keith Hoffman, Heidi Hansen, and Mark Lewis contributed some recorded content, but not many others. I casuallysurveyed some blog readersto see if they’d be opposed to the idea of consolidating. Not many responded, but those who did respond liked the idea. Kai convinced me most when he said, As an avid reader/listener of both your sites, I find them complementary in style and content
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Great tip, thanks for posting your research
April 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I was looking for a podpress alternative (and this is how I stumbled on your site), and the One Pixel Out one is truly a gem. Thanks for the tip!
April 16th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
It’s great! Like it, nice and clean.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Podpress needs a serious overhall. I am guessing the guys coding it, don’t actually use it. I know it is free, and it kind of does the job, but come on!
Podcasting is one of the biggest thing on iTunes and wordpress sites.
I think podpress could be simplified and made easier. Instead of having dozens of check boxes/text boxes/buttons, that you don’t really have a clues as to what they do, just have a spot to upload your file, and a easily modified display tempate.
I have been working with podpress for a good 6 months and the only reason I use it is to provide a correct feed to iTunes.
If someone could develope a new wordpress plugin to replace podpress, they would have a hit on their hands. I would even pay for it, if it worked.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Actually, if you use Feedburner for your podcast feed (and select the podcaster option), then Feedburner adds in all the iTunes specifications that PodPress does. After Podpress broke and I couldn’t fix it back in version 2.2 of WordPress or something, I migrated to the One Pixel Out Audio player. Things have worked out much smoother since then.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I stumbled upon your site while trying to figure out how to add audio to my wordpress site. I am a technical dunce. A techie helped me to add podPress to my blog but I don’t know how to use it. Tried to follow your directions on how to set up One Pixel on my blog but it’s still Greek to me. How do you create a folder in wordpress? How do you get the audio player embedded in a post? How do you get an audio file to the audio player? So many questions, so little knowledge. Sigh!
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July 26th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Thanks for the post. It’s usefull, really.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:51 am
thanks for sharing
September 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I use mp3-o-matic player, - work well - on mp3.md http://www.mp3.md/ is a totally FREE Mp3, Lyrics, videos Search Engine. Mp3.md is your source for legal and free MP3 downloads. Download MP3s from thousands of artists.