Contact Us

Email us at Gill@icast.uk.com

If you’re a record label , iCast can create a podcast using your roster, read below!

 

iCast - Podcasting Made Easy

 

Who?
Gill Mills has been a professional radio and TV music broadcaster and journalist for ten years, working for Radio 1, the BBC and satellite stations. She also runs hooverdam, a music consultancy agency for film - makers.

What?
iCast is a company established to provide content for streaming and downloading from established web sites. The central premise is to enable effective marketing of music catalogues using the emergent technologies and offer low cost entry into the podcasting market. Many record companies have large catalogues which would benefit from being showcased effectively through the preparation of a weekly or monthly podcast streamed from their website. This would differ from merely dumping the catalogue on the site for browsers to access. iCast works alongside vCast, our videocasting arm, and is moving into film and leisure podcasts. Please contact us for details on these developments.

Where?
All you need to do is provide the musical content of the programme and we’ll provide you with a bespoke podcast. Is there a new act on your roster you wish to push? A re-issue that’s not getting coverage? iCast can build a show around these requirements, from simple playlisting and informative links, to interviews, exclusive competitions and featured plays. This show would then be placed up on your website. It would also be prepared as a podcast and entered into the world wide directories accordingly. iCast would be responsible for ensuring that the show on your site maintains high visibility through links, directory entries and reviews in podcatching shows.

Why?
By creating a show you create listener interest. As well as helping to promote new acts you are working, through interviews, competitions, exclusives and plays, you would also be able to catch the casual browser and keep them listening to your other acts and back catalogue. The finished show would then be listed in the podcast directories and made available to the growing number of devotees the world over.

This is an opportunity to present your catalogue in an exciting and different way, and would not only provide a foothold in the new podcast market, but also work as a marketing tool and boost sales of current and back catalogue music.

iCast can help your company increase its sales and have an alternative means of promoting its roster in the digital marketplace.

You can have a new podcast every week, or every month, it’s up to you. All iCast needs to provide you with a quality podcast is the following:

You provide:

Priority tunes for inclusion - your big releases for the next few weeks - both UK and internationally. Include release dates, tour dates and any TV or print you want to direct the listener to.
Competitions - if you want to place a competition, send details of the prize and any specific mechanic you’d like to employ.
Links - if you want the listener to be directed to any of your other sites please include the links and any information relevant to it. If you would like the listener to view the video or an exclusive live performance, send the link for inclusion.
Artwork - if you would like a specific piece of artwork to be used in the podcast directories, please include.
Space - iCast will liaise with your web team and deliver the podcast in a suitable format, which they can then access and place on your site.
Music - hard copies would be preferable, but MP3’s sent over would be fine too. Please notify us of any tracks from your catalogue you do not wish us to include in any show.
Access - if you would like to include interviews or chosen tracks by your artists, just name your time and place and iCast will record them for inclusion in the podcast.
Pluggers - contacts at the pluggers if you would like them to be notified of new podcast being posted and if you wish to publicise the podcast in other media. Some labels prefer to do this in house, others to leave it to iCast.

As soon as we’ve received all the content from you we programme a running order for your approval. Once it’s been passed, the show is recorded and the following package delivered:

We provide:

Completed show - a podcast enabled show, tailored to your specific requirements (duration, frequency, content, listing). The most expedient means of delivery is for us to deposit the finished show on your FTP area on a weekly or monthly basis. If you do not have an FTP area, we can post a compressed file or send a hard copy to your digital department to upload onto your site. Hard copies for archive purposes can be made available on request.
Running order - all the music played within the show listed with clock times to indicate the location of any special features, such as a competition or interview.
A podcast icon - for your web team to place on the site next to the show blurb. A browser can then just click on the icon and be sent straight to the podcast.
Competition mechanic - a hard copy of the competition mechanic for the web team to add to the site next to the podcast icon.
Show description - a few words describing the show and what’s in it this week/month.
Podcast directory listings - list of all podcast directories the show will be registered with.
ITunes listings - all of our podcasts live under the iCast unbrella in iTunes.
Cross listenership - anyone subscribing to icast automatically gets sent ALL the podcasts, not just the label they signed up for. A great way to catch and interest browsers.

iCast Options

Podcasting is a continuously evolving medium, here’s just some of the features and items you could add to your podcast.

One off specials - you may want to highlight a certain key release by a priority act. The iCast studios would allow your artist to come in and talk about it in interview, with the option to perform acoustic tracks.This could then be placed on the main site and the band’s own site. You may have a key re-release or box set re-issue that would benefit from a special show hosted by a known expert in that field, focused solely on the genre and music related to that release. Maybe your artist wants to take the listener on a tour of their home town or inspiration for an album, iCast can facilitate this.
Festival reports - an audio blog created in situ covering your acts’ performances at the festivals, with audience reviews, band reactions and set lists. Alternately a daily podcast could be downloaded to phone with details of every band you have playing that day, music clips and stage times.
Enhanced podcasts - allow you to add pictures and weblinks to your podcast artwork viewer. Our video arm, vCast covers this area extensively.
Podcast production - iCast would act in a producer role so that bands could begin creating their own audio blogs for their web sites, say from the studio or on tour. iCast provides easy equipment which they can record onto then post away to iCast who will create a podcast from it.
Corporate production - iCast could create a monthly podcast for internal distribution, detailing which are priority releases, who is working them, background, biog etc all in one handy podcast on your colleague’s desktop. These could also be adapted to retail, consumer and press.

vCast is our video casting section currently in development. We will be able to provide video content to accompany podcasts,special releases, video download and the many evovling areas in this area.

iCast is a continually evolving company that is learning every day about the powers and creative possibilities of pod and video casting. One of our favourite things is working with labels and artists on what kind of podcast will best suit them and their needs. It’s best to get in touch, tell us what you want to achieve, and we can start talking about the best and most interesting way to do it.

Podcast Directories that list iCast

www.podcastalley.com

www.ipodder.org

www.podcastingnews.com

www.podcast.net

www.apple.com/itunes

www.podmining.com

www.podcastPickle.com

www.digitalpodcast.com

www.syndic8.com

www.allpodcasts.com

www.podcastbunker.com

www.podcasting-station.com

www.podcastshuffle.com

www.podcatch.com

www.odeo.com

www.idiotvox.com

www.loomania.com

www.podcast411.com

www.ipodderx.com

www.penguinradio.com

www.podcasthost.com

www.gigadial.net

www.openpodcast.org

www.podsites.com

www.pocketcasting.com

www.rss-network.com

www.plazoo.com

www.podcastdirectory.com

www.podfeeder.com

www.podfeed.net

www.podscope.com

www.omn.org

www.podshow.com

www.feedzie.com

www.everypodcast.com

www.castregister.com

www.podcastnetwork.com

www.podcastcentral.com

www.podcastexpert.com

www.podnova.com

www.podcastcenter.com

www.getapodcast.com

www.podblaze.com

www.allpodcasts.com

www.podcasthost.com

www.podcastmania.com

www.podcasterworld.com

www.podtower.com

www.vitalpodcasts.com

www.wolfdatasystems.com

www.podcastcharts.com