"How to" Guideline series is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve these guidelines please me at e-mail hrallis@d.umn.edu.

Subscribing to Podcasts Using iTunes

by Meg Little (and updated by Helen Mongan-Rallis). Last updated: June 7, 2010

Overview

Podcast is the name popularized by the use of iPods to refer to a digital audio or video presentation delivered in a format which is portable with all computers and some mobile devices. For a more detailed explanation see this YouTube video, Podcasting in Plain English

Steps for subscribing using iTunes

1. Download the iTunes program from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download and follow the directions provided to install on your computer . (You will need speakers or headphones to listen from your computer.)
2. Launch iTunes on your computer
3. Click on iTunes store
4. Click on Podcasts in upper right hand block
5. Survey the front Podcasts screen for podcasts of interest to you. Examples:
   • New Releases
   • Quick links
   • Browse allows you to look through all available podcasts
   • Categories
   • Select from video or audio podcasts or categories of interest
   • Top Podcasts
6. Click on a podcast that you want to download. This will bring you to the podcast’s page
7. Click on subscribe if you want to have new podcasts download to your iTunes each time you log on – or – select a specific episode you want to download and click on “get episode” button next to it
8. As podcasts download you will see a spinning arrow icon in your iTunes (left sidebar)
9. To listen to/view a podcast that has been downloaded to your iTunes - double click on “Podcasts” icon and a new window will open. There will be a folder for each podcasts series.
10. Click on the triangle next to the podcast series and you’ll see all of the episodes
11. Click on the episode you want to listen to and it will begin playing. There is a tool bar at the top of the window.
12. Old episodes of the podcast will appear with a “get” button next to them. You can download by clicking on it.
13. You might see “Explicit” or “Clean” labels next to a podcast. These aren’t uniformly applied so it’s best to preview anything you’ll be using for class.

Additional Resources

1. LibriVox is a volunteer effort to audio recordings of public domain books. http://librivox.org/.
2. MIT produces a variety of podcasts produced by members of their community. http://web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts/
3. If you’d like to search in reverse – search your favorite websites for podcasts. Many will have a button to subscribe to the podcast with iTunes.
4. Some professional organizations are offering podcast versions of journals and continuing education
5. Project Gutenberg is a source of text-based ebooks, http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

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