Mac v Win: Which Is Better For Audio Podcasting?

July 13, 2006

Nielsen/NetRatings has just released a report that suggests the bulk of podcast subscribers are Mac-using, Nike-wearing Trekies - and that 18-to-24 year olds make up the bulk of audio podcast listeners and 25-to-34 year olds download the most video podcasts.

The Mac-loving stat got me wondering what the demographics might be on the creation side of podcasts. I can't answer that but I can answer this: which platform is better, Mac or Windows, for recording podcasts. Highly subjective of course - but I just bought a Mac after about 7 years? of being away - and here are my thoughts:

Let's look at audio podcasting and later look at video podcasting.

Apple's Promise:

Apple's Mac-only Garageband is a superior podcast recorder.

Verdict:

True (with big caveat).

Apple's Mac-only audio-recording/mixing software Garageband is pretty nice. I've used Logic Audio, Pro Tools, Audacity & others to record music (and eventually podcasts) for about 10 years now - and free Garageband is a much happier place to spend time in. It's strength is its intuitive design that makes you want to experiment and spend time w/ a song/podcast. That and they give you a good bit of resources (loops, jingles etc) to play with right out of the box.

However: Call it simplifying the process for non-professionals or, as I see it, call it a Microsoft-esque, lock-in mentality, but Garageband gets major negative points for their awful export set up. They give you very little options for how to export your song/podcast - and mp3 ain't one of them.

Garageband exports using the m4a format and doesn't offer specific adjustment of bitrates (only clownish good, better, best). This makes sense as their iPod, iTunes and Quicktime products all have special features to handle special features of the m4a format.

But this means you have to go through another round of trickery to convert exported files to mp3s. I'm doing that through iTunes which is not the best place to do it. Plus you can end up with two files for every 1 file you want. Which means more pain-in-the-arse file management...

All this could and should be easier w/ an "advanced setting" export...

Microsoft's Promise:

Microsoft makes no loud promises to podcasters.

But you can find small, ununified mention of podcasting. Record audio from your PocketPc or Windows Smart Phone using VoiceNotes. Make movies with the Windows Movie Maker they say.

These little items are examples of existing applications originally built for different uses. From what I understand Microsoft has made no effort to specifically court podcast producers nor, even, podcast listeners. They offer no podcast-friendly audio recording/mixing software. Even their latest release  of the Windows Media Player playback software requires a plug-in to allow podcast subscriptions. Though the Vista release may change that as it is supposedly very xml-friendly? There are no details yet on whether the Microsoft iPod competitor Argo/Zune? will have any podcast-friendly features.

But Windows isn't about supplying all the tools, you say. And you'd be right. They leave that up to thrid parties. So what about them?

Verdict:

If you don't promise anything then it's ok if you don't deliver right? Ha.

Like I said this isn't an exhaustive comparison of available options - just 1 man's opinion based on years of using this stuff. I haven't used any Windows-based audio recording/mixing software that I would rather use over Garageband for recording podcasts.

Are there Windows-based progams that make it easier to record podcasts? Possibly, but I haven't seen them. Pro Tools and Logic Audio were built for recording music and they are what they are. Audacity is surprisingly good for a freebie app - but has some awful little things that make the experience not very fun.

Final Verdict

Obviously this isn't a very scientific or exhaustive comparison. But isn't that also a point? Productivity can also be measured by the hours you have to spend researching, finding, downloading, installing and learning new software. Which can be frustrating.

The Mac environment and Garageband are significantly better platforms to record and mix podcasts and audio for podcasts compared to the Windows platform and it's available software. That doesn't mean you can't do a good job or pull less hair out on a Windows machine. But I asked for my own opinion... and I gave it. Ha.

Man, I hope I don't become a Mac butt-kissing, evangelizer, snob like those pretentious Mac commercials (view Mac spoof ads). I don't think so.

Next up we'll be looking at creating video podcasts... and Apple's low-end iMovie is awful...

Stats in the intro come from this Cnet article via Digg.

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