Podcast

The Podcast module is the home of the community's audio shows: each show has a cover, a description, presenters and episodes, and listeners get a player of their own, with chapters, speed, a queue and a mini-player that keeps playing while the person browses the community. For video shows there is the sister module Videos, which works the same way.

#What it's for

#How it works

#Creating the space: one show or several

In Create Space, Community tab, choose Podcast. The Shows in this space step asks:

With One show, the window gets the Show step: "The space is born with the show. You add the episodes later, in the show." Fill in the fields (below) and click Create show. The space and the show are born together and the window ends open on the show. If the show fails, the space already exists and the screen says "The space was created, but the show was not: …".

#The show

The show page shows the cover, "Presented by" with the presenters and the list of episodes, which can be filtered by state (All, Live, Scheduled, Drafts; the last three only for whoever manages), by Season and by Newest or Oldest. The Manage show bar has New episode, Edit show, Numbers and Delete show.

Delete show asks for confirmation: the show and its episodes leave the space, with comments and numbers. The other shows and the space stay.

#Who does what

The presenter is a member or a moderator picked in the show's Presenters field. They see "You present this show: you create and publish its episodes." and look after that show's episodes only: they don't edit the show, don't change the presenters and don't touch another show in the same space.

#The episode

New episode opens the editor. The episode starts as a Draft: only the team and the presenters see it.

The editor shows "Unsaved changes" or "All saved". The … menu holds Unpublish (the episode goes back to draft and disappears for members; comments, reactions and numbers are kept) and Delete episode (it leaves with its file, comments and numbers).

#Accepted files

• WAV is not accepted. The screen replies "Upload MP3 or M4A." Convert the file first: podcast apps don't accept WAV either.
• Audio plays as it was uploaded, with no conversion. Video is converted for streaming, like the videos in Videos.
• The file counts toward the community's storage (see Plan and extensions).
• Replace swaps the file; the trash can removes it. A live episode needs a file.

#Chapters

Write one line per chapter in the description, starting with the time:

00:00 Intro
03:15 The first member
1:02:03 Questions from the community

These lines become clickable chapters: marks on the progress bar and a list on the episode page. The editor shows, in the Chapters section, the ones it found.

To set the chapters by hand, turn on Custom chapters and use Add chapter (with Start and Chapter title). On, the chapters below are used instead of the description's; off, the description is back in charge. An invalid chapter is pointed out: "Check chapter 2: the start looks like 00:00 or 1:02:03, and the title can't be empty."

#Publishing, scheduling and notifying by e-mail

Publish shows up when the episode has a file and opens the Publish episode window:

The notice goes out once, when the episode goes live (now or at the scheduled time), through the sending queue. It goes to whoever has access to the space (or, for an open episode, to every member of the community), except whoever published it and whoever turned off the Podcasts and videos category in E-mails from this community. A draft never triggers a notice. The e-mail's button opens the episode; whoever isn't signed in sees "Sign in to listen to the episode" and signs in with their own account.

#Who listens

Whoever has no access to the space doesn't see the space in the menu. An episode the person can't listen to shows "This episode is for people with access to the space."

#Listening

#The player

The episode page opens with the player: the cover, the show, the title, the current chapter and the progress bar with the chapter marks.

When an episode ends, the next one in the queue plays and, with the queue empty, the show's next episode. On the phone, the lock screen shows the cover and the title, with the play, pause and skip controls.

#The queue

The queue button (with the number of episodes) opens Up next: "After this one, "…" plays." Each episode in the queue has Play now, Move up, Move down and Remove from queue. The queue belongs to the person, covers every audio show in the community and stays the same after reloading the page or on another device. Empty, it says "Your queue is empty. Use "Add to queue" on an episode."

#Picking up where you left off

The episode remembers where you stopped and, when you open it again, in any browser or device with the same account, it continues from there ("Resumes at 12:30"). In the show's list, each episode shows "Stopped at 12:30" or Finished. Whoever stops in the last moments of the episode starts from the beginning next time.

#The mini-player

When you leave the episode page, the audio keeps playing in a fixed mini-player, with the cover, the title, play and pause, skip, the queue and Close the player. It follows you as you browse and switch spaces inside the community; clicking the title takes you back to the episode. On the phone, it doesn't cover the comment field.

The audio stops when you switch communities or sign out. When an action needs to reload the page (such as coming back from a purchase or a new version of the app), the audio pauses and the mini-player comes back paused at the same point.

#The episode page

Below the player are the reactions (🎉 ❤️ 👍 🔥 🙌 😊 👏, one per person), Share (copies the episode's link), Previous episode and Next episode, and three tabs:

On the side (below, on the phone), More episodes lists other live episodes from the same show and, after them, from the space.

#Transcript

In Podcast, each episode is transcribed on its own when it goes live (published now or at the scheduled time). The show can turn this off in Transcribe every episode. The transcript takes a few minutes ("Transcribing… this can take a few minutes.") and shows up in the Transcript tab, with clickable times ("Play from 03:15") and the Search the transcript search.

• Transcribe (or Transcribe again), in the tab, asks for the transcript by hand; it's the way to go with the automatic one off. Only for whoever manages the episode.
• The transcript uses the AI transcription minutes of the plan, the same monthly quota as Drops. With the quota used up, the episode goes live without a transcript and the team sees "The episode went live without a transcript: the month's minutes were used up. Use “Transcribe” when there are minutes."
• Episodes of up to 4 hours. Replacing the file hides the old transcript; ask for another one.
• One transcript at a time per episode: "A transcript is already in progress."

#Numbers

In Numbers (on the show's bar or on a live episode's), the team and the presenters see, per episode or in All episodes:

#Engagement points

With engagement on, the episode gives points once per episode and per person:

The values are changed like those of the other actions.

#Examples

Weekly show with a trailer. Space Community Talk (One show), in a paid space. Episode 0 is a Trailer with Open episode on: every member listens and gets what the show is about. The following episodes are scheduled for Monday at 7 a.m.; at that time, subscribers get the e-mail and the transcript arrives on its own.

Two shows, two presenters. Space Audio (Several shows): News, presented by Maria (moderator), and Behind the Scenes, by João (member). Each one publishes on their own show; neither touches the other's.

Chapters for people in a hurry. The description has 00:00 Intro, 05:40 Case of the week and 21:10 Questions. Whoever only wants the questions clicks the chapter.

#Common errors and how to fix them

#Frequently asked questions

Can a member without access to the space listen to any episode? Yes, the episode marked as Open episode. The others, no.

Who gets the e-mail about a new episode? Whoever can listen to it and left the Podcasts and videos category on. There's no "follow show": the notice goes to everyone with access.

Can I unpublish the episode without losing the numbers? Yes: Unpublish sends it back to draft and keeps comments, reactions and numbers.

Does the audio keep going if I lock my phone? Yes, with the browser open: the lock screen shows the cover and the controls.

Why was my WAV refused? Podcast apps don't accept WAV. Convert it to MP3 (or M4A) before uploading.

#Through the assistant

The assistant creates the space and the shows, picks the presenters, uploads the audio by link (up to 500 MB) or in base64 (up to about 7 MB), creates and edits episodes with chapters, publishes or schedules after first telling you how many people get the e-mail, asks for and reads the transcript and shows the numbers. For listeners, it saves where they stopped, reacts, comments and organizes the queue. See Tools · Podcast and Videos.

#Related

• Videos
• Drops
• E-mails from this community
• Gamification
• Plan and extensions
• Modules