A podcast is an audio or video file that comes to you each time there's a new edition and ends up in your iTunes' (or other podcast catcher) library.

So, it's a bit like a radio (or TV) show that gets posted through your letterbox each time there's a new edition.....well not literally your letterbox, but your computer.

It's free to distribute a podcast and it's free for your 'subscribers' to receive them.

Traditionally, the internet has been all about users going to a website and 'pulling' down material. Podcasting is part of the Web 2.0 revolution, because content is 'pushed' to users, meaning once they've subscribed, they don't have to search for it.

Anyone can podcast. Unlike conventional radio or TV, there's no license to buy and no transmitters to build. Now, we can all be broadcasters.

Well, perhaps a more accurate term is narrowcasters, as podcasting allows us all to deliver any message to as a niche audience... or even a niche of a niche.

If you've got a computer with an internet connection you can receive and listen to a podcast, and if you've also got an iPod or any other portable audio player, you can pop them on there, too.

4 reasons to podcast:

1. If your brand, (website, etc) could have a voice, what would it sound like? Online audio can humanise a static site.

2. Online audio is about a 99.9999% more environmentally friendly way of communicating a message with your subscribers, staff, fan-base, community of interest, than sending out paper copy.

3, People remember a spoken message over a written message.

4. Its a way of taking your brand into a new area and targeting new audiences.

As Phil Oakey of The Human League once said in around 1982, '...add your voice to the Sound Of the Crowd' and he was probably right...

Wanna know more? Check out what Wikipedia's got to say...