PodSnack

After my last post over FlipSnack, I've sort-of been salivating over the rest of SnackTools's apps. I thought I'd go ahead and do a series of posts over the rest of their options, too. This particular post will feature PodSnack, the free audio playlist you can embed onto your social networking pages, blogs, and classroom websites!

I was first introduced to podcasting in 2010 while I was teaching 8th grade ELAR. A history/government teacher from down the hall used them to record her lectures and post them to her class webpage. I thought it was so neat and began to do the same thing. Now, of course, I realize there are lots of ways to get students involved with the podcast project, but I was young and naive at the time. :) If you've read other parts of my blog, I'm sure you know now that the super-easy podcast hosting website I was using in 2010 no longer works (*cue my hysterical sobbing*), and I have been unable to find a replacement that I love just as much.

I've posted a few other websites that may be able to help me fill my podcasting-void, but I just haven't been able to love them as much as I loved my original hosting site.
After further review, I think PodSnack may be able to help me, but I'm still on the hunt for a replacement to my beloved hosting site. (PodSnack has some great features, but the free version doesn't allow me to upload anything longer than 5 minutes. My podcasts are always longer than 5 minutes!) Although I probably won't use PodSnack extensively in my classroom, I'll go ahead and tell you about it, just in case it can help you.

PodSnack is actually intended to host music files, but I detest putting musical playlists on websites (unless you're a music or drama teacher). I think it's so pretentious to assume that all of my readers will enjoy my type of music! So I would never post a musical playlist for you. Instead, I would use PodSnack in a slightly unconventional way: to post podcasts.
Since PodSnack is FlipSnack's sister site (all children of SnackTools), there are many similarities. Although, since FlipSnack is for PDF files and PodSnack is for mp3 files, there are some slight differences. See for yourself all of PodSnack's cool features:

1. You can use it for free. 
2. You can publish it on several different websites (think: personal website and social media websites). There's an embed code so that viewers can actually see the playlist on your website instead of having to follow an external link to see anything. I really like this because it might allow me to continue to use the free version of Weebly and still upload audio files!
3. It uses Flash when posted on regular websites. Still hunting for anything that tells me it's available on iPhone/iPad...
4. There are several customization options so that you can personalize the playlist(s) in a variety of ways. 
5. You can upload up to 100 tracks per playlist!
6. You can insert links into your playlist (say, if you're a budding artist who wants to sell your new jams...this may be for you).
7. Many, many people can view your playlist for free. The way I understand it, people with a free membership can have a max of 25,000 views per day on sites external to PodSnack (VIP members get 50,000 views). Pretty convenient. I don't ever expect to reach that 25,000 view maximum, anyway, so I don't see this as a problem. 
8. You can display your playlist in a few different ways: audio player with a playlist (so you can see all the songs on the list), progress bar player, or mini player. I think each is nice in its own way!

The website only allows users to upload mp3 files. If you don't have the proper files, you can actually select songs from YouTube to add to your list. I think that feature is pretty neat!

As for podcasting, I'm not sure exactly how it works on a PC, but I know that I make my podcasts on my Mac with GarageBand. Those usually record in a .band format, but I found a way to convert them to mp3. This seems like a long process just to get an audio file on the web for my kids, but... dedicated teachers must press on!
Anyway, now that you know about all the great features, let me give you some details about the $$ involved:

• There is a free version, but, as with most websites, there are a few limitations. The free version puts a "watermark" on all playlists. Actually, the way they describe it, it's more of a "jingle" that gets attached to all of your songs (I'm thinking cheesy/annoying catchphrase or something, although I haven't verified this yet). 
• There's also an upload limitation that goes into effect for each free playlist: 5 tracks, each with a max time of 5 minutes. (Sigh.)
• You can have the watermark removed from playlists by purchasing points. It costs 8 points in order to do this, and the price of the points varies, based on how many you purchase at a time. (A purchase of 10 points will run you $19, a purchase of 25 points will run you $39, a purchase of 50 points will run you $49...you get the picture. There's a slight discount when you buy points in bulk.)
• If you don't want to mess with the limitations at all, you can always purchase a VIP membership for $14/month. This membership actually gives you premium access to all of SnackTools's apps, so you're getting quite a bit for your money. (Although, I'd really appreciate the ability to just buy a premium membership to ONE app, but maybe they'll implement that later!)

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be including an example in this post, like I did for my FlipSnack post.  I don't have any current podcasts I'd like to share, and my hopes have been slightly deflated, since the free PodSnack version only allows 5 minute uploads. If you've used PodSnack in your classroom, please free to comment below and tell me how it's worked for you!