How to Listen to Podcasts

Podcasts are getting bigger every year with promising growth on listeners. Many new podcasts are submitted to Apple directory almost every single day. There are almost 250,000 podcasts on Apple podcasts in more than 100 languages.

These podcasts ranges from interviews of entrepreneur to TV show commentary to Science and fiction. There is lot of content for listeners to choose from for their listening joy. And the best part is 99.9% of these podcasts are free.

If you are still among those people who don’t know how you can find and listen to podcasts this post is for you.

And if you don’t know what is a podcast you can  read it here.

Regardless of your device type whether it is your i-Phone or Android or Laptop you can listen to podcasts with no hassle at all. I am going to share the ways you can listen to podcasts based on device type:

i-Phone

The single best way to find and listen podcast on i-Phone is pre-installed Apple Podcasts app. This application is very easy to navigate and find podcast shows. If you do not have this app pre-installed on your phone you can download for free on apple store.

 

 

You can search podcasts by their name from apple directory. If you already don’t know about the name of show you can also search using keywords such as digital marketing podcast or daily news podcast depending on your interest. It is very likely that you will find at least a dozen of podcasts on the topic of your interest.

You can subscribe to the podcast you love so that the app will send you notification once new episodes are released. You can also rate and review the show within this app.

There is another very popular app for i-Phone called Overcast which you can also get for free on apple store and enjoy your show.

 

Android

Google Play Music app has started including podcasts on its directory but this service is available only in US and Canada as of now. Once this podcast directory becomes available worldwide it’d be very easier for Android users to find and listen to podcasts inside Google Play Music app.

But there are lot of great apps to listen podcasts on Android device. Here are few I tried and found user friendly:

CastBox:

This app is my personal favorite for its beautiful player and UI. In contrast to many other apps, this app don’t irritate listeners with lot of ads. On homepage of this app you will see most popular, recommended and featured podcasts. You can search podcasts by the name of podcast, episode or RSS feed URL.  This app is also available for i-Phone.

You can download CastBox and listen to The Inspiring Talk podcast by following link.

Podcast Addict:

I love this app for its simplicity. You can use their search directory and find podcasts and listen to them or even download them offline to your device for later. On the homepage, you can see the podcasts that you subscribe. Homepage of this app is not cluttered with suggestions and top podcasts. This would be a great choice if you just want to see podcasts that you subscribe by using their search directory.

Apart from these few more apps that I love on Android are:

1. RadioPublic: This app also have clean UI and love the way I can manage subscribed podcasts in this app.
2. TuneIn: This app is more than just podcast player. It has options to listen local radios and music within app.
3. Stitcher: It has a large directory of podcasts and has good UI if not the best.

There are many other options available on Google Play store that are free to use for your Android device. You can experiment and keep the best you love.

 

Need Good headphones for your podcast listening pleasure? You can get one here. 

From your Computer:

If you sit on your computer for long hours and want to play podcasts on background of your work then there are several options for you to explore.

1. Play directly from podcast website: Most of the podcasts have their own podcast website and they have embedded player in their episode page. You can listen to my podcast here:

 

2. From your Desktop:

• i-Tunes is available for both Desktop and Mac. You can simply download iTunes for desktop and browse its huge podcast directory and listen to the podcast of your choice.
• gPodder is good iTunes substitute for desktop. The best part of gPodder is it integrates very well with your Android phone through gPodder app.
•  VLC Media player: It is very likely that you already have VLC media player installed on your laptop for watching movies. VLC also plays podcasts once you add the show using RSS link of the show. But you cannot search podcasts on VLC as it doesn’t integrate podcast directory. Here are the steps to add a podcast to your VLC player:

Click on View >> Playlist>> on left Menubar you will see Podcasts >> Click on “+” sign >> Enter the rss link to the podcast you’d like to add.

http://theinspiringtalk.libsyn.com/rss

(Copy and Paste this link to add The Inspiring Talk podcast to your VLC Player.)

 

 

3. From web-browser: If you want to listen podcast from your web-browser such as google chrome there are a couple of them you can try. player.fm offers you a web-player and also you can get their Android or IOS app for your mobile device. If you switch frequently from laptop to phone this could be very useful tool to keep track of your subscriptions.

 

On your Car:

You can listen to podcast while you are driving (That’s the best part I love about podcasts, you don’t need dedicated time to listen). You can listen by using Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio jack.

1. Connect your phone with car audio system using Bluetooth or 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio jack.
2. Open your podcast player on your phone.
3. Play the podcast on your device.
4. Enjoy your ride. 😀

 

 

Subscribe to The Inspiring Talk podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Play Music | Android | RSS | Youtube