Wizzard Media announced today the availability of LibsynPRO 3.0, a new digital media publishing platform designed to give media producers the ability to pick and choose, in an a la carte fashion, media syndication packages to suit their needs.

The LibsynPRO 3.0 digital media publishing system is based around a redesigned publishing engine that is capable of formatting, transcoding and delivering content suited for various destinations. The new platform can publish not only podcast content in iTunes and your site, but to over 20 social video sites, including YouTube, MySpace and Daily Motion.

iPhone App Support

This new platform also lays the groundwork for ‘click-to-build’ customized iPhone application.

Podcasters will be able to turn their shows into interactive iPhone apps, and with standard approvals, sell them in the iTunes App Store.

Details on LibsynPRO 3.0 below.

If you’ve used LibsynPRO 3.0, leave a comment with your thoughts.

Main Features Of LibsynPRO 3.0

• Destination-based publishing engine treats each point of distribution (RSS, iTunes, Zune, Flash Video Player, TubeMogul, Twitter) independently with their own settings and behaviors allowing for schedule controlled distribution, where the media file can be released to specific destinations in a time based sequence.
• Support for an unlimited number of RSS feeds & media players per show and full Integration with (Wizzard) Flash Player Engine, providing access to an advanced Engine for Flash Media publishing on the web in audio and video and an embeddable media player that has its own customer specific attributes and playlists.
• Advertising and Statistics including a new advanced flash based slot selector tool for pinpoint accuracy of ad placement on new and legacy media.

While Rob Walch gave a Podcasting 101 session in the big auditorium, at today’s PodCamp Midwest, Brady Goodman (right) presented a session for more seasoned podcasters, “Podcasting Like a Pro.”

He has a longtime background in radio, and decided he’d learn about podcasting, and poker, by creating the “Ante Up” podcast three years ago. It did well and got attention from professional poker players as well as mainstream media. Here’s an unedited nearly-liveblog of the session:
“Whether you’re a podcaster or the BBC, to a listener, the storefront looks the same.”

“Content is key – when you’re doing your podcast, know what you’re going to talk about, you can’t be over-prepared. Feedburner has about 200,000 podcasts, you have to have good stuff to talk about. Be focused.

“Equipment – you can be as fancy or as simple as you want. All you need, at minimum, is the gear that comes with your computer But if you want to sound like a pro, you need to process your audio (either when you create, or after when you edit). You can get a processor for like $80 at Guitar Center.

“For microphones, higher end ones are often XLR, which your computer doesn’t have a jack for. You can get an “mbox” which has xlr inputs and a firewire output to connect to your computer. And that comes with ProTools, which is fantastic.

“You can do interviews – if content is key, having other people talk about their expertise is great, but you’ll need equipment to record phone conversations. One pc of eqip is THAT2, which takes a telephone signal and records it.

“Recording software: Audacity is free, and there are many forums online to learn and talk about editing. ProTools is great editing software.

“Some websites let you create podcasts remotely, like BlogTalkRadio. Skype is an internet phone program you can use for making and recording (with another program) calls. LibSyn is another good place to look for hosting and publishing your podcast.

“Be prepared, don’t waste time with intros if you don’t have to have them.

“Production quality: if your content is good, you want to sound even better. Use music beds, check out CC for good free music. Add interviews, process your audio, normalize it, don’t freak me out with an extra loud noise. Use relevant sound effects and background noise, *if* it’s relevant to the content. As you grow your audience, include them and their input/feedback on the podcast. That will encourage more listeners to also contribute and interact. Consider adding a voicemail system so listeners can leave you a message – which you can add to our podcast.

“Making money with your podcast: sell podcast sponsorships. You don’t have to get a bunch of money outof your podcast, but it’d be nice to pay for your cool new microphone. Trade promos and ads with other podcasters to get more listeners. Offer your podcast as a feature on other websites that are related to your content. PodTrac.com is a big website for podcast advertising.

Nascent new media industry group, the Association for Downloadable Media, has announced the new officers, committee chairmen, and Advisory Board members. Podcasting News Publisher Elisabeth McLaury Lewin talked with some of the newly-elected board members this weekend.

Here’s what Chris MacDonald, (Executive VP, Business Development and Operations, Libsyn PRO), Chairman (looking chairmanly in this updated photo, right) had to say about his plans and goals for the ADM, and what moved him to become involved in the new organization:

“[Over the last several years], I wanted to start up a conversation with other podcasters and new media creators, stemming from talks with folks at different PodCamps and industry gatherings. I saw a real unmet need for having replicable standards and metrics ‚Äì not in terms of this one particular company or this one existing sort of metric being incorrect ‚Äì more like, how do we craft the language and the matrix and the variety of different ways that value can be applied from a monetization strategy? We came to the conclusion that a lot of it was gonna happen on an ad-supported basis, and that would be a conversation worth having as a group.

“I heard from Susan Bratton [ADM Vice-Chairwoman] around that same time, and she was interested in getting a little more formal, like a trade association, and wondered would I like to be involved. I jumped at the opportunity to do this ‚Äì because it seemed to be the sort of environment that would kick-start this metrics and monetization conversation, and translate it into something concrete. It takes money, coordination, research, many people, a structure, to get these conversations going, and this seemed like a great way to mobilize all these things.

“[The ADM] We have members and officers from all corners of the industry — large broadcasters, independent publishers, large publishers, small and medium-sized companies, nonprofit and for profit ventures, individuals and corporations… a variety of different stakeholders who are attracted to the concept of getting together and sharing information, and bridging the gap that we all know exists between getting advertisers more excited, and growing the industry for all the stakeholders.

“The industry is growing up and we‚Äôre at this place right now where it’s making an undulation. There‚Äôs definitely money to be made, but how? We‚Äôre becoming legitimate in the eyes of older media and advertising. And there have been some interesting strategic directions for communication that help to create a lot of value for advertisers. But, for those of us who are the “experts,” the people who’ve been doing downloadable media for several years now, what do we do with all this sweat equity knowledge we have? And how do we start to communicate as a community?

What’s Next For The ADM

“I think the thing we have to do first [now that the ADM elections are decided], is some of the organizational stuff, to help us get up and rolling. Subject-matter work at the committee level… We now have committee heads, so the work of the committees can get started in earnest.

“What I‚Äôd like to see happen in the coming year at ADM: We have a good base of corporate and non-profit and individual members. And I expect that we will spend a lot of time, getting that membership base even broader and stronger, so our potential resources will increase. Frankly, when you‚Äôre concerned with what we‚Äôre going to be doing, things like primary research, being the focal point for press inquiries about issues of donloadable media, pulling together our diverse collective interests and supporting those, we‚Äôll have to figure out financing and prioritizing our collective goals.

“We also have to talk with advertisers and figure out what they really want and need, before we begin to build a structure for collecting information and doing research about the reach of providers of downloadable media.

“The ADM is a unique organization, in the sense that we‚Äôre not “vertical”, not a trade association per se, but rather we’re a group for solving complex problems. The needs of independent publishers might be different from an advertising-repping company or a measurement company. One of our first things will be to come up with some ways we can work collectively.

“You can expect some very hard work from from the ADM board in the months to come, and people are gonna be hearing from us soon. If someone‚Äôs been sitting on the fence, wondering whether to get involved in the ADM, I really encourage them to come to downloadable media.org. Look around the site, and see what we‚Äôre about. I invite you to become members, and get involved, and join the conversation. Pick out and work on a committee with the subject matter that appeals to you.”

The Pittsburgh (PA) Tribune-Review reports that Wizzard Software Inc. “entered into an agreement with four institutional investors for $7.5 million in equity financing.”

Wizzard has, in the past year, acquired three podcast-hosting networks, Switchpod, Blast Podcast and Liberated Syndication (Libsyn). This new batch of financing follows a $1.75 million investment announced last October. That earlier financing round came hot on the heels of the announcement that the company was acquiring Libsyn.

Chris Spencer, Wizzard CEO, issued a statement about this most recent investment: “This capital infusion allows us to continue funding the growth of our recently announc[ed] podcasting acquisitions and will allow us to accelerate expansion of our overall podcasting efforts, in which we see tremendous potential.”

“Management believes that upon an effective registration with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), Wizzard will qualify for a listing on a national stock exchange,” said company Chief Financial Officer John Busshaus. Wizzard’s stock currently is listed on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board.

Libsyn, a popular podcast hosting service, has debuted a new site for heavy-hitting podcast customers, LibsynPRO.

Libsyn currently provides many podcasters with hosting, syndication and blogging services. Their new offering provides the same types of services, but aimed towards corporate publishers.

Early adopters of LibsynPRO include the National Geographic Society, National Public Radio (NPR), and agency Blue Sky Factory.

“We’ve launched LibsynPRO to meet the larger needs of our business customers. Now podcasters can manage multiple shows through a single account, with a guarantee of 99.99% up-time, and a single bill that tracks each feed, each file, each month, individually,” explained Chris MacDonald, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations at Liberated Syndication.

MacDonald and Libsyn co-founder Dave Mansueto talked recently with Elisabeth McLaury Lewin of Podcasting News about the new service.

“Since the beginning of last year, and even before, we’d been getting requests for other services,” beyond what Libsyn offered, Chris MacDonald said.

Agencies needed a place to host podcasts for multiple clients, notes MacDonald. Businesses want a single invoice to pay, but detailed breakouts of activity on each individual RSS feed. Academic clients seek a service that can accommodate podcast creations of many students and teachers under a single umbrella. Event organizers need a short-term hosting resource — or a virtual vault for hosting archival materials long after the conference is over.

LibsynPRO offers a “metered bandwidth” plan to podcasters with multiple feeds. Clients’ costs are calculated based on how much data is stored with LibsynPRO, and how much data is transferred — that is, how many audio and video files are downloaded by the podcast’s audience.

The new service “focuses on making the podcasting system very easy for the non-technical business podcaster,” said Dave Mansueto. Other changes include easy conversion of file sizes to fit iTunes’ thumbnail format, and “big buttons” for ease of use. Creative services are available for clients needing more hands-on production help.

“We are in the field of helping businesses podcast. If somebody has other needs, whatever they need, we can do that as well,” MacDonald added.

What has surprised Mansueto and MacDonald about the launch of LibsynPRO? “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interested people,” laughs MacDonald. “We didn’t make a big splashy announcement or anything.”

“And I’ve been surprised by the way people want to use podcasts — by the applications and creativity folks have that we’d never imagined, including using podcasts for short-term projects, promoting movies or medical conferences… and using podcasts as legacy content,” MacDonald continued.

Mansueto added, “It makes sense for business to create a podcast, and to advertise and sponsor other podcasts, other kinds of user-generated content. One thing that’s very cool is that all of this is going to feed the (podcast) ecosystem.”

Details on the new service are available at the LibsynPRO site.