January saw the biggest update to Podiant in its short history, which has helped lay the groundwork for continued growth of the service. Since we fully made the switch to Professional and Community plans, we’ve seen more and more people jump aboard and make Podiant their podcast hosting solution.

I’m delighted to say that I’m now working on Podiant full-time, and will be dedicating myself to improving the platform. Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last few months, and what it means for you and your listeners.

We’re moving to a CDN

You may have noticed moments of disruption within the service (I certainly have). This is sometimes due to high demand for content like images, RSS feeds and of course audio files. Starting Friday, we’ll be delivering all of those types of content through a global CDN (content delivery network), which will spread the load and should mean your listeners get access to content quicker than before.

We already deliver RSS feeds through our CDN, but it’s become essential for us now to migrate everything to a distributed network, as demand for our services – and ultimately, your content – increases.

Network plans are here

Our feature enabling podcasters to create networks will be launching to the public on Friday. Pricing for a network of three podcasts starts at $29.92, and you can pay annually or monthly.

Networks get their own website – and can use their own domain name – and all podcasts within that network are rolled into the same site (we manage all the redirects for you, so you shouldn’t have to lift a finger). So instead of mypodcast.com, your podcast will be at mynetwork.com/mypodcast/.

You can even invite podcasts managed by other Podiant customers across to your network, and network admins get access to a unified set of analytics.

We’re just starting out with our network support, so we’d love your feedback on ways to improve it.

Theme editing for everyone!

Now anyone can edit their podcast or network themes. If you know HTML and CSS, you can get started with one of our existing themes and then customise it to your heart’s content.

If you’re a developer, you can try out our Theme Toolkit, which will help you develop rock-solid themes for podcast and network sites.

A shiny new dashboard

Starting Friday, you’ll see a new dashboard, with more meaningful stats and better mobile support. We’re getting rid of the estimated subscriber count (as this is a fuzzy number that’s difficult to explain and means little in the real world), and replacing it with better insight into your last few weeks of listener activity.

Other odds ’n sods

We’ve improved the Studio View for planned episodes, adding a chat room, so you can collaborate with your co-hosts and guests in real-time. All guests will now need a Podiant account (it’s free, and signing up takes about 20 seconds), so that we can keep better track of who’s checked into a recording session, and know who’s who in your chatroom. People who login to the Studio View for a planned episode won’t get access to the rest of your dashboard (unless you later grant them access), and of course this doesn’t affect your subscription.

We now have better tools for bulk management of content, and you can do things on your mobile device that previously were either a complete pain, or just impossible.

This is just the beginning

There’s loads more we can do, and we’re just getting warmed up. I’m so excited about the future of Podiant, and some of the exciting things we have planned, to make podcasters’ lives easier and more productive.

