Audio

You have a computer and a microphone. Why not tell the world about your campaign, in your own voice? Or with the voices of those who you represent? After all the human voice is the most powerful and intimate way to engage with other human beings. This guide will introduce you to tools you can use for audio editing and recording along with software for playing and browsing your audio collection as well as subscribing to podcasts.

It will also give you practical tips on how to get your audio published on the internet and how to use online distribution tactically to reach audiences throughout the world using blogs and podcasts.

Audio has evolved online. More and more people are downloading audio podcasts to their MP3 players and laptops. This audio section will take you through producing your own audio and distributing it online.

You can now bring a multitude of voices to those who are willing to hear, to help. With the internet they can also talk to each other. Making a difference at a very little cost.

In the audio strategy guide you can learn what makes effective campaigning audio content, and how to strategise about using audio in your organising and campaigning work.

The first thing you need to do is to go out and get your content. This guide introduces you to creating radio programmes and interviews, recording audio and most importantly editing it into a piece ready for distribution on radio or on the net.

Audacity is an easy to use open-source tool which you can use for basic audio editing and recording with a simple graphical interface. You can also explore more advanced audio production such as mixing multiple tracks together.

VLC is a media player which can use for playing many different kinds of media formats including audio and video which is broadcast as 'streams' over the internet. It can also be used for extracting audio from a CD.

To build your confidence with these Open Source tools you'll learn how to record and edit a 2 minute interview, remix a 1 minute music piece from a CD and edit your audio file information using VLC and Audacity.

Once you've made your audio piece you need to get it out there. The most important thing to think about is your audience. Who are you trying to reach and what impact do you hope to make? This will determine your best distribution method. In this section we take you through a audio distribution strategy which considers audio blogs, podcasts, licensing your work, promotion and much more.

The two detailed guides in this section will walk you through two great tools for online audio distribution. Ourmedia is a website for publishing audio and video and creating Podcasts. You get to be part of an online community of media producers and viewers. Wordpress is a popular blogging tool which also allows you to create and host podcasts on your site.

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