“The New, New Podcast Review”:http://podcastreviews.net/archives/2004/10/_podcast_review_1.html has reviewed the podcast and let me just say that I am chuffed to have been reviewed!
Podcast Review: Tracks Up The Tree
Format: Radio show
Content: Music and talk
Rating: 4 Stars
What I’m going to do: listen
Typical Length: varies; 30 – 40 minutesFuntime Ben provides us with some really sweet music at Up The Tree. Out of all the music podcasts I’ve listened to, this is the first one that has played music that I universally liked, and that’s great! To top it all off, he’s trying to avoid a lawsuit, and he’s settled on a really interesting approach. He’s playing only music that can be downloaded form artists web-sites whole, with the logic that if the artists are making it available for download then it must be OK to repackage it. Seems logical to me, but then {I Am Not A Lawyer}. I hope he does well with it.
One thing he does that might be a concern is that he posts links to the music on the site, which would probably be OK – I mean he’s trying to get people to go to the artists’ sites and to give them credit. However he also links directly to the mp3 files, allowing the user to download them directly. Very convenient for his podience, but it places all of the bandwidth cost on the artist’s web-site with none of the benefits, and I can see why some folks might not appreciate that.
For the most part, Ben mixes up a good sound. He’s working out some details, but he’s got some decent intro and outro and has been playing with some underscoring, which is definitely good. His mix between music level and speech level could use a little work – I have to turn up his speech portions and then turn down the music when it comes on.
Ben has a lot of good stuff to say, but often rambles on and is a little repetitive – I think that’ll improve as he continues.
Many thanks to Kinrowan for spending his time and energy reviewing sites.