In pod we trust as new breed of DJ joins cast list

But then there are advantages. While the country's top DJ's have to restrict their output to limited playlists and placate station executives by maintaining audience share, Tane is his own man.

Like a modern-day successor to the pirate radio broadcasters of yesteryear, he is afforded a free reign for his regular music show Tripcast, which has been promoting live music by unsigned bands for the past seven months.

And whereas the old pirate DJs had to transmit their illegal shows from ships in the middle of the North Sea, he is able to record and mix his fully-legal show from the comfort of his own living-room.

He is one of Scotland's growing number of podcasters - or independent online DJs and producers - who use the internet to promote anything from music to international arts festivals, movies and sporting events.

Using the most basic equipment, Tane records and hosts the show in his flat and then mixes it his computer. He then puts the audio files on to the internet so that anyone around the world can download them on to an MP3 player or their own computer.

"There are a lot of guys in Scotland who are doing this sort of thing these days," he says. "And it's very like pirate radio in that you get the chance to do your own thing.

"You can mess about with different styles and effects, so it's really all a learning curve to understand how broadcasting works. When I started, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, but now that I've done over 20 shows, I'm getting much more professional.

"I play mostly unsigned bands because there are still a lot of copyright issues if you play mainstream music. Most casters like me will tend to stick stuff that is 'pod-safe' such as tracks from demo albums or CDs that an independent label has given you permission to use.

"But it's a way to get this sort of music heard by people who wouldn't normally get exposed to it on a mainstream radio show.

"I get quite a few e-mails from some of the artists I feature and they're all really positive about the exposure that podcasting gives them and how more people come to watch them play live after hearing a song on a podcast show.

"You'll get people from overseas listening as well, who will try to find out more about a band I've featured. The whole thing has really taken off."

In fact, the rise of podcasting has been astounding. Since its conception in early 2004, the number of dedicated shows - or podcasts - has risen from a mere handful to millions.

As anyone with a computer and a microphone can technically make a podcast and because there are few or no constraints to the content put in them, users from around the world can create shows covering any topic they like and post them on the internet for as little as £5 per month.

Shows dedicated to movie chat, sports teams, sci-fi, art, music and culture are plentiful on podcasting databases - where people can register to download whatever type of specialist programmes they fancy.

And shows with a Scottish flavour are proving to be a big hit with podcast fans in countries such as the United States and Australia.

Thirty-seven-year-old IT worker Grant Mason broadcasts a weekly show called Three From Leith, which also promotes unsigned bands and independent artists, and says that listeners in the US have been particularly keen on the Scottish flavour that his podcast offers.

'THEY'VE been going crazy for it," he admits. "Because there are a lot of people making these sort of shows, quite a few of them end up sounding exactly the same and they just get boring. The presenters are practically identical and, in the US especially, the music is typical punk rock that thousands of bands are doing.

"But because my show comes from Scotland, it offers something a little bit different and a lot of listeners are intrigued by it. They really love anything to do with Scotland anyway. I've only been doing this since last September and it's really just a hobby, but I'm really surprised by how far reaching it is. You don't expect people in different countries to even be listening to a little show you do in Leith, let alone e-mailing you to let you know how good it is."

Like Tane, Grant had heard a little about podcasts before he started to make his own, but admits that the equipment he used during the first few months was very basic.

"I started with my old PC and a fairly dodgy microphone," he says. "You can get free software over the internet that helps you to record and mix the sound, but aside from a broadband connection, that's really all you need.

"Obviously you can buy more expensive equipment when you become more proficient, but the great thing about it is that you don't necessarily need to. Anyone can do it as a hobby and it's fairly inexpensive."

However, while a lot of part-time podcasters like Tane and Grant are happy to do their shows in their spare time with little financial reward, others have turned it into a profitable business.

Website designer Ewan Spence, from Leith, has been podcasting for more than a year and currently produces four shows which cover a range of subjects from rock music and movies to technology conferences.

Last summer, the 31-year-old produced a daily podcast about the Edinburgh Fringe, which was nominated for the Scottish Bafta's Best Interactive Media Award.

And unlike some of his peers, he has been able to turn his shows into a thriving business by selling suitable advertising space in the same way that a commercial radio station does.

"You have to have respect for your listeners by only using adverts that are relevant to each show," he explains.

"I'll allow an advert for a new range of headphones on the rock show, for example, but not a pair of trainers - because that's not a relevant product.

"It's very like a specialist magazine in that way.

"A fly fishing mag will pretty much only have adverts for fly fishing products and I think that's the way it should be.

"But podcasting is a whole new level of communication that will change the way we distribute information. It's already allowed people interested in specialist, niche markets to be heard and it's started to create a level playing field in broadcasting.

"Although he's more famous and popular than I am, the podcast of Chris Moyles' Radio 1 show is just the same as any of the shows I do when it comes to someone living in the United States or in Asia. We're both unknown there, so it puts us on an equal footing.

"Ricky Gervais has a podcast that's very popular in Britain and gets two million hits a month, but the point is that it's just as easy to listen to that as it is to listen to any of my shows or the thousands of other podcasts out there. There's so much more choice than there's ever been and advertisers are starting to pick up on that.

"And unlike radio, there's no geographic boundaries anymore, which is something that wouldn't have happened even two years ago.

"There's still a certain guerrilla-ness to it, but it's definitely not a passing fad. Podcasting is very much here to stay."

And if it only takes a computer, a microphone and broadband access to create a podcast, how long is it going to be before everyone in Edinburgh joins this technological revolution?

THE FACTS

The term “podcasting” was coined in 2004 to describe a digital recording of a radio or video broadcast made available on the internet for downloading.

Users download podcast files to their PC and from there, the shows can either be listened to on the computer or transferred to an iPod or MP3 player.

Although most podcasts are audio files – such as music and chat shows – they can also be videos, text, PDFs or images.

Although starting off as a cult, podcasting has grown in popularity over the past two years. On September 28, 2004, there were just 24 hits on Google looking for the word “podcast”. A year later, the figure had soared to more than 100 million.

In addition to independent podcasters providing speciality programmes over the web, established broadcasters have also started to offer shows via podcasts. The BBC currently offers most of its prime-time radio shows through podcasts – with Radio 1’s Chris Moyles show being one of the most downloaded files in the UK with millions of hits every month.

Other organisations that have used podcasts to distribute information include politicians, churches, schools and even local tourist boards.

The use of licensed music in podcasts is a delicate legal issue – with many podcasters believing the companies which own music copyright licences will challenge their use.