As promised a fortnight ago (sorry about the delay), here is the first instalment of a new series of entries, in which I aim to review the podcasts currently listed in the Islam section of the iTunes Store (iTS) directory (iTunes is currently the most popular client for subscribing to podcasts). For more information about podcasts and iTunes, read this FAQ written by Apple.
Before I begin, let me explain a little something that relates to the importance of these reviews. Users of the iTunes directory can search for podcasts of interest using the iTS search engine. The results appear in order of relevance, but also in order of their popularity, as determined by how many people are subscribed to the podcast using iTunes. That is, the more people that subscribe to a podcast via iTS, the higher up the search rankings that podcast will appear. So if you use the search term “Islam”, the most highly subscribed podcast channels that relate to Islam, will appear first in the search listings. This in turn gives these channels an edge when it comes to hooking new subscribers, compared to those channels that appear way down at the bottom of the list.
I am hoping that these reviews will help you make smart choices when it comes to deciding which podcasts to download, which will hopefully have a positive impact on the search engine rankings of worthy Islamic podcasts within the iTS directory, insha’Allah. Or at the least, it will stop you wasting your time and bandwidth on crummy mp3s that do not deserve a space in the Islam section!
Right now, I plan to tackle the list of podcast channels alphabetically – but I reserve the right to alter my strategy later on. 