Methods and apparatus publishing media data includes: accessing a media interface of a media device; capturing media data using a media capture component of said media device; storing said captured media data in a media file in storage of said media device; modifying said captured media data; and publishing said modified media data to a network server; wherein said capturing, modifying, and publishing are performed using said media interface, which is accessed through a single and same operation of said media device; wherein said performance of said capturing, modifying, and publishing using said instant publish command is made possible by initially configuring the media device with settings for edits, user metadata, and automatic metadata to be added to said captured media data, and by selecting a publishing recipient and any desired publishing rules provided by a selected publishing service.