We believe everyone has a podcast in them. And while it isn’t entirely free, most individuals and organisations should find it affordable. You should expect to pay around £15 per month for a professional hosting provider and depending on your existing equipment and what you plan to do with your podcast, your costs might not be much more than that.
If you are planning something more advanced and elaborate or you need help getting started, (and you’re based in Scotland) you might be able to benefit from some Creative Scotland funding, provided you meet certain other criteria.
You absolutely can podcast direct from your smartphone. But we would advise investing in external, lavalier microphones rather than relying on the built in mic on your phone. This will deliver much better quality sound. A pack of 2 would allow you to wear one, while interviewing someone else. The model we’ve linked to above features a reasonably long length of cable allowing you to stand or sit some distance away from the person you’re speaking to.
Podcasts produced on smartphones require some sort of ‘voice recorder’ app in order to capture the audio. Your phone may come with a ‘Voice Memo’ feature which may be acceptable but for greater control, sometimes better quality and other more advanced features consider an app such as ‘Voice Recorder’ (Android) or ‘Voice Record Pro’ (iPhone). There are many to choose from. We’d suggest trying out a few and selecting one which does not have limits on recording duration, sound quality (look for at least 44.1K as a sample rate) and beware some can be very cluttered with pop up ads. It might be worth paying a small amount to get one you’re happy with.
Post COVID-19 lockdown, many podcasts are being produced with remote guests. If this is your set-up, consider a USB microphone for your computer. The Blue Yeti is extremely heavy but a great quality desktop mic. It can also be used for webinars/Zoom calls, video production and has various settings which make it suitable for face-to-face or ’round table’ studio based interviews, as well as solo recordings. If you don’t require those additional features and would prefer something more portable, have a look at the Blue Snowball. Zoom allows recording of your calls and Skype allows built-in recording of Skype to Skype calls. Download the file and open it in an audio editor such as Audacity.
You’ll enjoy better quality recordings if you (and your remote guests) all have quality equipment so take an interest in how things are set up at their end. Everyone should wear good quality headphones as relying on the laptop speakers may generate a feedback ‘howl’ sound. Any headphones will help, but if you have the budget we would suggest professional ‘over the ear’ noise cancelling headphones rather than the ‘bud’ types.
The Zoom H4nPro is a great portable recorder for on location recording. The built in microphone works best with a pop shield, and you can also plug in cabled or wireless handheld or lavalier microphones. The H4nPro offers a wide variety of professional recording options, such as multi track recording. This would mean if you were interviewing another person, each of you would be on a separate track, which is great for removing unwanted noise or changing volume levels independently of each other.
It’s technically possible to edit a podcast on a Chromebook but we would advise against it and suggest you use a laptop or desktop (PC or Mac) and download the free audio editing software Audacity. You may already have something such as Garageband which is also perfectly suitable. Take care when downloading Audacity. It is very highly regarded and widely used software, completely free and contains no ads. However, in order to make it available for download, it sits on a website which sometimes does contain ads and pop-ups. Be sure to follow the download instructions carefully and ensure your anti virus software is running.
To make your podcast ‘live’ and available in directories such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn and Spotify, you require a podcast ‘hosting provider’. There are many to choose from and we discuss in our ‘Secrets of Successful Podcasting‘ on demand training video.
You’ll also find audio editing tutorials, advice on establishing what your podcast should be about and how to record it, how to integrate your podcast with social media and much more including a section on podcasting for internal comms.
So to answer the question we started with, ‘How Much Does Podcasting Cost’, consider the following as a rough guide:
Monthly hosting: £15
Basic Equipment: (mics for your phone, voice record app) £50
Advanced Equipment: (if required – portable recorder, USB mic, etc) £250-£500
Post Production: Artwork – use canva.com (free basic plan or approx £10 per month for pro plan)
Music – Contact us for details of musicians and producers who will create a bespoke piece for you or consider royalty free production music sites such as PremiumBeat.com where a typical track is about $49.
Need more? Our complete podcasting training course is available now on-demand. Watch the trailer now and use promo code ‘web20’ at the checkout to save 20%!