Podcast production, publishing, and promotion.
If podcasting were easy, everybody would do it. Wait! What? Everybody is doing it? Hmpf. This is in part because there are so.many.great production tools available today. With a specific focus on keeping things as simple as possible, here’s how we get Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!), The Full-Bleed Podcast, and The Next Page Pod done.
- Recording: We use Riverside, a web-based recording “studio.” It works like Zoom but is geared towards podcast production. While we’re audio-only, this app can handle video pods as well.
- Audio Transcription & Editing: In addition to the audio pod, we create rich, detailed text versions on our website that include our guest’s portfolios, photos, and archival materials. We use Descript for transcription and for editing both audio and text. We can’t rave enough about this AI-powered app. It’s a game-changer.
- Production: There’s more to good podcasting than the interviews. We have music, introductions, promos, and even ads now. To combine all of it in a professional (yet inexpensive) way, we turned to Apple’s free GarageBand. It gives us multiple tracks and other basic tools for making everything sound great. We export the finished product—a 256k mp3 file—from there.
- Hosting & Distribution: Once your pod is done, you have to get it out to the world. We use Simplecast. It makes it easy to upload your pod to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and a slew of other platforms after a simple one-time setup. Depending on which plan you choose, you can get useful analytics to see who’s listening, when, and where.
- Gear: For effective podcasting, audio quality is everything, so invest in a good USB microphone. We enthusiastically recommend the RØDE NT-USB Mini, which sells for under $100 and is about as plug-and-play as it gets.
Patrick Mitchell
Principal & Creative Director, MO–D
Founder, Magazeum LLC
Related:
For the Love of Print (Pages magazine)