In the Club
Record a podcast with other people remotely
Wth social-distancing rules in place, now may not seem like the ideal time to record a podcast with multiple presenters. However, thanks to a new tool called Anchor (a free podcast-creation and distribution service owned by Spotify), you can now invite up to four other people to join your recording session, no matter where they are.
There’s a web-based version of Anchor ( www.anchor.fm), but to use the new remote-recording tool you’ll need to set up the recording session on the mobile app (IOS www.snipca.com/34753; Android
www.snipca.com/34754). Anyone joining the recording of your podcast can do so from any device, and they won’t need an Anchor account to do so.
Invite others to join
To start recording your podcast, select Record at the bottom of the screen, tap ‘Invite friends to join in’ then, on the next screen, ‘Invite friends’. If the people joining you are already registered with Anchor, tap Anchor Friends, then search for their usernames. Alternatively, tap Copy Link, then paste the link into an email. The email recipients will simply need to enter their name to join the recording (the recording starts as soon as the first person joins you). Don’t worry about leaping straight into your podcast material – we’ll explain how to trim the recording. There’s also no limit to the length of podcasts in Anchor, so take as long as you need. Tap Finish Recording (see screenshot below left) to end it or to take a break (you can always record another session if needed). Next, swipe down to the Library option at the bottom of the window. Here you’ll probably see a ‘Your audio is still processing’ message. In our tests, some recordings were processed in minutes, but others took a couple of hours, so you may need to be a little patient (a notification will appear on your phone when the processing has finished).
Edit your recording
You can now listen to the recording by tapping the Play button (white arrow in a purple circle) or add it to a podcast episode (tap the ‘+’ button).
However, before doing either of these, it’s a good idea to trim your recording. Press the three vertical dots next to it, then ‘Edit audio’. You’ll now see a waveform of your recording. To trim unwanted audio from the start, drag the black line to the appropriate point, then tap Split (see screenshot above). Now long-press the section to the left of the black bar, then select ‘Delete segment’. You can repeat this process on other sections you want to remove. When you’ve finished, tap Save (top right).
Publish or download
Once you’ve added one or more recordings to an episode, you can use Anchor to publish it to podcast services including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and, of course, Spotify. Simply tap the Publish button and follow the instructions.
However, if you’d prefer to publish the podcast – on your own website for example – you can download your recording. To do this, go to Tools, Library, then tap the three vertical dots next to the recording you want to download, followed by ‘Export audio’. If you want to download the audio files directly to your PC, log into Anchor via your browser, click New Episode, followed by the three dots, then ‘Download audio file’. In the window that appears, click the three dots again, then Download.