PODCASTING… FOR FUN AND FOR PROFIT
If you’re going to start recording your thoughts for posterity, the benefit of your children or simply to amuse your friends and family, podcasting is a great way to do it. You might also make a few bucks along the way.
Whether you’re doing it for fun, or profit—or both—podcasting is easy and cheap to do. We look at what you’ll need to get started.
But what’s a podcast? According to that modern font of knowledge, Wikipedia: “A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening. Streaming applications and podcasting services provide a convenient and integrated way to manage a personal consumption queue across many podcast sources and playback devices." Wikepedia then expands further on the topic: “A podcast series usually features one or more recurring hosts engaged in a discussion about a particular topic or current event. Discussion and content within a podcast can range from carefully scripted to completely improvised. Podcasts combine elaborate and artistic sound production with thematic concerns ranging from scientific research to slice-of-life journalism.”
But what would Wikipedia know? I rather prefer the explanation on a website that is actually dedicated to podcasting— www.thepodcasthost.com—which says: “Simply put, a podcast is an audio program, just like Talk Radio, but you subscribe to it on your smartphone and listen to it whenever you like. In a little more detail, a podcast is a series of spoken word audio episodes, all focused on a particular topic or theme, like cycling or start-ups. You can subscribe to the show with an app on your phone and listen to episodes whenever you like on your headphones, in the car or through speakers.”
The podcasthost site even has a podcast telling you what a podcast is. You can listen to it here: www.tinyurl.com/hifipodcast
But if you’d like my description of it, a podcast is simply an old-fashioned audio recording that’s available for listening and/or download from the internet.
So how do you go about making a podcast (or series of podcasts!)?
First, you’ll need some hardware as well as some software, in the form of a DAW.
PODCASTING HARDWARE
The hardware you need is nothing more than a decent microphone (or two if you’re planning on doing any interviews, being one for you and the other for your interviewee). There are many great podcasting microphones out there, some of the best of which are made in Australia by our very own Aussie company RØDE, whose founder, Peter Freedman, recently purchased Donald Bradman’s first baggy green test cap for $450,000 (something of a snip considering he previously paid $9 million for a guitar used by Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain.)
There are a number of RØDE microphones suitable for podcasting. The first is the RØDE Podcaster (the model name says it all, really) which is a specialist dynamic microphone with a cardioid polar pattern with both a headphone output and a USB output that has been specially designed for podcasting applications. It has an RRP of $345 but can usually be found in-store for around $299.
The RØDE Procaster ($250) is a specialist dynamic vocal mic with a cardioid polar pattern that has a standard professional XLR line output, meaning that you’ll need to buy an XLR to mini-jack lead if you want to plug it directly into your computer. Otherwise, you’ll need a USB audio interface of some kind, in which case I’d recommend a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen), which retails for around $300.
If these prices are making your eyes glaze over, you might like to consider RØDE’s brand-new RODE NT-USB Mini ($149).
Other microphones you might like to consider are the Blue Microphones Yeti USB, a condenser microphone with a switchable polar pattern (cardioid, bidirectional and omnidirectional) that retails for around $200 and the Mackie EM-USB Condenser Microphone, which retails for $389.
If you plan on using only a single microphone, one with a USB output will be
Can you make money from podcasting? Absolutely! Some podcasters earn more than a million dollars per year.
the simplest and most fuss-free initially, but if you think you will be using two microphones, or even three, four, or more, buying microphones with XLR outputs will future-proof your podcasting set-up. Although you can mix the outputs from multiple USB microphones, it’s preferable to mix mic outputs in the analogue domain.
If you are using more than one microphone you’ll need either a USB audio interface with more than one input (the Scarlett 2i2 will let you connect and adjust the volume of two microphones) or a dedicated microphone mixer. A Behringer Xenyx
802 8-Input Mic/Line mixer will set you back around $129. These two units can be used in conjunction with each other.
If you think you might like to take your podcasting project outdoors, or be easily set up at some remote location, you might like to consider a really great little portable mixer/ recorder from Zoom, called the PodTrak P4.
As the name suggests, the PodTrak P4 is both a mixer and a audio recorder, but it’s also a 2-in, 2-out USB audio interface. And as well as being able to mix the outputs from four microphones, it can also link to your mobile phone, so if one interviewee is remote, you can mix their voice in with the output from the local microphones. Amazingly, given all its features and the battery-powered portability, the Zoom PodTrak P4 sells for around $355. Zoom also has a large, full-featured 8-channel professional desktop mixer in its catalogue, the PodTrak P8, which sells for $829.
Whatever microphone/s you end up buying, don’t forget that you will need connecting leads and microphone stands. Although many microphones come with a simple desk stand, it’s far better to use a boom stand, as this will allow you to position the microphone in such a way that you’ll get uniform volume levels and maximal signal-to-noise ratios.
You’ll also need that essential item used by all professionals—a ‘pop’ screen for each of your microphones.
Pop screens not only reduce the ‘pop’ sounds that are inevitable when you and your interviewees use words starting with the letter ‘p’ but will also reduce this hiss of sibilances (when speaking words beginning with the letter ‘s’). On a practical level, they will protect your microphone from sprays of saliva! Mackie’s PF-100 Pop Screen will fit a wide range of microphones.
PODCASTING SOFTWARE
As well as a microphone or two, you’re also going to need a piece of software to record your podcast and edit it into shape. While there are as many software applications (often referred to as Digital Audio Workstations, or DAWS) made to help with podcasts as there are microphones, I am only going to refer to two of most popular—Audacity and Audition. Other popular programs include Hindenburg Journalist ($139), Logic Pro X ($199) and Steinberg Cubase Elements
10.5 ($149) as well as Alitu and GarageBand (both free) plus lite versions of DAWs that ship bundled with hardware, as in the next paragraph.
If you are going to buy a USB audio interface, you should be made aware that most now come bundled with audio editing software that is perfectly suitable for podcasting (and more). The Scarlett 2i2 comes with both Ableton Live Lite and
Pro Tools | First.
These ‘free’ software inclusions are mostly stripped-down versions of more full-featured packages that are available for sale, but they’re usually not otherwise separately available in their stripped-down version. The idea is that you become familiar with the stripped-down version and upgrade to the full-featured paid version. However, despite being stripped down, these ‘lite’ versions will have all the tools you’ll need to create a professional podcast.
AUDACITY VS AUDITION
Audacity is a free DAW created by a team of volunteers whereas Audition is a part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and costs money. Both are multi-track audio recorders with editing functions, but whereas Audition is focused on podcast creation, Audacity attempts to be a bit more of a general-purpose audio solution. Being commercial software, Audition has the more polished, professional interface, but this means it comes with a steeper learning curve than Audacity, which has a less polished interface, but a less-steep learning curve.
Selecting your mic input and beginning to record in Audacity is simplicity itself. It also enables you to import an existing recording and record a new track alongside it, as well as starting new tracks automatically when you stop recording and start again.
In Audition, you need to choose multi-track recording from the toolbar. Audition does, however, make it easier to record the input from different microphones onto different tracks simultaneously—something that’s not possible in Audacity, though it depends on driver support.
If you are recording a round-table discussion with multiple mics and participants, Audition is the way to go, as you’ll find mixing and editing much easier later on. Audition also shows stronger performance than Audacity when it comes to actually putting your podcast episode together.
Adobe’s Audition uses a non-destructive editing approach similar to its video-editing programs, which means you can always go back to the media bin and replay bits of audio you’d already cut out. The downside of this is larger file sizes, but modern hard drives should have no problem coping.
Audacity offers the option of creating copies of your recordings before you start to edit (an option you should always choose!) but it remains that you are editing in a destructive manner, with no way of getting back what you’ve cut without using the unlimited undo/redo feature or re-importing the audio from backups as a new track.
Mixing, particularly the equalisation, limiting, and normalisation processes used to ensure that the various different people who are speaking sound like they were recorded in the same room at the same time even if they weren’t, is portrayed using a skeuomorphic mixing desk metaphor in both DAWs, with Audacity showing a waveform that represents your audio, with a number of sliders underneath to adjust the tone. Audition’s interface is roughly the same, but dispenses with the waveform.
There are presets in both DAWs, and Audition’s are probably more useful than Audacity’s — those in the latter are aimed at re-creating the sounds of voices on the telephone or broadcast on radio.
Normalisation — the process of limiting the volume of the loudest parts of multiple tracks so they sound more alike — sees both DAWs take a similar approach, with a hard limiter that clips the peaks. Audition’s is easier to use than Audacity’s, however, and the same is true of its noise reduction process, which cuts out any hiss in the background.
The way both DAWs (all DAWs with noise reduction, actually) address the process of noise reduction is to take a few seconds of silent recording and subtract this from the main tracks, but Audition has a clever adaptive system that analyses files in a way that gives better results.
FOOTPRINTS
A great thing about Audacity is that it’s very light in terms of its hardware footprint. Whereas Audition will only run on a 64-bit version of Windows 10 with a 1080p display, Audacity will run well on pretty-much any modern-ish PC. There’s also nothing to say that you can’t use both programs to produce your podcast.
I came across a Reddit thread in which one user wrote that he used Audacity to record and Audition to mix and edit, as that’s where the DAWs’ different strengths lie. Audacity is simpler, and what it lacks in options it makes up for with a clearer interface. But if Audacity can do something, then Audition probably does it too… only slightly better.
Adobe also has features exclusive to it, as you’d expect for something you pay a monthly fee for, one such being able to export as an MP3 file. For copyright reasons Audacity doesn’t support this process natively, you have to install a (free) external encoder.
As there are other podcasting software programs you might be considering, as I’ve already discussed, a reminder to make certain that any program you’re considering will run on your computer. Any program you’re looking at will advise the minimum processing and memory requirements required to run it, but in the end, if you are podcasting, it’s best to be running your software on a fast computer with a current operating system.
FINAL DAW CHOICES
If you’re creating podcasts all day, every day, then Adobe’s Audition is definitely the way to go. But if you are going to pay for a professional package, I would strongly suggest you first at least try out demo versions of Hindenburg Journalist (or Journalist Pro), Ableton Live 10 (or Live 10 Pro) and Pro Tools (or Pro Tools Ultimate) to see if one suits you better than another. You should also factor in that Hindenburg Journalist ($139) and Ableton Live 10 ($110) are once-only costs whereas the other programs require either continuing monthly or yearly subscriptions or, in the case of Pro Tools, payment of a ‘perpetual’ licence fee of around $1,000.
But if you’d rather not pay for your software, why not go with Audacity or Alitu, or one of the ‘lite’ versions of the various professional programs already mentioned? And of course if you’re not sure what features and options you might need before you shell out your hard-earned, the very best way to find out is to start honing your recording and production skills first, and leave making a final decision as to which software package will be best for you until some later time.
PODCASTING FOR PROFIT
Can you make money from podcasting? Absolutely!
Timothy Ferriss is a famous American entrepreneur, investor, author… and podcaster. His five books are all best-sellers, yet he says his podcast (The Tim Ferriss Show) makes him more money than the royalties from the sales of all five combined. He doesn’t say exactly how much money his podcasts make, but he charges his advertisers $US60 for one thousand impressions (CPM) and he claims 500,000 downloads per episode. So the math is 500,000 downloads × $US60 CPM × 2 ads = $US60,000 per episode. And, since he puts out episodes weekly, that works out to be about $US3 million per year. What are his podcasts about? You can find out by listening, but primarily they’re about personal development and methods of making money(!) but he also does podcasts revealing the morning routines and meditation habits of celebrities and famous sportspeople.
Pat Flynn is an architect-turned-entrepreneur who has two podcasts. One, called ‘Ask Pat’ has sponsorships that earn him around $US4,000 per episode. His other podcast, called 'Smart Passive Income', is all about telling you how to start your own business. This one doesn’t have adverts. Instead, he uses what are called ‘affiliate links’ to direct his listeners to companies that sell the products or services he recommends. Whenever you click on an affiliate link, he makes money. If you then purchase something via the affiliate link, he gets a percentage of the sale price. This little earner brings him in more than $US1.5 million dollars per year!
However, although you can make money from podcasting, the fact is that you probably won’t, because numerous experts state that when you look closely at the figures, more than 90 per cent of podcasting ventures run at a loss. This is because even if you don’t charge for your time in creating the podcast, or the time it takes to sign up an advertiser or three, you will still need to pay a fee for your podcast to be hosted, and the money you make may not cover even that.
Although you can make money if your podcast takes off, podcasting professionals advise that you shouldn’t even think about quitting your day job until each of your podcast episodes is being downloaded at least 40,000 times. This figure sounds daunting in itself, but becomes even more so when you consider that the average podcast is downloaded fewer than 150 times per episode.
That said, if you earn even twenty cents for each episode, that works out at around $120 a month, which is not to be sneezed at.
But really, podcasting shouldn’t be about the money. It should be about telling somebody about someone or something you’re passionate about, and hopefully inspiring that same passion in some other person somewhere on the planet.
If you can inspire just one person, that’s gratifying. And if you can inspire one hundred people, that’s a job well done. But if you can inspire 100,000 people, well then you’re on your way to being a millionaire.
If you can inspire one person, that's gratifying. If you can inspire 100,000 people, you’re on your way to being a millionaire.
NEXT ISSUE: WE LOOK AT HOW TO GO ABOUT CREATING AND PUBLISHING YOUR FIRST PODCAST.