Starting A Podcast – Shortman Studios

September 17, 2020September 16, 2020

¿Por Que Podcasts? Más Sobre El Boom

¿Tal vez has escuchado algo sobre podcasts? Tal vez un amigo u otro tiene su propio podcast o quizás ya eres un fan de podcasts y tienes unos cuantos a tu disposición en tu teléfono. Bueno pero, de toda manera, escuchar podcasts es una cosa, lo que nos importa de verdad es…., ¿Porqué debes prestar atención al podcasts como tendencia? ¿Y si todo el mundo ya tiene su propio podcast, queda alguien para escucharlos?

Comenzamos con la definición: según el diccionario Oxford, podcast es una “Emisión de radio o de televisión que un usuario puede descargar de internet mediante una suscripción previa y escucharla tanto en una computadora como en un reproductor portátil.” Mas simplemente, podcast es un programa audio que puedes escuchar cuando quieras, desde una app en tu teléfono, una forma de audio streaming.

La diferencia entre radio y podcast no es tan grande. Muchos de los podcasts mas populares en España, por ejemplo, vienen de Cadena SER, OndaCero, esRadio, etc.Quizas el formato de los anuncios es un poco diferente, quizás es un poco diferente la misma manera en la que tu escuchas, pero no es una revolución

Es cuando entras más profundamente en el tema que te das cuenta que los podcasts son ellos mismos la revolución. Ante todo, porque cualquier persona puede tener su propio podcast con un poco de esfuerzo (equipo básico, una idea, y voluntad) y en segundo lugar porque es posible crear un podcast desde tu propia casa en cualquier momento, lo cual es especialmente importante en tiempo de Covid.

No nos olvidemos, además, que la barrera para entrar es más baja, que hay una colección de podcasts para escuchar en continuo crecimiento y maneras más fáciles para encontrar nuevos programas.

Podcast no es solo un nuevo formato de radio sino que un cambio mundial.

Los números suportan este argumento. Por ejemplo, en los estados unidos el 75% de personas con mas de 12 años conoce los podcasts y el 55% ha escuchado al menos un podcast. En el mundo del business empresas como Spotify, Amazon y Apple están invirtiendo billones de dólares en construir su propria gama de podcasts exclusivos. Además, en los últimos años, se ha registrado una explosión de podcasts en otros idiomas diferentes del inglés. Según un director de data en Art19, una plataforma para podcasts, ya hay más de 45,000 nuevos podcasts en español in 2020, en comparación con 27,000 en los últimos tres años.

El crecimiento de podcasts en español, en las columnas marrones. Fuente

Tal vez no vas a ser el próximo Joe Rogan o Berto Romero, pero es posible que este crecimiento te toque de cerca, porque también es una oportunidad para ti y no importa a lo que te dediques.

Aquí te dejo algunas de las razones del porque los podcasts están creciendo desmesuradamente y del porque deberías aprovechar de ellos para ti o para tu empresa.

Crecer tu marca (personal o profesional)

Un buen podcast es el fruto de los intereses del su presentador. Si vas a gastar tiempo en grabar, editar, y publicar podcasts y luego vas a pedir a tus fans que te escuchen debes asegurarte que todo ese tiempo sea bien invertido.

Este mismo podcast te volverá en el máximo experto de tus proprios intereses. Imagínate de ser el representante de una empresa! ¡Es través de tu podcast que tus oyentes tendrían la oportunidad de descubrir lo que hay detrás de tu marca, valores, conocimientos, principios y filosofía!

Un podcast es intimo

Todos nosotros vivimos tras nuestras pantallas. El mundo se aplana en frente de nuestros ojos. Pero un podcast te ofrece otra manera de conectar con la gente. Y a pesar de parecer un cliché queremos confirmar que los podcasts si son más íntimo. Los buenos podcasts son como conversaciones entre amigos, una relación que crece entre el presentador y sus oyentes, cosa que no pasa con un programa de televisión o de radio.

Nadie sabe nada, con Andreu Buenafuente y Berto Romero — El arte de conversación, través de podcasts. *Fuente*

Networking

Lo que decimos en Shortman Studios es que podcasts son las nuevas tarjetas comercial. En vez de dar una tarjeta de papel con tus datos– ¡aun mas difícil durante una pandemia! – envías el link de tu podcast y tu nuevo contacto descubrirá en seguida tus intereses, tus ideas …vamos! ¡Todo lo que tú quieres que él sepa!

Pero esta idea de networking no se para aquí, sino que va mucho más lejos. Si tienes un podcast puedes invitar otras personas en tu profesión o área de interés y hacer una entrevista. A todos nos gusta hablar sobre nosotros mismos, sobre nuestras pasiones y profesiones, eso da vida a buenas conversaciones y las buenas conversaciones abren nuevas puertas. Atrévete de contactar con los expertos, son más generosos con su tiempo de que te esperas.

No somos los únicos en de decir eso. El experto legendario de marketing, Seth Godin, llama podcasting el nuevo blogging, y dice que todo el mundo debería tener un podcast. ¿Una de sus razones? “Te encuentras con gente increíble.”

Fácil para empezar

…y llegamos a la última, pero no menos importante, razón para lanzar tu propio podcast! ES FACIL!

No necesitas tu proprio estudio, ni una antena para emitir tu programa, o tener conocimientos básicos sobre la iluminación de estudio como para youtube. Solo necesitas un equipo básico – un buen micrófono, unos programas de software para editar y publicar – internet, curiosidad y un poco de tiempo y esfuerzo.

Bueno, si quieres que se oiga bien y que tenga un toque profesional quizás necesites un poco más de tiempo u trabajar con un estudio como el nuestro. Pero lo más importante: ¡no te olvides de tener una visión, una idea de base, tus pasiones y está hecho!

Los Podcasts están creciendo rápidamente, pero todavía estamos al principio de esta nueva tendencia.

Aunque tú no quieras ser un podcaster profesional ese formato te ayudara a llegar a tus metas. ¡Y además…ES DIVERTIDO!

Shortman Studios está aquí para ayudarte o simplemente para resolver tus dudas.

August 21, 2020August 20, 2020

The Equipment You Need For Podcasting

2020 is an exciting time for podcasting in part because everyone is staying at home more, and there are fewer social or cultural outlets – concerts, parties, social gatherings, even restaurants – available. Podcasting is something one can do from home that is social, creative, and a link to the world. And, compared to most mediums, podcasting is easy to do.

To get a podcast to sound good, you do need some equipment. The right tools – both on your computer or phone and physical equipment – will save you time later in editing or publishing podcasts, and will allow your audience to focus on your content instead of how it sounds. Which seems like something that shouldn’t matter, but 88.3% of negative podcast reviews* fixate on sound.

*We’re making this up. But it feels like the truth – people really care about the sound of a podcast as much as the content, and if your podcast sounds amateurish, you might lose a listener before you have the chance to win them.

So, what equipment do you need to be a successful podcaster?

Microphone

This is the most obvious piece. You need to record your voice on a podcast. Most desktops come with a built-in mic, but a USB plug-in mic is the easiest way to upgrade your sound.

I use a Blue Yeti mic. It records a full, rich sound. I always record on ‘cardioid’, the setting that focuses on what is directly in front of the mic. The mic is still quite sensitive, and there is other equipment out there to help control for noise that might leak into your recording.

Another mic colleagues have used is a RØDE. They even have a mic called the podcaster, and it seems to deliver a good sound.

Shure is a legendary microphone maker, and they have mics with USB inputs as well. These can come in handy for reporting driven podcasts where you are looking to interview people outside of an office/home studio setting.

The Blue Yeti retails for $130 right now, just to give you a ballpark range.

Yeti microphone image — Elegant, and gets the job done

As a quick aside, if you do go for a Blue Yeti, it makes sense to buy extra USB cables – the cable that comes with the Yeti isn’t very long and is set in a way where it often breaks after a bit of use. Backup cables are $5-10, and will come in handy.

Mic Stand

A mic stand allows you to set the mic directly in front of you, so that it’s not prone to vibrations from you touching the desk it sits on or otherwise (see common recording mistakes). I’m not aware of any relative differences in mic stands – I bought a “Tencro Professional Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Adjustable Arm Stand ” off of Amazon for 26 euros, and found that to be perfectly adequate. Open to suggestions, though I think your aim is to make sure it adapts to your recording environment, whether that involves standing, clamping to your desk, or otherwise.

Shock Mount

I found it useful to also get a shock mount, which screws onto the base of the microphone, between the mic and the mic stand. This finally took out all of the reverberations that came from touching the microphone. I selected the YOUSHARES Shock Mount for a Blue Yeti; it’s a little challenging to get the USB cord through the shock mount’s ring to plug into the Yeti, but otherwise, it does the job.

Pop Filter

A basic pop filter can help clean out the ‘plosives’ from your speaking, the puh sounds when you say the letter P. It can also filter out a little bit of your breathing from the recording; some producers like a really natural sound on their podcast, while others prefer the words to be clean so the listener doesn’t get distracted. A pop filter is one way to get you closer to that clean sound.

Mic shield

Related to a pop filter, you can consider a mic shield or portable vocal booth. What these do is block out other sounds from your microphone; even though the blue yeti cardioid setting is meant to capture only sound directly in front of it, if someone else is talking in the house it will bleed onto my recordings, for example. I don’t have personal experience with this but am planning to try one in the coming months and will update this post accordingly.

That pretty much does it for physical equipment. Headphones are useful but not a must, and you may already have plug in headphones that do the job. That leads us to software.

Samson RC10 Studio Microphone Mic Isolation Shield Vocal | Reverb — The idea of the shield is to, well, build a wall around the mic so it’s only getting your sound.

Recording software

You need to capture the sound as an mp3, m4a, wav, or other easily convertible/transferable/editable file, so that you can turn your recording into a publication.

If you are recording in person, whether on your own or with a co-host/guest, a recording software is all you need. Audacity is effective and works on Windows or Mac; GarageBand is an Apple native software for Macs that also works well. ProTools is a higher-powered software we’ll touch on in the next section.

If you are recording remotely with a guest or co-host, we recommend Zoom for simplicity, or Zencastr if you don’t have the budget for a Pro level Zoom account. Zoom recording offers a generally high standard – the sound is pretty good, there are only occasional audio glitches (and that is often a result of internet connection), and there’s no audio drift, so your track and your guest/co-host’s track are the same length, which will be a blessing in the editing process. If you do put on the video, it also makes it easier to read one another’s body language to know when to jump in or not. (That said, we record most The Razor’s Edge episodes and about half of our first season of A Positive Jam without video).

Zencastr offers good audio quality, but is subject to some audio drift, and the calls themselves sometimes drop or get cut out. I should say I haven’t tried this since switching to Zoom at the beginning of 2020, and I liked what they were doing as a business.

I’ve tried CleanFeed, Skype using an mp3 call recorder, and Ringr (not the Bill Simmons website, an app for recording calls), and found Zoom and Zencaster a cut above.

Editing software

Once you have the files, you may want to add sound effects, clean up the conversations, remove filler words, sweet or level the sound in post production, etc. This can be a tedious process, but it also lets you sink your teeth into your recordings so you really control what you are putting out.

Audacity is a free tool, but it’s also a really good one. It offers multi-track editing, basic post-production effects to boost sound, stereo and mono, and is fairly intuitive.

Adobe Audition is one that comes recommended by many podcast experts. I do not have personal experience with Audition, but it’s one of my planned tests in coming weeks, to upgrade to it and try it out. It’s a paid software at $20-31/month, depending on the term you pay for.

ProTools is considered industry standard. I find the software itself super clunky, and editing on it at least on my PC was not intuitive at all.

Hindenburg is another software that comes up on a lot of podcast editing job postings. I’m less familiar with it as a tool, so I can’t say much.

GarageBand, pre-installed on Macs, should substitute for Audacity effectively as well.

Hosting platform

You record the podcast using a microphone, with some tools to make sure the sound is as clean as can be. You record on a software. You use that or another software to edit the file to its final format. The last piece of the puzzle – you need to host the podcast somewhere, so that the podcast gets distributed to the main channels – Apple, Spotify, Pandora, a number of podcast apps, etc.

The way to do this is through a company dedicated to hosting podcasts. We are currently using Podbean, for example – $14/month for each podcast to host unlimited amount of audio. We’ve used Libsyn in the past as well, for $15-$20/month.

There’s not a ton to distinguish sites from one another. Unlimited storage is a plus because it removes headaches. Some of these hosting providers charge on a # of listens basis, for example, which probably only affects really successful podcasts but is also sort of a tax on that success. The level of support is important, and I’ve found both Podbean and Libsyn to be satisfactory. There are companies providing more service, like Megaphone or Art19, but that is meant for serious advertisers; for the nuts and bolts of hosting a podcast, they’re not much different from the first two.

Your podcast host provider will also be the best source of stats for your podcast, as it collates stats from all of your channels. Podbean is slightly better than Libsyn in stats provision (though I’ve been off Libsyn for almost a year, to be fair), but that’s another vector to consider.

Anchor is a Spotify owned platform, and Spotify has more ownership over the podcast, which I think is mostly a matter of ads and how the podcast appears. It’s also free. To this point, I’ve viewed the platform as a ‘you get what you pay for’ deal, but would love to hear what other people’s experiences have been with it.

That’s it. You pull all that together and you’ll have the tools and equipment needed to make your podcast a success.

That doesn’t mean the podcast will be a success. You need to decide what success is, and how much preparation, thought, and development you want to put into the content, the guest list, the editing, and so on. But, having the right equipment makes it a lot easier to get there.

June 23, 2020July 16, 2020

So You Want To Start a Podcast…

It’s 2020, and a podcast is the new blog: everyone you know or follow seems to have one. It sounds easy enough to do. The category is growing. You’d like to get on board.

That’s great! We’re a believer in podcasts and think that anybody who applies themselves to the category can succeed. But jumping into it without a plan is like showing up at a potluck with no dish – it’s nice that you made it, but you’re going to raise some eyebrows fast.

Here are a few questions you want to answer to decide if this is the right path for you, and how to go about things:

What’s the goal of your podcast? Why do you want to produce a podcast?

Podcasting can do a number of things for hosts. They can be a way to network, or to meet people in a field of interest. They can be a way to practice public speaking and interviewing skills in a relatively safe environment. They can be an outlet for a passion or a creative project. They can tell a story. And podcasts can make money if they are successful enough to attract a sponsor or feed into a subscription model, though that takes a lot of work and dedication.

Your goals may change over time, but you want to have a sense from the beginning of why you’re getting into it. Only you can determine the right answer to this question, and it should be one that keeps you going in terms of recording and producing the podcast over time. This helps answer the next question as well.

What sort of investment do you want to make in this podcast (time & money)?

Our most precious resource is time, and money doesn’t come cheap either. When thinking through what you want out of your podcast, you should think about how much of these key resources you want to put into the podcast.

For example, it is possible to host a podcast for free. Buzzsprout offers a free plan with 2 hours of audio a month but the podcasts get erased after 90 days; Podbean offers a free plan with 5 total hours of audio. Soundcloud is also a free platform to start. All of these are acceptable if you want to experiment, but if you’re planning to produce an ongoing podcast, you’re probably going to have to upgrade (and many plans are around $15/month, so it’s not a huge expense).

The same goes for things like recording equipment and editing quality. The better your recording equipment – microphone, mic stand, pop filter, software for recording remote calls, etc. – is, the better your podcast will sound. And a good sounding podcast will matter to listeners. We’ll cover equipment more in detail below.

For editing too, you can just record and post with a very basic mix to sweeten and balance the sound and filter out noise. But if you want to structure a conversation or recording, to remove mistakes and repetitions, and to cut down on the podcast time – so as to respect your listeners’ time – you’ll need to spend more time or money on editing. A good rule of thumb is one hour of recorded audio takes two hours to edit fully. Another option is to go with a service like ours.

Again, only you can determine the right answer to this question (and the others on this list), but it’s worth keeping in mind the potential costs from the beginning, so you don’t spend time on a project you don’t want to pursue. You can’t get that time back.

What do you want the podcast to be about?

Once assessing your commitment, this is the most important question. What is the topic or theme that ties your podcast together? What will be the hook that gets listeners to subscribe and share the podcast with friends?

One doesn’t have to be too prescriptive or self-restricting in their selection of a theme, but the more focused you can make the podcast, the easier a time it will be finding an audience. Joe Rogan or Terry Gross might be able to run a general interview podcast that focuses on their personality or interviewing style, but they are special. You may be special too, but think about what your goal is and who you want to reach. The old elevator pitch model – the ability to explain why someone should listen to your podcast in the time it takes to go up in an elevator – is worth keeping in mind here.

What format do you want to have?

Once you have a topic, you want to think about your format. Podcasting is an open medium, and there are a number of different common formats you can apply, as well as new ones you might be able to discover. For example, the podcast could be conversational, where you and a co-host or two go back and forth, with guided topics but room to improvise and build chemistry with one another and with your listeners. Or the podcast could be an interview podcast, where you have a different guest each week and ask them questions, so the conversation is more focused on what they say rather than you. To the contrary, it could be an essay podcast, where you are sharing your own opinions on a given topic, whether already written out to the word or more improvised (you can even veer towards a ranting podcast). And of course, some of the most famous podcasts tell a story, whether a fictional one or a deeply reported non-fiction story. This is not an easy format to just wade into, but it may appeal to you nevertheless.

There are great podcasts in each of those formats, and that list isn’t all-inclusive. Podcasts can also switch between styles – I’ve had success in the past running a conversational podcast but one where we interview guests on alternative episodes, to flesh out the conversations we had between the co-hosts. The Razor’s Edge is an example of this, while A Positive Jam is more of a cross between conversational and story telling.

A sub-question to this is do you want a co-host or two? Is there someone you have a good rapport with who wants to join you on this project? Are you close enough in common interests that you can work together on a regular basis, but apart enough that the collaboration will push you further than you would go on your own? Do you think it would be more fun to just have someone you can talk to each time? These are things you want to think about. Like with every collaboration, having a co-host involves some compromise, but it can also advance your efforts in a way that is tough to do alone.

What equipment and tools do you need?

We touched on this briefly, and the answer depends in part on earlier questions, especially your goals and how much time you want to spend. Built-in laptop or phone mics, for example, capture a decent enough sound quality if you just want to share your podcast with friends or colleagues. At the same time, a base level of investment can go a long way. Here are the items you want to consider:

A high quality microphone. A Blue Yeti mic is around $120, for example, and captures a full and clean sound.
Headphones – you don’t need to get fancy, but it’s a good idea to have a set of headphones on hand for recording and editing purposes.
A mic stand – this allows you to avoid common recording mistakes because you can set your mic in front of you without risking touching it. A shock mount and a pop filter are two other items you can buy to protect the sonic fidelity.
Recording software – if you are recording physically, Audacity is free software that captures audio well. GarageBand on Apple computers is also a good option.
If you are recording remotely with a guest or a co-host, options range from free ones like Zencaster to specialized paid options like Cleanfeed to recording Skype calls or recording via Zoom.
Editing software – If you plan to edit this on your own, you’ll need something that you can cut audio, splice in music if you want it, add intros/outros as relevant, and clean up the sound. Again, Audacity or GarageBand (for Apple) are free options that do just about everything you need. Adobe Audition is a paid software if you want to upgrade. And of course, there are companies out there that can edit for you.
Hosting service – To get your podcast out to Spotify and Apple Podcasts, the two main platforms for listening to podcasts, you need to host the podcast with a company that will push out the podcast via an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The best platforms will automatically ‘apply’ to list your podcast on those two main channels, Apple and Spotify, though you will also want to set up accounts with each platform to monitor stats. That said, the hosting company – Podbean, Blubrry, Libsyn, AudioBoom, Megaphone, BuzzSprout are among the options – will also provide cohesive stats on your podcast.

These are the bare bones for recording and releasing your podcast. For added promotion or distribution, for example, you want to consider your social media options. But you should expect to at the least address each of these items if you want to succeed.

How do you get feedback and how do you measure success?

That last point feeds into this last question – you have a goal, you have a podcast set up, you’re putting time and money into it, so how do you determine if it’s worth it?

Podcasting offers raw stats like listeners, downloads, listen to end %, devices, and so forth. The Apple app includes reviews, which allow you to get more qualitative feedback. The best podcasts evolve with their listeners, so think about how you want to incorporate them – it could be a request for them to leave a review or to email you, it could be that you build a strong social media presence and get responses that way, it could be that you find a test audience to share episodes with.

The openness of podcasting is the source of its strength, in this case because you can solicit and gain feedback, and then iterate to improve what you’re doing and engage with more listeners. This can help you re-answer the questions above as far as your goals, your investment, and how you want to execute your podcast.

There are plenty of resources out there as far as a checklist of tips for getting started running a podcast. We will write one soon as well. But this post is aimed to help you think through the whole process and what you’re getting into. We believe in the power of podcasting, and believe it is a great format for tons of people. But it’s better to go into something like this with eyes wide open, and to learn from others’ experience rather than making all the same mistakes on your own. And if you need help, you can get in touch with us.