How to Podcast on a Budget

I have stated before and I will state again, Podcasting might be my favorite medium. Yes, I love making music but there is something about preparing and telling a story or giving my thoughts on a particular topic I can’t get over. I am the guy that would rather listen to a baseball game on the radio and not watch on TV.

With that being said, I am going to go through what you need to produce a Podcast on a budget…

First things first, are you doing your podcast alone or are you doing is with people?

Are you recording in person or are you recording remote?

I also going to assume you have a computer of some kind. Doesn’t matter if you are using Mac or PC. If you don’t this post won’t be for you. But fear not, look into the RODECaster, it’s an all in one Podcast recording device, best used when you are with people. You will also need mics.

Now back to the show, here is what you will need:

• A computer with a built in microphone

• A DAW

That is all! You can record yourself or if you have people in the room you can also record multiple people. Quality, won’t be the best, however if you are save you can get pretty solid recordings. If you don’t know what a DAW is, that is the software you will be recording to. If you are on an Apple device, GarageBand will allow you record vocals. If you are on PC, Audacity is a good place to go. That is what I used for years when I started a video game Podcast, it is now also available for Mac and Lunix. Also, a lot of paid DAWs have free versions. I primarily use Studio One and they also have a free stripped down version.

So far, we are at $0 to get you started!

Now that you know what you need, which given your circumstance can be nothing provided you are using one of your current devices. You will also need to determine what Podcast service you want to use.

Do you want to be listed on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify? If you do you will then need to look into a host service. Personally I use Buzzsprout, again that is something I settled on years ago and I never wanted to shop for a new platform. They make it easy to upload episodes, share to social media and get your Podcast listed. Now unfortunately with Buzzsprout and other services similar there is a monthly fee. Currently I pay $18/month for the three Podcasts. Now their prices vary based on the number of hours you upload to their service. I would suggest reviewing their pay plans to see what is right for you.  With that, my Podcasts live on as long as I pay them and I am able to take advantage of their analytics. I upload to Buzzsprout and they send our the RSS feed to Podcast platforms for people to find.

Also, look into other options. I am not saying they are the best, they are just what I use.

So currently depending on how many hours you want to upload you are at $18/month

Now if you want to spend a little more money and upgrade your quality, I would then suggest getting a dedicated microphone. Look into USB microphones, traditional microphones that use XLR would require an audio interface and we will get to that in another post.

That is all