Episode's summary
I recorded this one on a USB mic at a hotel desk, next to a kettle and some UHT milk I’m going to regret. If you can’t hear much difference, that’s the whole episode. There’s a quality floor in podcasting. Below it, people leave. Above it, something odd happens: nobody notices anything at all. Nobody has ever finished an episode, turned to their partner and said “lovely compression on that one.” Most of us got over that floor years ago, thanks to Descript’s Studio Sound, Adobe’s free Enhance Speech button and Auphonic. Nobody told you. So we keep buying things our listeners can’t hear. In this episode: The same hotel-room recording played twice, raw and cleaned up (try it in one earbud) Why I stopped swearing by iZotope RX 11 Dennis, his vintage biscuit tin podcast, and the gear spiral that took the paint off his wall The £300 metal box still sitting in my loft Why February me was only half right about one-click audio tools The wardrobe test: a free check to do before you buy anything else Chapters: 00:00…
I recorded this one on a USB mic at a hotel desk, next to a kettle and some UHT milk I’m going to regret. If you can’t hear much difference, that’s the whole episode. There’s a quality floor in podcasting. Below it, people leave. Above it, something odd happens: nobody notices anything at all. Nobody has ever finished an episode, turned to their partner and said “lovely compression on that one.” Most of us got over that floor years ago, thanks to Descript’s Studio Sound, Adobe’s free Enhance Speech button and Auphonic. Nobody told you. So we keep buying things our listeners can’t hear. In this episode: The same hotel-room recording played twice, raw and cleaned up (try it in one earbud) Why I stopped swearing by iZotope RX 11 Dennis, his vintage biscuit tin podcast, and the gear spiral that took the paint off his wall The £300 metal box still sitting in my loft Why February me was only half right about one-click audio tools The wardrobe test: a free check to do before you buy anything else Chapters: 00:00…
Episodes
Here's What Definitely Won’t Make Your Podcast Sound Better
ListenedI recorded this one on a USB mic at a hotel desk, next to a kettle and some UHT milk I’m going to regret. If you can’t hear much difference, that’s the whole episode. There’s a quality floor in podcasting. Below it, people leave. Above it, something odd happens: nobody notices anything at all. Nobody has ever finished an episode, turned to their partner and said “lovely compression on that one.” Most of us got over that floor years ago, thanks to Descript’s Studio Sound, Adobe’s free Enhance Speech button and Auphonic. Nobody told you. So we keep buying things our listeners can’t hear. In this episode: The same hotel-room recording played twice, raw and cleaned up (try it in one earbud) Why I stopped swearing by iZotope RX 11 Dennis, his vintage biscuit tin podcast, and the gear spiral that took the paint off his wall The £300 metal box still sitting in my loft Why February me was only half right about one-click audio tools The wardrobe test: a free check to do before you buy anything else Chapters: 00:00…
How Long Should A Podcast Episode Be? (The Honest Answer)
ListenedThere's a moment about nineteen minutes into a lot of podcast episodes where you can hear the host has checked out. They made their point at minute six. It was quite good. But there were eleven minutes of slot left, so they made it again, slightly differently, this time with a story about their brother-in-law's conservatory. This one's about the clock. The one radio had, the one podcasting got rid of, and the brand new one we all built ourselves about five minutes later. It's short on purpose. You'll understand why. In this episode: — The radio news jingle, and the best podcast editor I ever had — How we escaped the clock and built a new one immediately — The dinner party and the single Twix — Gareth (made up, but you've heard his show), his caravans, and 28 minutes of car park — The question that'll make you wince. It made me wince. My last one was 26 minutes. — The Post-it test Six minutes of me, plus a podcast from one of our Podmastery Community members — which doesn't count, because it's theirs and they…
Need Podcast Coaching? Have You Tried Dave Jackson? He's Three Stalls Down
ListenedI was minding my own business, about ten minutes into a podcast I listen to every week, when the host said my name out loud and told his audience to go and listen to my show. Nobody asked him to. There was no deal, no swap, no "I'll do yours if you do mine." Which is incredible, given that, on paper, the man is my competition. This episode is about the one group of listeners the ideal listener exercise specifically tells you to ignore — and why they're the only people in your audience who arrive with an audience of their own. There's a bit in here I don't soften, and it's aimed squarely at me as much as at you. In this episode: — The three approved British responses to being complimented in public — Why a man with 1,000 episodes and a Hall of Fame induction owes you nothing, and said it anyway — The Saturday morning cheese market, and why Trevor sends people to Maureen — Same counter, different cheese: the reason "but they might not come back" is the wrong worry — Bev, the Martins, and two allotment podcasts…
How Much Does A Podcast With 1,000 Listeners Make? (The Real Number)
ListenedA podcast with a thousand listeners makes about a hundred and forty-four dollars a month. I checked that properly. So then I say the second thing, which is the bit that makes people go quiet. You don't want a hundred and forty-four dollars a month. You want one thousand four hundred and forty-four. And the way you get there is by not doing ads. In this episode: — Why the hundred and forty-four dollar figure is right, and why that's the problem — The only lever CPM gives you, and where it leads — The arithmetic that made me laugh — What renting your mid-roll actually costs you — My affiliate disclosure, said out loud, because this episode demands it — One thing to do this week that takes sixty seconds of 'tape' Tools I use and get paid to mention. I record on Boomcaster, edit in Descript most weeks, and Captivate hosts this show. Affiliate links below — I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I'm telling you because the whole episode is about people who don't. — Boomcaster:…
I Told Them My Podcast Audience Wasn't For Sale... To THEM
ListenedAbout four years ago, a very popular remote recording platform offered me money to talk about them on this show. I'd been using it that week. It had also, that week, lost one of my recordings. Not glitched. Lost. I said no. And I want to be clear that this wasn't a moral decision, because it wasn't. It was arithmetic. This episode is about the thing you're holding and consistently failing to price. Because the belief is that sponsorship is a reward for volume — hit some magic download number and you're finally allowed. So you wait. And when someone eventually offers you something, you say yes very fast, because you've been told this is the gate opening. Here's the problem with that. Only 7% of podcasts reach 5,000 downloads an episode. Two per cent reach 20,000. The benchmark show you've been measuring yourself against is a rounding error. You've been waiting for permission from a category that's almost entirely empty. Meanwhile the advertising industry — not me, them — describes mid-tier and niche shows as…