Need a New Project? Here’s How to Start a Podcast!
Written by Andres Salazar
With the new spring season just around the corner, it’s a good idea to start looking toward doing something fresh. Springtime is ripe for fresh ideas, the beginning of ambitious adventures, and newborn inspirations. A perfect time for new projects after all the hefty season cleaning, spring is just the right time to look at picking up a different hobby.
Podcasting is a hobby and activity that has been picking up steam in the past couple of years. Nowadays, almost everyone is listening to something like the Joe Rogan Experience or the Weekly Planet. These spoken word shows are fun ways to learn about obscure parts of history, riveting true crime cases, and what’s happening in pop culture media. Though they’re great to listen to, or just having them as background noise while washing dishes, making one is equally fun. Perhaps this season, you could give it a crack and publish your voice and your stories for those who use Spotify and Apple Music daily. Here is how you can start your own podcast!
The first and one of the exciting steps to starting a podcast is planning what you will be focusing on. If you have a burning passion, like history or sports, basing your podcast on that would be a great way to transfer your enthusiasm to the microphone. Whether you focus on one specific topic or change it periodically, the choice is entirely yours. Some podcasts concentrate on movies, but there are shows that bring in new guests of different backgrounds for every episode. Adding your perspective to things makes for a great way to render each edition of the show unique. Take your interests and experience and run with them!
You should also consider whether you want to do the show alone or with a partner. Both have their pros and cons. Doing the program with a well-known friend allows for incredible on-air chemistry. There aren’t many things more enjoyable than listening to two friends bickering about current news or the spicy hot takes on celebrity controversy. On the other hand, doing the podcast with someone else limits your flexibility, with scheduling recording sessions becoming a real obstacle. Going solo allows recording on your own time and leaves room for more flexibility in topics and direction. These are important, though both require a strong sense of accountability and consistency.
Once you’ve figured out your million-dollar idea, the next thing to work on is the recording itself. Podcasting, like many other hobbies, is a skill that requires a good amount of learning, practice, and fine-tuning. Starting is as easy as downloading Audacity on your computer and hooking up the closest microphone. Audacity is the golden standard for audio recording software. Easy to use and in-depth enough to modify anything you need; this should be your home base to record and export your new show to different audio formats. Here, you’ll be able to delete, add, split, and more to any recording you make, slowly putting together a show that will grow an audience.
As intimidating as it may initially seem, publishing a podcast is pretty straightforward. There is a library of ways of getting your show onto people’s Spotify accounts. Websites like BuzzSprout, SoundCloud, and Transistor are platforms that will register your show on well-known applications like Apple Podcasts. Most publishing platforms have free plans, making it incredibly easy to start being heard by new fans around the globe. The process is often as simple as uploading your mp3 files to the platform, which then publishes them to the most well-known media applications.
In most cases, you can even choose where you want the show to be available. Premium features often allow people to find where the audience is listening from and provide analytics on your most popular episodes. With the publishing of your show being so simple, you’ll find the most complicated part to be keeping up with the Instagram and Twitter pages.
Hearing a recording of yourself is always challenging for the first time. If you’ve ever cringed at yourself from hearing a word or two on an Instagram story, just wait until you witness an hour-long recording. Over time, the more you record and speak into the microphone, the more comfortable you will get. No one is an expert when doing something for the first time. Podcasting can be incredibly rewarding. Building a community of people that tune in every time to hear you talk about whatever you’re passionate about is an incredible journey. The great thing about this hobby is that you can start reaching out to new listeners with the most basic computer and the gaming microphone you use when playing with friends. With it being so accessible, giving a shot at a new project like podcasting this spring seems like an excellent way to kick off the following few months.
0 
0