Tl;Dr: What was the hardest part for you when starting podcasting? For me it has been scheduling interviews. Details if interested: New podcaster here. Been doing it for about a month. Audio only, decent setup, rodepod mics, rodecaster 2 pro. Good mic stands, comfy basement bar studio space. Not worried too much about finding an audience. It’s just a really fun hobby for me. Format is guest based interviews that focus on interesting stories, adventures, life experience. Experimenting with some solo pods as well. Have published 6 episodes (goal is 1 a week). So far the tech has been pretty easy, I like real conversations and limit editing to keep it feeling real. I really prefer doing them in person, as I think it makes it feel more conversational and real but I have done remote. I have a pretty big network of interesting people, and they almost always connect me with other interesting people. Interesting people are also busy doing interesting things. Scheduling has been the hardest part. What was your biggest challenge when starting your podcast?

Background: Launching podcast later this year, and the initial concept was to release audio episodes free via major platforms and offer full, unedited videos of episodes on the podcast website for paid subscribers.

Questions/Concerns: When exploring hosting for the show's website, I realized that I would be responsible for all of the storage space for the videos. Am I right that this method would be prohibitively expensive and complicated? I could aways iframe the videos from a video hosting site, but I don't know how I could keep it "subscribers only" if that only applies to the website. The ecosystem seems to be so built-out that sites like Patreon or YouTube (Channel Memberships) may be better options for rev. generating content. Any veterans have advice for newb?

I've had an account with podcasts on it, mine and clients, for nearly a decade. But the past few months it's been such a struggle to get in and see the data. I don't use a Mac, never have, but it looks like they've made it harder to do that.

Curious if anyone else is having an issue like this AND what workaround you're using the get access easily again. Thanks.

#This is a weekly thread to ask for and give feedback to the r/podcasting community

Post a podcast episode you would like feedback for, and try to give as much constructive feedback as you can to other members of our community. Please provide links to your podcast, a detailed description of it and clear questions you would like answered by the community. Try to remember the following:

​

• Users who give feedback are usually the ones who receive the most feedback in return. If you are not contributing, you should not expect any helpful advice in return. We would aim for giving two pieces of feedback for every one piece you wish to receive. If you are looking to simply promote your podcast, you may do so here

​

• Try to be specific with your feedback requests. Questions like:

>-What can I improve?
>
>-Was it good?
>
>-Would you listen again?

Are very difficult to answer for anyone listening to your show for this first time. Good questions might be:

>-What improvements could I make to the audio quality?
>
>-Can I make adjustments to my speaking or hosting style?
>
>-How could I improve the pacing and structure of my podcast?

​

• Keep it focused on podcasting techniques and objective improvements. Many podcasts that are posted may not be your particular genre or preferred content. When giving feedback, focus on the things you do enjoy and the things that can be changed, not the content of the show itself.

I will reiterate. If you do not give feedback, you should not expect any feedback in return. This is a reciprocal community. If you haven't gotten any comments yet, try listening to another podcast and giving some feedback. Our users are very friendly and responsive!

Thank you to everyone posting, we look forward to hearing your work!

I just got back from witnessing (and being part of) the most unhinged podcast editing session of my life, and I need to know if I'm losing my mind or if this is actually as insane as it feels.

The setup:
Small room. Multiple cameras (guest, host, co-host, plus a center wide). Cramped table. Host's wife also sitting there. No space to reposition anything.

The client:
Extremely specific. Wants a perfectly clean show. No "ums." No pauses. No natural conversation flow. They sat next to the editor (Caleb) for two hours, critiquing every single word, sentence, and transition live.

The moment that broke me:
The guest uses his hands when he talks. At one point, his hand briefly covered part of his face. I didn't flag it as a distraction because... it's a human being gesturing naturally.

The client pulled me aside and said I should have stopped the live recording, interrupted the conversation, and told the guest to use his left hand instead of his right. That way, the hand wouldn't block his face.

I asked, "How is he supposed to know that?"
Their answer: "That's your job to catch and correct in the moment."

The kicker:
Caleb and I agree the only real fix is moving the cameras. But the room is too small. We suggested alternatives (higher tripods, digital crops, losing the dedicated guest cam). Client shot down every single one because they're "very specific" about their shots.

So instead of accepting physics, they blame me for not babysitting the guest's handedness.

Am I crazy for thinking this is insane?
Editors, have you ever had a client this deep in the perfectionism rabbit hole? How do you handle it without getting fired? And seriously — do I need a "Left Hand Only" clause in my next contract, or should I just run?

My podcast is niche and every episode I have guests from different countries as well as I will be bringing experts, who advice to my audience.

I have done trailers, basically nice bits of from the episode as well as few unanswered questions. People have moved on after trailer though, at the beginning my trailers were not as good so now I can make better ones.

I did intro for one guest, it's basically me telling who the guest is why you should watch it, 3 things they can learn. But I think my thumbnail and title covers little bit of it, not alll so not sure about repeating myself.

Or should I just jump into conversation? Basically start with fun part of it which can be a hook too.

Let me know what you think. Thank you

Im creating a podcast that will consist of alot of different topics but Im in need of a few ideas from people that wont tell me to just look on tiktok lol I would like a variety of ideas so that I have a lot of options to choose from.

I'm experimenting with my audio equipment. I have:

- Shure SM7dB (the internal preamp is activated)

- SSL 2+ MKII

I live in a noisy place, and my chance to have a clear recording is to record at night; however, some sounds still pop up, such as a car horn/engine.

Would it be different if I recorded at a very low audio interface gain to minimize these sounds?

I recently published my first book, Death and Nothingness: What Atheists Need to Know About Death, and I'd like to discuss it on someone's podcast. In it I explain why the idea of eternal nothingness after death is illogical, and what conclusions follow if we stick to a strictly naturalistic worldview. There's also a chapter devoted to the antinatalist idea that it's better to not exist.

OK, for context, we're a politics/current events show, put out 2 episodes a week. We've plateaued the last ~six weeks at 300 streams/episode (sucks, I know, we're trying - listener retention is great, just listeners is the problem). Day 1 is 180-200, then it dwindles from there to zero-ish by day 5 to day 7.

We released at 2 am Eastern this morning. Right now, we have (per Captivate, our host) 1,075 downloads. But only 193 are of *today's episode*.

Instead, we've had this weird and very obviously 'fake' rush into older episodes. I in fact thought the issue was perhaps in Captivate data, but Spotify is showing it now as well. (Apple hasn't updated but they seem slow in my experience to post data to Podcasts Connect.) To wit, per Spotify, we've had exactly 31 plays from an audience of 31 for each of the nine episodes published from March 20 to April 17. (Again, our normal stream numbers there would likely be something like 10 *total*.)

Per Captivate, nearly all this incremental traffic appears to be coming from the US (we're historically ~70% from Ireland, where my co-host resides). ~75% is coming on desktop browsers or apps, whereas normally (like nearly all pods, I imagine) we're overwhelmingly mobile. It's also saying we're getting the extra traffic from the Spotify desktop app *and* iTunes, so this isn't some weird issue on one platform that is tricking Captivate's data capture process.

Any idea on an explanation here? Obviously this is not a case of actual listenership, but is there some weird bot thing? Some issue with our (or others'?) RSS feed?

I'm trying to figure out how to create a vertical sports ticker to add to my sports podcast I'm creating. Any advice or suggestions?

Hi, I’m looking to start some sort of audio podcast, can’t afford a studio and all that but I think a lot of people have something to say but don’t necessarily want to be on camera. The truth is I’m yet to figure how to put it out there in a way that people will love because people want everything visual. But I trust that it will go well.

So if you have anything say, anything at all, maybe a ridiculous story or just an opinion and will like to share from your bedroom, then you are welcome in advance.

I’m waiting for you guys

Hi everyone, so for a while now I've been really thinking about starting a podcast where I share encouraging/inspirational stories from people who have overcome mental health struggles. I'm looking for some advice/thoughts on it thought. I would like to interview individuals who'd be willing to share tell their stories. I do think there probably is an audience for this type of content but not completely sure.

And I don't have much of a network so should I just start out telling stories I find online and then look for people to interview later once I have an actual following? Since mental health can be emotional and personal to discuss would it be hard to get people to agree in the first place, especially to talk with a stranger/someone they just met? I've considered reaching out to peer support specialists on linkedin or group support sites as well for possible guests, but not sure how effective that could be.

For those of you that have podcasts where you interview people, are all your guests people in your network you already know or are any of them new contacts? Is it even realistic to try to get guests who would all be new contacts?

Also, do you have to pay people to get them to do podcast interviews? Would anyone be willing to do it for free just to get their story out there?

This is a weekly thread for podcasting related product, service, and tool providers to post their capabilities and updates to the r/podcasting community.

**Post a podcasting related product, tool, or service that is relevant to the r/podcasting community. If you are in beta or development for your capability please state at the top of your comment: "Feedback Requested."

For all comments/replies to this post thread: please provide a detailed description of what your product, tool, or service does and post a link to your product, service, or tool including relevant pricing information. **

**Try to remember the following: **

• You must disclose your affiliation to the product, tool, or service in the comment

• Posts by accounts with little or no Reddit or r/podcasting subreddit history will be considered suspect by many members of this subreddit and receive little or no attention.

• If you are asking for feedback be specific and ask questions like: What can we improve? Would you consider using this capability/service? Is the graphical interface/web presence adequate? What capabilities are missing?

**Examples Of Appropriate Comment Topics: **

• Editing/production services

• AI Tools

• Hosting Services

• Advertisement sales services

• New Podcasting Software

• Connecting/Recording Services

• Guest Connection Services

• Podcast artwork creation services

• Podcasting Scheduling/Calendar Services

• etc

If you are posting for a personal service like editing or social media management keep these thoughts in mind (free or paid):

• You are basically applying for a job with the podcast; your experience, qualifications, and past employment history matter to your future employer so information about you is important

• List your current available skills and tools. What DAWs are your capable of operating in? Have you used existing collaborative spaces before? What social media platforms do you have experience in?

• If you are offering services for social media management show either examples of past work or at least offer up your personal accounts for review

• What time zone do you live in? If I'm a podcast producer and need to get in touch with you about an emergency situation I need to know what hours I can contact you

• What is your strategy or philosophy for doing the work you propose?

• What are your rates? (If free how long will you offer that rate?)

• What is your goal and/or what are you trying to accomplish?

Thank you to everyone posting, we look forward to reading about what you are doing to help podcasters!

**All subreddit rules still apply. If you violate the subreddit rules your comment will be removed and your account can be given a temporary or permanent ban. Excessive or unreasonable requests for personal information in order to access the tool or service will also be treated as a rule violation. **

The r/podcasting Moderators do not endorse or approve of any of the tools and services posted here unless explicitly stated as such by the moderators.

So about 5-6 years ago I had a strong going podcast but then I got heavy depression and just gave up on almost everything. Since January I have really wanted to start a fresh one but I keep putting it off, making excuses etc. Have any of you got any tips on how you motivated yourselves to start one and keep going?

Trying to figure out whether to commit to going full video or stay audio first and im getting conflicting advice from every direction

The pro video camp says its no longer optional in 2026 Youtube is now the largest podcast platform by listening minutes Spotify is pushing video content harder Tiktok and shorts only work with video clips so without filming youre cut off from the clip discovery layer entirely The argument is basically if youre not doing video youre operating on hard mode

The audio only camp says the whole video push is a platform money grab Audio podcasts have higher completion rates Listeners listen passively while doing other things which is the whole point Video forces a different production posture more like a youtube show than a conversation The argument is basically video is a different medium pretending to be the same one

My situation right now is audio first with passable video setup that i havent committed to The audio quality is solid the video is fine but not great I post the audio to apple and spotify the clips i make for social are from the audio waveform plus a still image which performs okay but obviously worse than actual video clips would

So question for working podcasters Who actually went full video and saw it move downloads Who tried it and went back to audio Who is audio only on principle and successfully growing anyway And for those running both how are you handling the production overhead of filming every episode on top of everything else

Genuinely asking because the decision affects gear budget room setup recording posture and the whole production workflow for the next year

So I’ve been doing mostly solo episodes/monologue-style content for a while now and honestly got pretty comfortable with it. I can ramble for an hour alone with zero issue lol.

But recently I recorded my first proper guest episode with a friend and wow… hosting is a completely different skill.

Trying to actively listen, think of follow-up questions, keep the pacing good, avoid awkward silences, watch audio levels, AND stay focused with ADHD brain overload happening at the same time was chaos

Listening back wasn’t terrible, but I could definitely hear moments where the conversation lost momentum because I didn’t guide it well enough. I ended up turning the transcript into more of an outline for attempt #2 so I have some structure without sounding scripted.

Curious how other podcasters made the jump from solo content to interviews/conversations:

• Did hosting feel awkward at first?
• Do you prep heavily or mostly freestyle?
• Any tips for staying focused during longer conversations?
• What free/cheap software are you using for remote recording?

Would love advice from people who’ve already gone through the “wait… I’m actually bad at interviewing” phase

Hey, all. I figured this would probably be the best community to ask.

My show is public (has been for a couple weeks), and the only listen I have is the one I did to test the audio levels in my car to compare with other shows. I'm doing it as part of the place where I work and we're promoting it on TikTok and Instagram, but where else could we go? I'm pretty sure we have a page on Facebook, but I don't know how much effort to put into promos there.

Thanks, all. Glad to be here.

But I’m sooooo nervous 😬 I think I may need a hype squad to hold my hand while I hit the publish button.

No but seriously, for those of you that went from solo to video or started with video — did it give you as much anxiety as I’m feeling before exposing myself to whomever and wherever? I talk about some crazy and personal stuff

Took me embarrassingly long to figure this out.

We were putting real effort into our clips. Good moments, decent editing, captions, the whole thing. Posted them to our Instagram and YouTube Shorts every week. Views were around 200-400 per clip and basically all of them were existing followers.

I kept thinking the content wasn't good enough. So we made better clips. Same result.

The thing nobody really says out loud: posting clips to your own account doesn't grow your audience. It entertains the audience you already have. The algorithm shows your stuff to your followers first. If they watch, it might push wider. But if your followers are already listeners, they're not "new" listeners. You're in a loop.

The only time clips actually brought in new people was when someone else posted them. A guest shared a clip once and it did 8x our usual numbers overnight.

That got me thinking. What if instead of posting clips ourselves, we got real creators with their own audiences to post the same clips on their accounts? Not sponsored posts. Just organic they pick the content, they post it natively.

We tested it through a platform called Clipnic. Creators in their network pick up the podcast footage, clip the moments they think will land, post to their own Reels/Shorts/TikTok. You pay based on views generated.

First campaign, we reached people who had genuinely never heard of the show. Some of them became listeners. It wasn't magic numbers but it was real new reach, which is more than six months of posting to our own account gave us.

If you're stuck in the same loop, it might not be your content. It might be where it's landing.