I was never what you'd call an 'audio person.'
I don’t have a background in it, I have no official training in it, and before I started running a podcast production agency, I never thought about it that much.
Note: The woman I started One Stone Creative with is and was a dyed-in-the-wool audio person - that’s why this gig works so well. ;-)
But for me? A little echo, a little distortion, a little background noise? Whatever.
That was then.
7 years spending a lot of time with podcasters and their audio and consistently working with audio experts means I’ve become something different.
An audio snob.
And I’m not the only one.
Podcasts getting more popular and more numerous (and the same thing happening with YouTube and TikTok creators) means that the standards for acceptable audio are getting higher and higher.
Listeners expect a baseline level of quality now that is a lot higher than it was in the past, and there are enough options for where they can spend their time and attention that a show that sounds great is completely unremarkable and they can concentrate on the content, but a show that sounds bad can often be immediately skipped over to something a little easier on the ears.
So you need to have your editing well in hand, whether you’re personally an audio elitist or not.
There are different types of editing you can apply or have applied to your show:
Minimal - This is the most basic level of editing - removing any serious errors and glaring sound problems when possible, and adding elements like intros and calls to action. The finished episode will be pretty similar to the raw recording.
Hygiene - This is the most common type of editing - balancing volume, improving the quality of each speakers voice, addressing background noises, tidying up some of the filer words, making sure that the host and guests sound eloquent and professional. The finished episode will be a little shorter than, and will flow more smoothly and naturally than the raw recording
Content/Editorial - These are shows that contain a lot more “production” elements: different music and sounds, different pieces of audio being combined, and probably a lot more moving content around. This is the most time-and-money intensive type of editing, and a finished episode will be dramatically different than the raw recording.
Each of these can vary really widely in terms of the amount of change from the raw to the finished audio, and the time and effort it took to do it.
For most company podcasts, hygiene editing is more than sufficient. Minimal doesn’t tend to be high enough quality, and content/editorial is overkill in relation to the goals of the podcast.
It can be tempting to try and save time and money on editing, but remember this:
When it comes to editing, and how your show eventually sounds, you’re going to pay for it one way or another.
You can pay in time preparing a good clean read that can be edited quickly and efficiently, you can pay for post-production to cover your recording sins, or you can pay in lost reputation and opportunity cost when you release media that doesn’t reflect your professional standards.
It’s usually better to spend a little more time on prep and production than to pay with opportunities that will never come your way because your audio doesn’t match your ability.
And to answer the question we opened this edition of the Podcasting for Business Newsletter:
Your episodes need at least enough editing that no one notices you did, or didn’t do, any editing. ;-)
What Does The Data Tell Us?
Since we’re talking about editing this week, let’s look at the editing style used by the top 100 podcasts.
Before we get into the numbers, I want to note that really good editors are going to make a highly produced show that took a huge amount of time and effort to create a sound like it was recorded off the cuff by brilliant people and fed directly into your ears.
This means we cannot know for sure what editing styles and strategies were used – we’re going by what it sounded like. It’s our interpretation.
This year it sounded like normal hygiene style editing was by far the most prevalent, with 69% of shows using it – this is slightly down from 73% last year.
This is a type of editing that takes a conversation and makes it sound like a particularly eloquent and smooth flowing chat, where everyone is just a little more smooth and eloquent than they are in real life.
The effort that goes into creating that effect is, as mentioned above, something we can’t tell from the outside.
I was delighted to see that the shows that seem to put no thought whatsoever into editing are down from 21% to 10%. The listening world thanks these shows for not making us listen to minimal or unedited episodes.
I would like to, if any top 100 hosts are reading this, request that 4 of you who have otherwise great editing buy a pop filter, or back off your mic an inch or two. Puh! Puh! Puh!
The final group was highly produced shows (21% this year compared to 14% last year) – this is a narrative, musically enhanced, news or documentary style of editing.
This is out of the question for most company shows – the production costs are too high for the benefit the podcast brings, but when it is possible, it can be a lot of fun and allow everyone involved a lot of creativity while creating high value assets for a business.
The most important things when it comes to your show is that your show are:
- High enough quality that no one notices any problems, and
- Consistency between all of the parts of your show. Even if it’s a little lower than you would like it to be, you don’t want to jar people out of paying attention my major changes in quality over the course of the episode.
Latest on the Company Show
There’s a persistent myth in the podcasting world that you can use a little bit of someone else’s content without facing any potential legal consequences whatsoever. Maybe 45 seconds of a really popular song or a clip from a TV show that perfectly demonstrates what you’re talking about. It’s not true.
There are protections for other people’s content in place, just like there are for yours. And of course, that doesn’t mean that you can never use other people’s content. It just has to be transformative, which is a whole other kettle of fish on its own, and altogether, it’s really a complicated issue filled with nuance and can potentially be pretty high stakes.
While figuring out all of this copyright, fair use, and intellectual property stuff alone is totally possible, it’s much better to get information straight from a reliable source, and on this episode, we’ve got a bona fide trademark and copyright nerd joining us to shed a little light on the subject.
Erin Ogden is an attorney at the law firm Ogden Glazer + Schaefer. Whether she’s helping clients directly or working with other attorneys to help their clients, she helps identify, protect, and monetize intellectual property while looking at the business holistically, which is exactly what we’re looking for today.
So if you’re ready for a lot of extremely valuable information critical to the long term success of your company’s podcast, click here to read or listen to the entire conversation.
Aligning your podcast with your business goals is crucial for success, which means you need to set clear podcast goals, choose the right format to achieve those goals, and understand industry best practices.
I had the pleasure of a conversation that I had with Beate Chelette, the Growth Architect. She’s a business strategist and podcast host who provides visionaries and leaders with strategies to grow their authority so they can scale their impact.
Beate and I are talked about changes in the entrepreneurial landscape, having a good understanding of what’s going on in your industry and making decisions accordingly, and a good deep dive into the good, the bad, and the terribly ugly of different podcast strategies that we have run across over the years of being in this industry.
We’re operating from the same foundation: podcasts can be leveraged within a business in a way that serves the business itself, listeners, and everyone else involved with the project. But we approach many things in somewhat different ways, and that makes for a very rich discussion.
This was a conversation I learned a lot from, and I think you will too. Click here to read or listen to the entire conversation.
Upcoming Events
Strategy and Networking Call March 21st.
Is your podcast costing you clients?
When you start a podcast as a marketing channel for your business, you’re probably not thinking that doing so could actually cost you clients, opportunities and reputation. But it absolutely can. There are minimum quality standards that you need to be mindful of if you’re going to be publishing multi-media content, and the consequences of not meeting them can be dire.
Join us on Thursday, March 21st at Noon Eastern to learn:
- How to think about your podcast from a potential client’s perspective,
- How to make the best of your recording environment and equipment,
- The absolutely critical editing and production elements your show needs to sound professional.
Audra Casino, the co-founder of One Stone Creative and a broadcast audio specialist with more than 2 decades of experience is preparing a training on how to make sure that your podcast isn’t accidentally shooting your business in the foot - and we’ll have plenty of time to workshop, network and address any other podcasting questions you have.
Register for free right here!
What's New In Podcasting?
For International Women's Day, the amazing team over at Quill Podcasting has assembled a list of 50 women doing great work in podcasting. It is an incredible real honor to be included among so many smart, passionate and talented professionals.
Check out the whole list right here, and find the next expert or experts you need to create, grow, promote and leverage your podcast!
Quill Podcasting has built CoHost, a premium podcast hosting company - we use it for our own, and several of our client's shows! Highly recommend the service!
Do This Now
Want to take one action to make a difference in your show and how well it’s working for you? It’ll only take 5 minutes.
One of the most irritating things you can hear in an episode is a huge difference in quality or volume in the different show parts, like your intro, music, you and your guest, ads, and closing content. Go to your favorite podcast player, put in earbuds or headphones and listen to the standard and dynamic elements in a recent episode. I’m talking about your produced intro, if you have one, any content that was recorded separately from the body, or standard inclusions, like your CTA.
Is the quality and sound balanced throughout the entire episode? Can you identify any major differences in quality or volume?
If not, you can rest easy.
If you do notice that kind of variance, talk to your editor and producer and find out if they can change their process, or re-record any of those added parts that need it so they have higher quality content to work with.
How are you feeling about your podcast's editing? If you'd like an extra ear on it- hit reply and let me know!
All the best,
Megan Dougherty
and the rest of the team
at Podcasting for Business by One Stone Creative.
PS. We’ve been working on something for the last couple of months, and it is ready for you to take a look! We’re now offering production packages specifically designed to achieve the goals set out by the Business Podcast Blueprints, and as done-for-you as it’s possible for a podcast to be.
