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So you’ve decided. It’s finally time to start that podcast. Congratulations! Whether you’re hoping to cover sports, finance, fashion, dating or books, you gotta get clear on your angle before hitting record. As comedian Ashley Hamilton says, creating captivating long-form audio means knowing what you’re talking about.
“What you want to do is find a niche,” Hamilton, co-host of the podcast “Celebrity Memoir Book Club,” told HuffPost. “No one really wants to hear random people just blab,” she added. “If you wanna attract an audience, there has to be an added value.”
For Hamilton, this “value” comes in the form of critique, analysis, hot takes, jokes, personal anecdotes and unedited feelings. It’s the stuff that got her into listening to podcasts and, eventually, what inspired her to launch her own.
Hamilton said that starting a podcast also requires finding a hosting platform like Libsyn, Buzzsprout or Anchor. These platforms create an “RSS feed” for your podcast or a digital file that automatically uploads to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other places podcasts are streamed, containing the recording of the episode as well as the title and description. Hamilton said this process is how all podcasters get their latest episodes onto the air, from mega-famous stars with millions of streams to friends that record at home.
The next step is making sure you have all the gear you need to record. Huffpost spoke with Hamilton and Ada Enechi, head of culture at BuzzFeed UK and cohost of the “Seasoned Sessions” podcast, to figure the best equipment for a new home studio.
This single-direction desk mic from Fifine has 30,000 positive reviews and works to record someone speaking directly into it (rather than, say, recording an entire band playing).
"I kind of think any headphones work. I would just warn against... using... any headphones with a built-in microphone," she said, because those will interfere with whatever you're trying to record.
These studio monitor headphones from Audio-Technica have a basic AUX jack and let you listen to your levels without amplifying your voice.
"We just use Amazon Basics XLR cables. I think they're like $8 and come in like a variety of lengths," Hamilton said.
They also make XLR to USB cords that can go right into your computer.
"The Zoom F6 auto-levels, so if you don't have someone to watch you record and watch your sound, this is great at doing it automatically," Enechi said.
Hamilton added that a little sound quality goes a long way. "You definitely want some kind of recording device where you can control the levels on each mic," she said. "There are a lot of podcasts out there with treacherous quality. If you can make it even, ... so everyone sounds about the same level and there's minimal background noise, you're in a pretty good position to release a podcast."
"You want something that shoots in high-quality 4k, especially if you want to do cool things with edits," she said.
Finally, consider how you’ll build your audience. Because distribution is the same for everyone, Hamilton said that in the podcast world, there’s room for smaller and larger shows alike.
She suggested reaching out to like-minded shows or hosts and trying to collaborate or go as guests on their podcast. “Converting someone from a TikTok watcher to a podcast listener is a lot harder than converting someone from a podcast listener to a listener of another podcast,” she said.
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