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March 10, 2024 • 26 mins

What is a podcast host? Why do I need one?

Elijah reviews the purpose of a podcast host, explains podcast 2.0 features, and compares popular podcast host providers like podbean, libsyn, captivate, rss.com, what you need to know to have a great recording session. You're not just recording your voice - you're recording the room. Diving into the recording experience: reviewing microphone types, audio interfaces, cable types, and easy ways to avoid interference from electronics, fans, and other things you may not think of. Maybe a slight rant about how Elijah detests USB mics to his core?

Blog: Podcast host, rss feed, and podcast 2.0 explained. As well, top podcast host features and links to save you research time so you can get to starting a podcast sooner.

Check out Let's Start a Podcast at yourpodcastsidekick.com for a tasty summary, in blog form, written by the host, Elijah.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?

(00:07):
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and
skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. Elijah, I do believe
that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall
we start a podcast? We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast. Let's start a podcast.

(00:32):
Shall we? Season two is here. If you didn't catch the first episode, then you'll definitely
want to check that out. Why do I say that? Because I talked about recording. You're
talking about microphones, you're talking about audio interfaces, the cables, and all
the things behind the scenes you got to look out for. So you can play engineer, figure
out things that kind of get in the way of your sound quality, but you don't think of

(00:54):
them. And that's on episode one for season two. So check it out. If you want, go to
docpodcastwithme.com slash podcast. How to think about my own website. What are you
going to do? Lots of podcast resources, interviews, and the backlog of episodes to check out just

(01:15):
in case you missed them. Also in the backlog is from season one, Michael, the Hobbit, as
he calls himself. He's a podcast legend and experienced manager of experience at RSS.com.
One of the host providers that'll be talking about disclosure. I'm a customer. Try not
to favor them too much, not to have bias, but I want to disclose that for you. I do have

(01:40):
the podcast all in one solution that they call about $12 a month. So I wanted to get
that out there, but I'll be as fair as I can. More experience with RSS. Used a few of them
in my time, been a while since I've started the podcasting. And back in the day, I used
to do the RSS feed, which I'll talk about. That's kind of the automatic way to discover

(02:06):
your podcast. Apps will connect to this feed. It's magical. The host takes care of it for
you. And back in my day, I'd create it all. You had to do the tags. You had to get it
right. And if it's just a hair bit wrong, no way. It's gone, errors, it doesn't get
up. You have to stay up till two in the morning, figure things out. I did. It wasn't fun.
And this is where the podcast host really kicks in. It's internet storage or cloud storage

(02:29):
for your podcast audio files, or maybe it's for your video, depending on the platform,
kind of like Google Drive or Apple cloud, whatever Apple calls it these days, storage
with a bunch of features built for podcasters. Upload your audio podcast with the click
of a button, distribute your podcast through that feed I'm talking about, which I'll get

(02:50):
more into that blog at talkpodcastwithme.com slash podcast, all the resources, including
this excerpt, the explainer guide, all that fun stuff to help you understand what the
heck's going on. Some of the podcast hosts will connect automatically through apps and
then send out through distribution as they call it through these feeds. I'll get into

(03:11):
some of the comparisons later, but you can add a title and description, which is great.
And you can add some cover art even for each episode, which is a newer feature coming out
with Apple and podcast 2.0. Also get to that in a moment. Sometimes a microsite is included.
The word for saying it's a mini blog website. You add a description or a longer version.

(03:34):
Some people add their transcript in there or some thoughts and ideas to complement the
audio podcast for SEO and all that fun jazz that goes along with the fun of creating the
podcast. And some will allow you to create this magic to record right on the spot within
the platform or host program, if you will, and then even do some simple edits. So it

(03:57):
depends on what you want, all inclusive solution, or if you're hiring somebody to do it, you
like to do all that separate and you just want a host to provide you with storage and
a distribution. There's so many things to choose from, but it's really comes down to
what you want. And maybe even you want a little bit of analytics and the degree of analytics
and how many people ate an apple during the three minute break that you had when you did

(04:22):
the, I don't know, commercial break or whatever it is. It's silly analogy, but that's kind
of the level of details you can get into. Again, some are free. Some are not. It'll
cost you some cash all the way up to, you know, hundreds of dollars a month, especially
if people have a network or a bunch of podcasts, maybe you're like an agency and you just host

(04:43):
a bunch for people. You put them up there for your clients and you take care of it all.
And that would be beneficial for you to have a hundred dollar a month fee, charge a bit
to upload everything and make it happen. And then it's all taken care of one app. No problem.
No problem. Podbean, Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Simplecast, RSS.com, Spotify, podcast, maybe megaphone

(05:08):
that you heard of, Wix podcast player and transistor are some of the more popular ones.
And you're like, I don't care. They're just names and really they are. They're just hosts
to get you on your way and making things happen. Additional perks you can get is unlimited
episodes and downloads. So some people will cap or hosts, sorry, not people, will cap

(05:30):
the number of episodes you can upload, the length of them, the storage, because it's
all, all amount of data that's stored, right? And it costs them money. So it, unfortunately,
costs us money. You can do the downloads. Some people call it listener traffic. The
movement and the activity costs money. Sometimes that's unlimited. Sometimes it's capped. You

(05:50):
can do transcriptions, upload them on your own or create through AI generated transcriptions
is more popular with hosts now. Podcast 2.0 features I keep teasing, but I'll get into
that chapters, sound bites, adding a website and email or the hyperlink sort of thing is
available to accompany your podcast more integrated now. Monetization, dynamic ads, subscription

(06:16):
features, maybe links together or more integrated with a podcast, Apple subscriptions, you see
those sometimes 499 with Apple or Spotify. That's a whole another nightmare because you
have to sub to each app and that I don't know. What's the answer? Maybe we'll talk about
monetization later. Should really. Audio enhancements, different corrections or noise cancellation

(06:42):
or bettering your sound to make you your voice sound oh so sweet and beautiful via AI. Uploading
YouTube is more popular now with YouTube podcasts and them trying to get into the podcast space.
You have that automatically happen. They do some graphics and other things to make it
video affide and of course just with a click of a button that goes to YouTube does the

(07:07):
description all that stuff borrowed from what you've put in on the host and then goes into
things just for you. It does it all the magic, the things, the technical terms, the Wicham
McColletts all done. It's nice and then of course it'll cost more money to do all that
blah blah blah but the options are there. So before I dive into popular host providers

(07:27):
and go through all their benefits again talkpodcastwithme.com slash podcast for more resource interviews
and of course let's start a podcast episode blog. Backlog blogs. I love blogs. I think
I have it stuck in my mind. What are you going to do? I also want to ask did you know I'm
podcast professional? I have my tongue tied because I'm excited but I am pretty good at

(07:50):
editing episodes, mentoring people, doing launch strategies, directing and guide you
and maybe some conversational tips in real time. I kind of prompt you for some new ideas
if you're really stuck. You just want to hit record. I can do that too. Maybe create,
produce some cool intros and trailers just like the adventure style one I did for let's

(08:11):
start a podcast. Even full service options called white glove. Just project manage the
whole thing for your podcast. You show up, I do everything else and it's fun. If you
want to go to talkpodcastwithme.com slash contact schedule appointment or chat maybe
through email if you still even email anymore DM and socials all those links mentioned links

(08:33):
in the podcast subscription just for you. The list, the features, let's do it. Okay,
pod me. I've used this some time ago and it's really cool. They started having a community
and involved on Facebook and Reddit and really got into people's minds. They want to really
figure out what's going on. They have a decent free plan. It's unlimited listener traffic

(08:57):
or downloads anything coming and going. Don't have to worry about how many people listening,
what activity they covered it. A blog you can do they call the microsite. You know that
area that kind of compliments have your own little white website monetization options.
They have integrations with sponsorships and dynamic ad inserts and that sort of thing

(09:19):
of different plans and options you can tie into. That's kind of a cousin to pod bean
and they'll direct you through their website. Affordable tiers for beginners or maybe podcast
pros want a little more and you get all those extra features. Like I was talking about,
they have network options. You can go in and have a bunch of podcasts set up and they have

(09:39):
those tiers and plans for you. A lot of times they'll encompass a lot of not what you need
but kind of what they assume the podcasters want and then give you a monthly tier based
on that. You subscribe, pay a monthly fee or a yearly plan to save a few bucks and then
go from there. Check it out at pod bean. I'll link them as well in the description. Next,

(10:01):
we have Libsyn. They've been around forever. I think the early 2000s. They have a bunch
of plans and a lot of it is a la carte, which can be awesome, which means you pay for what
you want, but it can get really expensive really fast. The features and video storage,
all that can go up to like 99 bucks a month or more. Plus the $5 a month for this, $10

(10:25):
a month for that, better analytics. It reminds me of how Apple does things. Respectfully
to Libsyn, they have, you know, Apple has an iPad for 300 bucks and they're like, oh,
you need extra memory or storage. Okay. Well, a hundred bucks more. Okay. Great. Now you're
at $500. Oh, you need the newest, shiniest one, a new gen. Oh, well, that's going to
be $600. You need a bigger screen. No problem. That's $700. Oh, wait, you need whatever else

(10:50):
it is, 5G instead of just Wi-Fi. That's $800. And then that's kind of how it feels. It's
a great idea. It's a great business model. You get unlimited listener traffic. There's
monetization options. Custom mobile app is pretty unique to these podcast hopes. Hosts.
So you can have the private podcasts that you've always dreamed of and people go to your app

(11:11):
just give them the link or they can download it, however it works. And here you go. Podcast
in one happy place, especially if you have a great following and you're organizing a
community, kind of like crime junkies. I guess you could say they do that sort of thing where
they have everything contained. Then you get them buy and merge and all that stuff. And
Bob's your uncle. That's pretty cool. But yeah, think about it. If you want to do monthly

(11:34):
or if you want to do Alucard and going through all these websites is a bit of a slog, but
at least you get an idea. You get a short list of what you want to do and where you
want to go and who you want to be your provider. If you have any questions, of course, description,
links, hit me on the DMs and the socials. Happy to help out and clear things up if you need
it. Captivate isn't something that I've heard about too often, but it's newer as far

(11:59):
as I am concerned. I've been around for dinosaurs age, but there's always a tech that keeps
coming up new providers, new options. This is interesting because you can post as many
podcasts as you want, usually a higher monthly price for teams or podcast networks. So that's
kind of standard, but just something to look out for unlimited team members. This is cool

(12:23):
because this is rare with a lot of podcast hopes. So if you have an agency, you have
podcast editors, you have people working for you, you have a VA, virtual assistant, and
you're going through as a small business. This is super cool because you can add people
to access your dashboard or your Captivate hosting account and they can go in and do
all the stuff for you, which is super cool. Or you can just help each other out. Maybe

(12:47):
you have co-host, maybe you're on, I don't know, a dungeon crawl, TT RPG or ghost exploration.
You have three or four people. Well, somebody can always split the tasks and add everybody.
There's an easy to use analytical dashboard. Some of them are a little clunky. Some of
them are hard to use. And most importantly, Captivate does not have a free tier. It's

(13:11):
about 20 to about 100 plus a month. So although you get some cool stuff, you have a lot of
options for the amateur, for someone just starting, unless you beat the odds and have
a great budget as an amateur podcaster, maybe not. Maybe you have to second guess this one.

(13:33):
So just up to you, just keeping it up there. Transistor, there's a 14-day free trial, which
is cool. Website adds integrations. YouTube auto posting, 14-day trial, as I mentioned,
in host multiple podcasts. So again, if you have that network or you have a lot of podcasts,
no problem. Private podcasts, they pitch as something very useful and it is. If you have

(13:57):
a, maybe a podcast paywall, you have courses, you have extra stuff behind the scenes, you
have maybe a corporation or a small business that you just want to have a message from
the CEO. They have that. That's kind of what the private podcast is. You give this feed
link to someone that pays the subscription and then you just go in and add this to your
app. The person does that paid the description and then they get the feed. It's like a private

(14:21):
feed, just for you. VIP treatment, you know? It's kind of neat. It might be kind of cool
too to have a private podcast if you're doing edits for people to get a non-explicit tag.
If you're trying to get a better audience or maybe it's an 18 plus, you pay a little
extra for a longer episode that's not chopped up and curated. Maybe you have it behind that

(14:44):
private paywall. Private podcast and unlimited storage is a thing for people who are not
transistors as well. So that's super cool and nice to have. So you don't have to worry
about, oh, I've had five episodes. I want to have a bonus. I have to wait till next month
to pay a different amount. Forget it. It's nice that way. Spotify for podcasters is cool,

(15:09):
but it's very limited. It's super free. Everything is free about it. You just upload and go.
You can record a podcast and perform simple edits right in the web app. You can do a lot
of things, but the manual distribution is the complaint I hear a lot. It'll go to Spotify
automatically, but you have to go and manually insert all the integrations. Some people think

(15:32):
that's annoying, but for free, you log into Apple. You provide that feed that I talked
about, that RSS or that feed, that magic that connects all of your apps, and then you just
provide that information from Spotify. They go in a Spotify that is, you provide that
into Apple. So Spotify, they connect each other. You have a login for Apple. You have

(15:57):
the feed from Spotify and they connect, but you have to make that magic happen. Some clicks,
some passwords, it's not bad. If you don't mind a bit of work for super free, that's
fine. You have some analytics. It's okay. You have the basics that cover you. The weird
thing is that Spotify likes to cover off impressions. It's a weird thing, kind of like social media

(16:21):
where on Facebook, you see, oh, I have 4 million impressions, but only, I don't know, 30 downloads
or something. Means whoever's seen it in your feed kind of misleading for some, but it gives
you an idea of the interest. So if you're trying to improve your podcast or understand
what your audience is liking, maybe they just fly by and don't like cover art or that particular
episode doesn't interest them. I also like the message feature. You can go in and there's

(16:47):
a poll. So in the Spotify app, when you're listening, they'll say, what did you think
about this episode? You can customize that. You have a poll. You can get people talking
and they can also leave you a message like old days where you call into the radio, you
hit the voicemail and they play your silly response on the air. This is kind of the same
thing. You can ask questions, you can be heard and be more interactive. So that is something

(17:10):
cool. A caveat here is that a Spotify did change its terms and conditions for audiobooks,
saying you give away your life, so to speak. So be sure to double check the terms and conditions
to understand what creative rates you may be losing or gaining when you upload to Spotify.
And that kind of goes with all of the web based apps, especially if they're free, more

(17:32):
likely to be able to claim some rights so they can make some money or sell something,
your content or some of the idea or some of something. Just just be careful. Okay. I'm
not saying it's a bad thing, but some people don't love to have their creative freedom
taken away. Some people are good with some compromise. Some people don't love that. So

(17:54):
just keep it in mind, but especially Spotify, they're changing things to be catch all you
upload it, it's ours screw you like that's their choice. Is it yours? That's up to you.
RSS.com. This is the hosting provider that I'm with currently I pay for. Just want to
let you know that that is the service currently I use as a disclosure. Also again, Michael,

(18:19):
the Hobbit, he's the manager customer service experience for RSS.com. He talks about a little
behind the scenes and that's in the talk podcast with me.com slash podcast, all the backlog
in there for you. Michael talking about awards. He's one community. He's built the grassroots
efforts of RSS and what podcast 2.0 chapters are and all those things that podcast 2.0

(18:44):
of five. And it's just basically a movement, if you will, an open source or a collective
agreement to get things going and evolving in a good way for podcasters.
Nonetheless, RSS.com. It sets you up for free, but there is eventually a time where you have
to pay. Students only get away with five bucks a month, which is incredibly awesome and affordable.

(19:09):
And it goes up to 11 and 20 from there. But you have the option at least start for free.
Once you're ready to go and launch to the world, then that's when you start paying.
It's kind of nice. You kind of get a feel. You get to play around and you get a sense
of what goes on before you hit the go button and during the wallet. So to speak, you know,
not much, but just a little bit. And you can do the yearly thing and I'll save about 20%

(19:31):
on the subscription instead of monthly, which is decent. I'll take it.
You can do transcripts auto upload to YouTube, the podcast 2.0 features, chapters, sound
bites and all these other things. And I'll go what these mean in a minute.
Simple website landing page. Although it uses RSS.com branding, which is purple and yellow,
but doesn't work for you and you're a branding enthusiast connoisseur. It might not be for

(19:55):
you, but at least it has the feed. The distribution is mostly automatic. You can share social
media, which is awesome. I just hit a click and poof. And then you can also connect to
Apple Spotify. Sorry, Apple podcast subscription support. I want to name all the apps. I'm
sorry, but Apple subscription, you can get all that started right through the RSS host,

(20:18):
which is really cool. They have great customer support 24 seven cross platform analytics.
So they'll get Apple and Spotify and all these apps collect them and say, Hey, this is what's
going on with your listeners. So yeah, Michael customer experience manager all over this thing.
He's talking about his area. He's coaching and mentoring people. He's winning awards.

(20:40):
He's having a good time. And RSS sounds pretty cool because there's just a couple of dudes
starting it out, having a good time and why they are doing what they're doing. Talking
shop with him was kind of fun too. Talk podcast with me.com slash podcast. Go on, check it
out. And a bit of a behind the scenes blog to accompany that. So the podcast 2.0 features,

(21:01):
which you've been dying to hear about, there was an MTV VJ and software developer. They
wanted to help evolve features and accessibility podcast. They really wanted to make it a free
speech still to be available. There's a lot of rules, especially in Canada, kind of taking
that away from us. So it's nice to have people that have our backs and we can kind of speak

(21:22):
your mind within a reason and have things open and available to us to kind of share
that message to start conversations and to share our passions. Just like starting a podcast,
it's my passion. I want to help you out. Did you know that the word podcast came from combining
iPod and broadcast way back in the early 2000s when iPods were a thing? I still have one.

(21:46):
I take it on the train with me or public transit. Sometimes I just want to listen to podcasts.
That's all I need. It's tiny. It's great battery life. I'm old, so I don't always love having
my cell phone around. I like to unwind and just space out and stare at the world around
me. Listen to podcasts. Pretty cool. But yeah, combo is iPod broadcast. That's how we got
podcast word. Cool, right? Podcast 2.0 is cool. Yes, but it's new, meaning that it's

(22:14):
not widely adopted. So that can be a bit of a problem. You go through all these things
with the podcast, add them, but is it really worth it? Go through all these effort. Like
I said, you have YouTube, you have the chapters, item doubt. You have other features that are
super cool like soundbites. Give a little teasers. But if the apps that you're connecting with

(22:39):
or distributing to don't use these features, then it's kind of like a lot of work without
nothing. It's still cool. I think it'll catch on. It just needs to take a bit of time and
seeing that trend happen. And podcasting has been around forever. Good couple of decades
almost. That's nice to see it evolving. A follow that you'll see is now instead of subscribing.

(23:03):
Subscribing kind of gives the impression that you're paying. You're not always with follow.
It's kind of like the bell notification on YouTube. That's a good way to go about it.
So if you're not following this podcast, let's start a podcast. Wherever you get this and
listen to it, hit the follow button, please. And thank you. That way you won't miss and
you'll be able to hear all the good tips. I'm giving you podcast index is the open censorship

(23:27):
resistant directory of podcasts. And that hopes to preserve podcasting as a free speech
platform like I was talking about. Namespace is kind of like essential tags. That's the
category for it. Additional information like chapters, transcripts, speakers, links, sound

(23:48):
bytes, email and website link, the author detail, copy protection. That's a nice thing
to have a location so you can change the location for each podcast episode if someone's in Africa,
someone's in Canada, someone's in the United States, somebody's out of Hawaii. Maybe you
want to have that location item because then people around that location that are looking

(24:12):
and searching for this podcast will find it easier. Hones in on them like a beacon, if
you will, podcast beacon, it'll have a trailer option, the author, a license for rss.com value
for value is an integration with Bitcoin. So it has this integration with a payment
processor. I don't know off the top of my head if it's all Bitcoin, but this is how

(24:37):
RSS decides to go about it, which is kind of nice and amenity for some people that enjoy
that be able to support the podcast as they may podcast host. What is it somewhere to
store your internet files from your podcasts, and then just distribute it to everybody,
the masses easily, and then have everything in one happy place like a home for your podcast

(25:01):
on the internet and ready to go. If you want to do the video thing, there's YouTube, I
know Spotify will do some videos that's becoming more popular with hosts, but still primarily
audio and just a whole bunch of features and bits and bobs to company how much you want
to pay depending on how pro and excited you really are. I like to talk about many things,

(25:29):
but if you haven't already, again, check out the first episode of season two talking about
recording. I went through about six different microphones rambled about how I just detest
USB technology for microphones. I'm a truest. I like quality and control. I like that. I

(25:50):
like that. I explain what XLR is, what an audio interface is, what the cables do, and
what happens again. That's on episode one of season two. You'll check it out on the
podcast player or talkpodcastwithme.com. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram. I'm on threads.
I'm unhinged all over the internet. So enjoy it. I tend to have an unpolished feel, but

(26:14):
an honest, professional ish and a big kid sense of fun. So if you want to be entertained,
I try my best to keep up with it, but I am just a one person show. Do my best.
Listen, have fun, enjoy the adventure, and I'll see you soon. I'm Elijah. Cheers.
Let's start a podcast.
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