Podcast costs at a glance: What does it actually cost to produce a podcast?

If you are trying to decide whether or not to start your own podcast, one important issue to consider is the costs. You can't know in advance whether you will be successful with your podcast and whether it will pay off. For this reason, we will show you, what costs you should expect for your podcast.

We'll tell you right now: there is no single answer to the question of how much it will cost to produce your podcast. It all depends on your goals for the podcast and what your requirements are. For each type of podcast expense, there is a range of prices, depending on how much you want to invest at the start.

One-time and ongoing costs

The first step is to distinguish between different types of costs. When you first start your podcast, you will have many one-time costs. For example, you'll have to invest in a microphone and headphones. The good thing is, these items should last you for a long time.

However, you will also have some recurring costs for your podcast. For example, you will have to pay a monthly fee to your podcast hoster.

The microphone: The foundation for every podcast recording

The microphone you choose needs to fit you and your voice. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. So, we recommend you try a few microphones and then stick with the one you feel most comfortable with.

For a good entry-level microphone, you can expect to spend about 100 to 150 euros. If you want a more professional-quality mic, you should plan on spending at least 200 euros.

If you plan to have guests on your podcast you'll need to budget for a second microphone. Sharing a mic is not an option if you want to get a clean and good quality recording.

High-quality headphones

You should use headphones as you record your podcast. This "live monitoring" allows you to check the quality of the audio and make sure your voice is being picked up clearly and that there is no intrusive background noise. You can also check whether your voice is being recorded optimally.

When deciding which headphones to buy, make sure they are closed-back and that they cover your ears. They must provide complete sound insulation. Otherwise, too much external noise can get in. When you use the headphones, you should only be able to hear the sound coming from them, not background sounds.

With open-back headphones, echoes and feedback can be produced as the sound leaks out.

You should expect to spend about 50 to 60 euros for decent-quality headphones.

Software for recording your podcast

To record your podcast episodes, you'll need recording software. You have a choice of two free programs: Garageband (for Mac only) and Audacity (for Mac, Linux, and Windows).

Both programs offer an assortment of features to produce and edit your recordings well.

Of course, you can also purchase a podcast program like Adobe Audition to have access to more features and more professional editing. Our tip: test the software before you decide to buy it.

Podcast hosting

Podcast hosting sites like Buzzsprout and Captivate (where you upload your podcast episodes) create an RSS feed for you, which will allow your subscribers to be notified every time you release a new episode.

Each time you upload a podcast episode, the hosting site will publish it on all the platforms at the specified time. Depending on the service, prices for podcast hosting range from 5 to 50 euros per month.

Podcast Cover

Your podcast cover will usually be listeners' first introduction to your podcast and it will influence whether they want to listen or not. That's why it's important to make sure you have an image that represents you 100%.

You can create your podcast cover yourself if you are creative enough. You can do this with the free version of Canva, for example. There are many templates available that you can use for inspiration.

If you want to have a professional-looking podcast cover, it makes sense to hire a professional graphic designer. You describe to them what you have in mind and the artist will take care of actually creating it. In the meantime, you can take care of other things, such as recording podcast episodes. You can expect to spend between 200 and 500 euros for a cover. However, there are also many freelancer platforms where you can hire someone to make your podcast cover for you for a few euros.

Podcast marketing

Besides the actual production of your podcast, you should also focus on marketing. Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are great places for telling more people about your podcast.

Of course, you can always share podcast episodes in posts on your social media profiles, but you should also consider using other features like live videos and stories which are more eye-catching and give you the potential to reach more people, since regular posts often get overlooked.

Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories, for example, are popular with users, and since story feeds are located at the top of the screen, people are more likely to see a story than a post. Since stories are only available for 24 hours, they're great for promoting new content, such as a new podcast episode.

There are even web tools that allow you to create stories and schedule them for later publication. This can save you a lot of time and allow you to perfectly coordinate the release of your stories with the release of your latest episodes. If you want to experiment with promoting your podcast via Instagram Stories, you should check out Storrito. With Storrito, you can not only create and schedule stories for Instagram, but also post the stories to Facebook. So, you only need one tool to promote your podcast on both social media platforms.

You could also create catchy audiograms for your website, blog, or social media profiles. Audiograms are short promotional videos created by overlaying images and waveforms with an audio clip from your podcast.

But don't worry, you don't need programming or web design skills to create an audiogram. Web tools like Audiocado offer easy and fun ways to create professional-looking audiograms in just a few steps.