Whether you live in Melbourne or any other city in the world, podcasts have become a very popular format in 2021 for telling a story, giving someone some tech information or know how, or just shooting the breeze for 30 minutes about something funny. It may seem daunting to get the podcast recorded, edited, mixed and then uploaded to streaming servers but it doesn't have to be. You may be tech savvy or you might be completely hopeless, either way we will give you the information so you can plan the best way forward to get your podcast to the masses. We will also look at the cost and pros/cons of recording and producing at home vs at a professional podcast studio in Melbourne.
The Cost Of Recording And Editing Your Podcast At Home
The cost of recording a podcast at home is not all that difficult but it's not quite as cheap as you think. To get the equipment you will need you will need the following gear. You can technically do it using the mic on you iPhone, but we are going to look at doing it properly to compare it to recording it in a podcast studio.
Cost Of Setting Up A Home Podcast Studio
- Microphone for podcasting $200 to $1000
- Computer / laptop $500 to $2500
- Recording Interface $ 200 to $1000
- Closed back headphones $80 to $350
- Pop shield and mic stand/arm $200 - Acoustic treatment for room $350 - $600
So that gives a price range of around $1500 up to $5500 to get setup to be able to record your podcast at home. The advantages of recording at home in this way are
Advantages Of Recording Your Podcast At Home
- Once the original outlay is spent, the cost is very low
- No pressure to get it right - take as much time as you need
- Freedom to experiment with different styles of delivery
Disadvantages Of Recording At Home
- Expensive initial outlay to get setup
- All problem solving must be done by you
- You need to spend some time learning the techniques to record properly
- No producer / second person to catch mistakes or give feedback
- usually background noise of the neighbourhood coming through takes
- Hard to set up an acoustically treated space some times
If you record the episodes at home, then you have to work out how you will edit and mix them. Recording is relatively easy compared to editing, mixing and mastering. You may have to watch quite a few Youtube videos and practice for a few months to get your skills up to scratch but once you know how to do it, you are set. Alternatively you can always record yourself, then outsource the editing, mixing and mastering. Here at Beat Tank Podcast Studio in Melbourne we offer all these services as well as taking care of the uploading and setting up the streaming platforms for you. The cost of getting a 30 minute episode edited and mixed by a professional will cost between $200 to $400 depending on the length, amount of edits needed and the amount of unwanted background noise that needs to be removed.
Now let's look at the cost of going into a professional podcast studio as well and the pros and cons.
The cost of hiring a podcast studio in Melbourne will change quite a bit depending on the quality of gear and whether they include an engineer or not. For a basic studio with no engineer, you can pay between $50 to $150 per hour to rent the space. Add in an engineer and you are looking between $80 to $300 per hour. So the cost to record 1 x episode will be between $75 and $450 depending on your needs.
Advantages Of Recording At a Professional Melbourne Podcast Studio
- Premium sound due to acoustically treated room and great gear
- An engineer to take care of all the technical things so you can concentrate on the content
- More room if you have 4 x podcasters and a guest
- Another pair of ears to bounce ideas off and ask for advice
- No initial setup cost so to get first episode up is lower cost
Disadvantages Of Recording At a Podcast Studio
- Under time pressure to get it done
- higher ongoing cost per episode
Cost Of Hosting Your Podcast
To get your podcast hosted on a service like Buzzsprout will cost around $20 a month. There are free services out there but they will take your episodes down after a few months and have a bunch of other limitations. If you want us to do all this for you including setting up the account, uploading the episodes, editing all the details of each episode and apply to have them streaming on Spotify, Apple and others will cost around $50 per episode. But if you don't mind some admin and are reasonably tech savvy, this is an easy one to do yourself.
So there you have it. Some of you are going to like the home setup idea so you can take you time and tweak as you go, and some of you don't have time of the know how and will pay us to do it. Either way we are happy to answer any questions you might have on recording, editing, mixing and releasing your podcasts.
You can contact us here any time to ask us about recording your next podcast in Melbourne - or anywhere else in the world.