If you're ready to dive into podcasting, Podbean, Buzzsprout, and SoundCloud are great places to begin your platform research. While these are three popular options, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. I created a First Chapter Friday recording of Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston as my very first podcast episode and recorded myself using my Voice Memos app on my phone. After I finished recording on my phone, I sent the audio through AirDrop to my Mac and saved as a MPEG-4 audio file. This initial step, though simple, illustrates that the journey into podcasting starts with understanding your basic needs and exploring available tools.
A bonus to podcasting is being able to collaborate on an episode virtually! For this blog post, I worked with a classmate to create a podcast episode about reviewing podcast platforms! Again, with my Voice Notes app, I was able to record my findings on these three platforms and send them through a text message to my teammate! Luckily my partner is trained in Adobe Audition and can easily merge my Voice Memos with her comments to create a podcast episode. With a little research on how to save files on your iPhone, Garage Band will also splice and merge Voice Memos to edit for a podcast episode.
Now, let's break down the features and functionalities offered by Podbean, Buzzsprout, and SoundCloud. I'll explore their respective strengths and potential limitations for beginner podcasters like me.
Podbean - Offers the best balance of free storage and beginner-friendly platform
- Limited storage with free plan
- Unlimited storage on paid plans
- Basic analytics on free plan
- Mobile app for recording audio and publishing episodes
- Option to distribute to major platforms
- Podbean's own podcast website and embedded player
- Significantly limited storage on free plan
- Paid plans provide episode transcription and advanced analytics
- Customizable podcast website
- One-click distribution to major podcast platforms
- Advanced episode scheduling
SoundCloud - Convenient place to start if you already have an audience on SoundCloud
- Limited storage on free plan
- Primarily a music streaming platform, but does support podcasting
- Social media sharing
- Play counts and engagement metrics
- Requires distribution setup for major platforms
.png)
Hi Elisa!
ReplyDeleteI like how you make podcasting feel so easy and approachable! Starting with the Voice Memos app is a great reminder that you don’t need fancy equipment to get started. How you recorded on your phone and quickly transferred files through AirDrop or text makes the whole process sound doable. Such an easy way to build an episode, especially when you can tweak everything later in GarageBand or Adobe Audition. Great ideas!
Landa Langford
I loved reading about your podcasting experience! It’s always interesting to see how different people approach the process, and I totally relate to testing out platforms before settling on the right one. My teammate and I ended up choosing Podbean too, it was the easiest for recording separately and pulling everything together. I really liked how you and your classmate used Voice Memos and Adobe Audition to collaborate remotely. Your First Chapter Friday episode sounds like such a fun way to engage listeners, it made me think about trying something similar! I appreciate your reminder to just go for it, sometimes, the best way to learn is to hit record and figure it out as you go.
ReplyDeleteNice! You have lots of great information here!
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing about your podcasting journey! It's inspiring how you used simple tools like Voice Memos and Canva to create and launch your first episode. Your comparison of Podbean, Buzzsprout, and SoundCloud was really helpful too. It’s clear you put a lot of thought into finding the best fit for your project!
ReplyDeleteI like the whole premise of your podcast. This could be a good way to get students to try a book that they might not normally check out or to get those reluctant readers engaged. Your comparison was also organized nicely. We also used Podbean for this assignment, but it might not be the best one for a librarian/school setting as an educator, but it worked perfectly for this assignment!
ReplyDeleteElisa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your honest critique of the podcast platforms. It’s so helpful to read about the pros and cons. I also love how you kept things simple for your podcast because it makes podcasting feel much less intimidating! Thanks for sharing such practical advice.