I enjoyed reading the NYT article on podcasting by Anne Eisenberg. Anne discusses, among other things, the cost of podcasting, which can be as high as $30,000 (I actually know people who’ve spent much more).
I know a lot of podcasters, some with very large audiences. Some have tons of recording and production equipment and software and produce a highly polished product. Some, like Dave Winer, let their content alone pull in the listeners.
Dave was interviewed for the article. He spent about $1,000 for a good microphone and related hardware, and $30 or so for audio editing software. He spends little time editing, saying “I don’t have the patience for it” and “If I had to, I would do fewer podcasts.”
As a first time podcaster earlier this evening, I can say that you can certainly produce a podcast with much less than even Dave has spent. I purchased a $40 digital recorder, downloaded Audacity (an open source audio editor), and produced the podcast in about an hour. Now that I know how to do it, it will take less time for future podcasts. The hardest part was getting the damn thing uploaded properly.
This also reminds me of a conversation I had with Steve Gillmor at Tagcamp this weekend. I asked him if he thought there was a business to be built around transcribing podcasts for publishers. The transcribing can be outsourced for about $10 an hour and can be turned around quite quickly. With an appropriate markup, it would still be quite reasonable to publishers.
His answer “Why would I transcribe my podcasts? People would stop listening.” I disagreed, arguing that he would increase his audience many times. His retort “But they wouldn’t be listening to my podcast.” I thought about it for a while. And as often is the case with Mr. Gillmor, I realized that in a round about way, he’s right. If podcasters just wanted to maximize their audience, they’d be writing, not talking.
I still think there is a business there. But Steve won’t be a customer.
Mike, my microphone cost under $100, not $1000.
My mike cost
Mike,
Ken Rutkowski and I haven’t spent $30,000 on our webcasts/podcasts in all the year’s we’ve been co-hosting the World Technology Roundup (www.kenradio.com). When we joke and say “shoestring” budget we tell people we don’t even have the shoestring.
Crafty, creative and relationship driven we have been able to steam, host and podcast since 1994. Oh, I forgot, that was BP (Before Podcasting).
Podcasting isn’t new. It is streaming media on a download basis made simple and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.
The real cost comes in file transport costs once a show takes off. I wonder how some of the non-sponsored podcasters will feal when their bill for transport starts hitting a few thousand DOLLARS a month.
Keep this site going. It’s great.
Dave, I added up all of the costs mentioned in the article and included it under “mike and related hardware”. Point is, as you made, it’s cheap to create this stuff.
I agree with you Mike => transcribing would make sense => people subsribe to ur blogs decided to transcribed podcasts (atleast the outline atleast) and then decide whether they want to invest their time to listen to it!
Because - I personally feel after listening to a podacast which was not to the point - my time was wasted. I could have waited to read it in a blog anyway.
And about ‘outsouring’ => I am going to India (mostly for good) - interested in a start up that does transcribing, making the ‘cut’ for podcasts and video casts?? I sure bet I can get it done for cheap and in a personalized way for $1 an hr.
Now thats dirt cheap … value for personal money. I am pretty serious!
I have heard that the real cost of podcasting is the bandwidth, and associated server charges. That’s the story I hear at least from the Liam Lynch show. He says basically, please buy my stuff to defray the cost of putting the show out there. I’m thinking about doing one myself. Have you guys heard what the cost might be for this aspect?
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