This is an opinionated guide on how to start a podcast.

Domain

This is the most important thing. So important it has its own section. Get your own domain for your podcast. People subscribe to a feed URL, if that URL belongs to a provider you won’t be able to switch easily in the future.

.fm domains are cool for podcasts, but also expensive.

Recording

Microphone

Okay obviously you need a microphone. Marco Arment has a great Podcasting Microphones Mega-Review that he keeps updating so this is the place to start.

Software

If you want to record your podcast with another person you have a few options:

Local recording

Everyone does local recording and you chat via any software (Skype, Discord, FaceTime even).

This has the drawback that you have to send around the files and sync up all voices in the post-production.

Special software

There is also software that solves this for you. StudioLink , for example will let you talk to each other and record multiple tracks on one computer.

Production

Editing software

There is lot’s of audio editing tools, use what you know/like.

Ultraschall

I can recommend Ultraschall , a plugin for Reaper ($ 60) that is hyper-optimized for podcasting. Ultraschall has an integration for StudioLink so if you use those two the workflow will get way easier.

Other options

You can also use free tools like Garageband (macOS) or Audacity , but know that they aren’t specialized to podcast editing.

Post-production

For post-production I cannot recommend Auphonic enough. It will take your tracks and normalize the loudness, reduce noise and hum, filter out unwanted low frequencies, intelligent leveler – it’s fire and forget. Plus it allows to upload the final audiofile to a service which is super convenient.

Hosting

Self-hosted

Podlove Podcast Publisher is a WordPress plugin that is specialized for Podcast hosting. You get a perfect feed, support for many file-types and good analytics for free.

Hosted

Podigee is a service that does all the hosting for you. Don’t forget to set up a domain!