As I Please

In this edition of Podcasting Made Easy I have some suggestions on obtaining better recordings – I suggest podcasters consider Squadcast and (free) Cleanfeed – I look at ways to improve the launch of your podcast, and suggest getting a dedicated app for your show.

Just jazz show 47

Just Jazz show 46

Just Jazz show 45

In show 44 there's music from... * Madoca - I Feel You* Reza Khan - Neo Funk* Karlton Jones - The Answer* Mark Mixx - Rydn & Chillaxin Feat. James Gibbs III* Izzo Blues Coalition - When My Baby Comes To Town* Soundstairs - Song For Music* Lawson Rollins - Bossa Nova California* Nils Landgren - Friday Night* Marshall Charloff - Eye for Jazz* JahVelle - Up All Night Up All Night* Jim Richter - Catamaran* Shakatak - Let's start over again

In this week's show... * 2unes - Funkie Sister (By Ur Side)* Paul Taylor - Straight To The Point* Henry Robinett Quartet - It Could Happen To You* Butcher Brown & Alex Isley - Remind Me* Pieces of a Dream - Fired Up* Daryl Beebe - Unmasked* Paolo Rustichelli - Changes (radio edit)* Brooke Alford - Shine* Dennis Murphy - Gospel of Prudence feat Kirk Whalum (radio edit) - COOL CUT OF THE WEEK* Tony Koch and the AltNews Band - Chunky Funk* Tony Exum Jr - Get At You* Keith McKelley with Bob James - Legend* Michael Walker - Music 2 Drive By

Coming up in this week's bucket of joy is music from... * Anton Du Beke - Putting On The Ritz* When My Baby Comes To Town -* James Henry - Watermelon Man* Richard Smith - Soul Share* Jazzmeia Horn - Free Your Mind* Johnny James aka "Dr. J" - Slippin* Paul Taylor - Straight To The Point* Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion - All's Well* Billy Evans - Far Distant Shore* The Honeyshotz - The Things You Do* Tony Exum Jr - Get At You* Terje Lie - Flow* Rena Scott - You're so far away* Allen Carman - Straight Up

In this week's show... * Str4ta - Vision 9* Camera Soul - Condivisa* Dee Lucas - The Time Is Now* Darron "Cookie" Moore - Pressure Point* The Yuko Mabuchi Trio - All Blues* Nex Lev'l Band - Got My Top Down* Four 80 East - Speak Easy - cool cut of the week* Philippe Saisse - SHIFT ft. Marquis Hill* Matthias Roos - You Might Need Somebody* Will Sumner - West Of Five* Freeez - Keep In Touch (Edit)* Str4ta - Kinshasa FC

A chance Facebook call proved how versatile the platform can be for podcast interviews, and if you want to take your calls up a notch test out Call In Studio.

Building a solid listener base for your new podcast can be a daunting prospect, but there are some short cuts if your are bold enough. The first thing you should do is share your podcast everywhere you can across all social media platforms as well as specific forums aligned to the subject of your podcast. But there is one more thing you can do that really will get cut-through to build your listener base quickly and effectively. Find out more in this edition of the Podcast Made Easy podcast. Download the PDF of Podcasting Made Easy book by Steve Hart here.

Creating added value for your podcast subscribers is a great way to raise or boost your profile. One way to do this is to create a PDF or digital book made up of the key points of your podcasts, collated show notes, or with extra information that will be of interest to your subscribers. You can keep it simple with a small PDF of a few thousand words that you give away to new subscribers to your mailing list, give it away as a free-be to all, or go further and write a far more in-depth book that can be sold via print-on-demand sites such as IngramSpark - and offered as both a digital and hard copy publication worldwide. If you enjoy writing then producing these PDF documents can be great fun, if not ask someone to help you write and design them. And you can subscribe to my weekly podcast email and get my cheat sheet on podcast production. As always, if you have any questions about podcasting then do let me know.

Sure, we all know to remove unwanted noises and mistakes from our podcasts, but audio editing can involve a lot more than the obvious. There's an art to it that can really improve the impact your interviews have on your audience. Get the inside track on editing interviews in this edition (37) of Podcasting Made Easy.

There's an audio recording and editing app I've been using on and off for a few years now that's ideal for recording podcasts and radio shows. It's totally free, reliable, and as solid as any audio app can be. I've recommended Ocenaudio to many friends who were looking for a simple no-frills way to record their voice overs, podcasts, and professional radio shows. The app is regularly updated, almost every month I reckon, and will serve most people's needs – so long as you don't need multi-track recording and know the difference between a destructive audio editor and a non-destructive one. Ocenaudio is a destructive editor. That means, if you record something with it and start cutting and editing, you will be working with the original source file. So the trick is to record, Save, and then Save As with a new name (V2 for example). Thereby keeping a back-up of the original well out of harm's way. However, the app does offer multiple undos if you want to take your edits back a few steps. Users can highlight small sections - such as where breath noises may appear – and lower the volume using a volume slider that appears right where the edit is taking place, there's a highlight and delete option of course, you can highlight all and normalise. Ocenaudio works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux), offers real time effects – meaning that during playback – as you alter EQ (for example) you will hear the changes as you move the EQ sliders. It is VST compatible, includes many audio enhancement options – such as noise reduction – along with many effects podcasters will not need, such as reverb, echo, chorus and flanger etc. For the really adventurous (apply with caution) there are audio limiting and compression options along with dozens of other built-in effects. you can also convert a stereo file to mono (and visa-versa) using an option in the Edit menu. The app records in the WAV format by default, offers numerous recording sample rates, channels (mono, stereo, multi) and Bit rate options (16, 24, 32), and exports to dozens of popular formats (MP3, OGG etc). However, most of what it is capable of will be superfluous to the podcaster who merely needs to record their voice for export to a low-res mono MP3 file and edit files quickly. While the Ocenaudio app is free, anyone using it really should make a donation to support the people who produce it as it is too good to be free. Give it a test drive and if you like it, make a donation. If you need to bring your audio into a multi-track app for mixing in music or perform really seamless audio editing etc, then I recommend Reaper. At a one-off fee of $60 (free trial) it's a lot cheaper than Adobe Audition and Pro Tools etc, and is – in my opinion – head and shoulders above the free open source Audacity app (which is a fine app, but...). As always, if you have any advice you'd like to share with fellow podcasters then do let me know.

It's old advice, but well worth repeating. After you have a good number of podcasts under your belt it's a good idea to listen back to older shows to see what you can learn from your mistakes. Well, perhaps mistakes is the wrong word. Listen back to decide what you can learn from your previous performances, your interviewing technique, and decide what you can do better next time. Could you have asked your guest more interesting and relevant questions? Does your microphone technique need some work? Perhaps you went overboard on post production and audio processing? No matter how much experience you have as a podcaster, you will always learn something about yourself by listening back to older shows. And by doing this you will become a better and more professional podcaster. And if you want to find out who your biggest competition is...The answer is in this edition of Podcasting Made Easy. Have a great week. Steve

If you like shouting into the wind then making a podcast could be for you. After all the technical aspects of recording and getting your podcast listed on the key platforms is done, the hard work begins – building an audience. However, remember that 70% of podcasts are accessed via iTunes, so if you aren’t already listed there, stop listening now and get that step completed. If you do little more than list your podcast without any promotion or marketing then you could be in for a lot of disappointment when it comes to show subscribers and listeners. While you may have a website and a social media presence for your podcast, you will need to get your podcast in front of your potential audience. This could involve you sharing your podcast with relevant groups on social media sites, and searching out specialist websites that cover subjects your podcast might touch on. For example, you could link to your podcast in a comments section of a trade forum page. When you post links to your show on social media remember to use the correct hashtags to help people find it. If you have interviewed someone then obviously ask them to share the interview with their network. This route to marketing your podcast can’t be understated and you need to strike while the iron is hot.  In other words, while you and the guest are in contact, while the podcast is fresh, you shoul encourage them to share it far and wide, because they may have a huge database of potential listeners who might choose to subscribe to your show. Edit key clips of the conversation to produce a teaser or cliff-hanger that will pique the interest of the listener so they click through to the full podcast. Show notes are a must-have (example here :-) ) to help your show to be found. Not only should the show notes be posted on your website but you could add them to the MP3 meta data area too. Or go the whole hog and transcribe the whole show using any one of a number of AI transcribing sites such as Otter. Use the transcription to write up a press release of around 300 words and send it to press release distribution firms, and relevant publishers. If you’re really keen, run a contest with a prize of something tangible such as a branded cap or T-shirt, maybe a signed book written by your guest, or a gift voucher to be used in your online store if you have one. If you mention a brand or company in your show then let the company know, contact their PR people and they may re-share your podcast with their followers. It could be the start of a beautiful friendship. And if you are about to launch your first podcast, do yourself a favour and list 2 or 3 episodes on day one. It may mean delaying the launch of your podcast, but listeners like to see more than the launch episode when they see your show for the first time. And it might help you become a New and Noteworthy podcast at iTunes.