How long does it take to produce a podcast?
Well, how long is a piece of string?
We know that’s not the most helpful answer, but it’s true!
A 10-minute audio resource recorded by one person is a very different undertaking from a six-part interview series involving guests from across the country.
And that’s before we get into documentary-style podcasts with loads of different contributors, archive recordings, scripted narration and all sorts of other lovely complexities.
Then there’s who’s actually making it.
Have you got a dedicated team? Is one person squeezing podcast production into an already packed comms role? Are you working with an external production company?
All of these things make a difference.
But while we can’t give you one magic number, we can help you work out what a realistic production timeline might look like for your organisation. And we’ll share how we approach it at MIC media, too.
Can You Really Start a Podcast Next Week?
Technically? Yes, you can start tomorrow if you want!
Should you? Well, that depends on how much planning you’ve already done!
If your organisation has just decided it wants a podcast and you’re already trying to book your first guest for next Tuesday, we’d suggest you might be getting ahead of yourself.
Before you start recording, have you worked out:
- Who the podcast is for and why they’d want to listen?
- What do you want it to achieve?
- What format will work best?
- Who’s going to be involved in making it?
- How much time everyone can realistically commit?
- How you’ll get the podcast in front of the people you want to reach?
These aren’t questions to figure out as you go along, well, not if you want to make life easier for yourself.
And if you’re working in a charity, university, council or another busy organisation, there’s another question worth asking.
What else is happening while you’re trying to make this podcast?
Big campaigns, events, annual leave, funding deadlines, other projects. They don’t go away just because you (or the boss) have decided to launch a podcast.
A bit of proper planning at the beginning can save you an awful lot of faffing about later.
Break Your Podcast Production Into Four Stages
Rather than asking how long the whole thing will take, it can be more useful to break the work into four chunks.
1. Planning: What are you actually making?
This is where you develop the idea, agree your audience and objectives, choose a format and work out who’s responsible for what.
You might already have a brilliant idea, brill! But if five departments need to agree on what the podcast should be, getting everyone on the same page could take a little longer.
You’ll also need to think about how many episodes you’re making, how often you’ll release them, what equipment or support you need and when you want to launch.
And don’t forget to plan your marketing now, rather than leaving it until the podcast is finished.
Our advice? Put together a simple project plan. A spreadsheet, calendar or Gantt chart can help you see what needs doing, who’s doing it and where the potential hold-ups might be.
Planning doesn’t have to take forever, but it does need to happen.
2. Production: Recording is often the quickest bit!
Surprisingly, the actual recording might only take an hour.
But getting to that hour? That’s another story.
If you’re making an interview-based podcast, you’ll need to identify guests, invite them, coordinate diaries, research their work, prepare questions and arrange the recording.
And if you’ve ever tried to find a date that works for three busy people, you’ll know that diaries can be an absolute ‘mare.
Now you’re making a series with six guests, or recording people in different locations, or bringing together multiple voices for one episode….
The complexity starts adding up.
It’s also worth thinking about your format. A solo podcast will usually be much simpler to organise than an interview show. A magazine-style programme with different segments and contributors takes more coordination. A documentary-style series involving research, archive material and location recordings can be a much bigger undertaking.
None of these formats are better than another.
The important thing is choosing the one that works for your purpose, audience and resources.
3. Post-production: There’s more to editing than cutting out mistakes
Once you’ve finished recording, you’ve got a podcast, right?
Not quite!
There’s the editing to think about.
That might mean removing mistakes and unwanted noises, improving the sound and adding music.
But it can also involve shaping the conversation, deciding what stays and what goes, bringing different recordings together, writing and recording narration, and making sure the episode actually tells the story you want it to tell.
How long that takes depends on the format, the amount of material and the experience of the person editing.
And then there are reviews and approvals.
Does your communications team need to listen? Does somebody else need to sign off the final episode?
Build that time into your schedule. It’s much easier than discovering two days before launch that the person who needs to approve your podcast is on their hols.
4. Distribution and marketing: Hold your horses, the launch isn’t the finish line
You’ve planned, recorded and edited your podcast. Hurrah! But you’re not quite done pal.
You’ll need to get it ready for release, which might include episode titles, descriptions, artwork, transcripts and uploading everything to your podcast hosting platform.
Then there’s the small matter of getting people to listen.
How are you going to tell your audience about it? Can you use your organisation’s newsletter, website, social media, events or existing networks? Who’s creating the promotional content?
And this is worth bolding, highlighting and tattooing on your arm…
Podcast marketing isn’t something you do once on launch day and then forget about.
If you want your podcast to reach people and have an impact, promotion needs to be part of your ongoing plan.
So, How Long Does MIC recommend?
When we’re working with an organisation to produce an interview-based podcast series, we generally recommend allowing at least three months from getting started to launch.
As a very rough example, that might look like:
| What we’re working on |
| MONTH 1: Planning the podcast, developing the format, agreeing the approach and preparing for recordings |
| MONTH 2: Arranging and recording interviews, while beginning some of the editing |
| MONTH 3: Editing, reviews, approvals, preparing episodes and getting everything ready for launch |
Of course, real life never fits neatly into three boxes.
Planning and recording might overlap. Editing might begin while interviews are still taking place. And sometimes getting one particularly important guest in the diary can hold everything up.
We recommend allowing that time because we’ve made enough podcasts to know that things don’t always go to plan.
And we’d much rather build a realistic schedule than promise a lightning-fast turnaround that puts everyone under unnecessary pressure.
What If You’re Making An Ongoing Podcast?
So far, we’ve mostly talked about producing a series with a defined number of episodes.
But what if you’re planning a podcast that keeps going? Perhaps a monthly interview show or a fortnightly programme for your organisation’s community.
Then you need to think beyond getting the first episode out.
Our advice is to have a few episodes in your back pocket before you launch.
That way, you’re not constantly recording, editing and publishing at the last possible minute.
If a guest cancels, someone goes on holiday or a big piece of work suddenly lands on your desk, you’ve got a bit of breathing room.
Think about how many episodes you can realistically make and release without it becoming a constant source of stress.
Here’s something we tell people a lot: Podcast around your life, not the other way around.
Or, in this case, podcast around the work of your organisation, consistency is useful, but only if the schedule is sustainable.
You Don’t Have To Do All This Yourself
By now, you might be thinking, Blimey, there’s quite a lot involved in making a podcast.
And there can be! But that doesn’t mean podcasting has to become another enormous job for your team.
At MIC media, we help organisations turn their ideas into properly planned, professionally produced podcasts.
That can mean helping you work out the right format, building a realistic production schedule, coordinating recordings, handling the technical side, editing your episodes and getting everything ready for launch.
You bring the knowledge, the people and the stories. We bring the podcast production expertise and help keep everything moving.
So while producing a podcast takes time, it doesn’t have to take up all of yours.
If your organisation has an idea for a podcast and you’re wondering what’s involved, have a look at our podcast production services or get in touch for a chat.
And if you’re thinking about the budget as well as the timeline, you might find our guide to how much it costs to produce a podcast useful, too.
