How much does it cost to produce a podcast?

Producing a podcast in Belgium and the Netherlands costs between 50 and 1,500 euros an episode, depending on how much you do yourself. If you only hand the editing to a freelancer, you usually pay 50 to 200 euros an episode. An agency charges 150 to 500 euros for editing, and for a heavy production with music, sound design and clips that rises to 1,500 euros and more. A brand podcast you outsource completely, from topic to publication, starts around 500 euros an episode according to a Belgian guide, and around 800 euros for a fuller approach.

Those ranges are wide because a podcast is made of separate items. This guide splits them out, sets three ways of working side by side, works out a season of ten episodes and says what is usually not in the price. What we do with podcasts ourselves, in audio and on video, is on video podcast production.

The cost per item

Always ask for a quote item by item. Then you see where the money goes and you compare two providers on the same lines.

Two items are missing from many quotes: preparing the guests and promoting the show after publication. We cover both further on.

Three ways to make a podcast

The biggest choice is not which microphone you buy but who does the work. Each approach trades money against hours differently.

People who edit themselves usually underestimate the time. Cleaning up a 45 minute conversation, tightening where it drags and levelling the sound easily takes two to four hours. Do that monthly and outsourced editing is often cheaper than your own hourly rate.

International prices are higher. A British comparison site names 350 to 1,000 dollars an episode at the low end and 1,500 to 5,000 dollars and more for a production with a full crew. Those figures apply to the English speaking market; in Flanders and the Netherlands you usually pay less.

What an episode on video adds

A video podcast needs more than a camera. You need light that shows faces well, a set that does not distract and an edit that switches between speakers. Editing takes longer as a result, and you see that in the price per episode.

The files are heavier too. Spotify advises 1080p at 25 Mbps for video; a one hour episode then weighs about 11 GB. On YouTube, with the recommended profile, it is about 3.8 GB. Work it out for your own length with the video file size calculator. An audio version for Apple Podcasts weighs a hundred times less.

So why video? Because most people discover a podcast through a thirty second clip in their feed, not through an app. A recording with cameras gives you those clips for free. How a channel of episodes grows is covered under YouTube channel management, and the YouTube thumbnail preview tool shows how your title sits in the feed.

A season of ten episodes worked out

The price per episode says little without the season. A worked example with the ranges from the table, for ten episodes of 40 to 50 minutes:

The difference is in your own hours. With the first approach you find guests, prepare the conversations and publish yourself. With the second the producer takes that over and you only come in to record. Put the two side by side with your own hourly rate before you choose.

Recording in a studio or on location

A hired studio looks like the expensive choice, but it is not always. You pay 50 to 400 euros an hour, and for that you get a quiet room, microphones that are already set up and often a technician who keeps an ear on the sound. Editing goes faster afterwards, because there is less to repair.

Recording on location, in your office, your shop or at a client, gives its own atmosphere and costs no rent. The producer does bring equipment to you, and that sits in the price per recording day. A meeting room with glass and a hard floor echoes, and you cannot fully repair that in the edit. So pick a smaller room with soft materials, put the microphones close to the speakers and switch off the air conditioning while you record.

For a video podcast the location matters more. Your office or workshop on screen tells people who you are without anyone saying it. That is a reason to film on location, even when a studio works out cheaper.

What is usually not in the price

A podcast quote often stops at publication. What comes after, you pay separately or do yourself:

• Clips for socialThree to five fragments per episode, cropped vertical and subtitled. If you have them scheduled, that falls under social media management; what that costs is in the social media management pricing guide.
• Show notes and an articleA text per episode helps people find your podcast through Google. What a writer charges for that is in our guide to copywriter rates.
• AdsPromoting an episode on Facebook and Instagram costs media budget on top of production. See Facebook ads cost for the ranges.
• Finding guestsSomeone has to find, invite and brief guests. It is often the work that waits longest.

Where to save and where not

Do not save on sound. Listeners forgive a plain set, but they drop off at an echoing room or a speaker who sounds louder than the other. A good dynamic microphone per speaker and a room with a carpet and curtains do more than an expensive studio.

Do save on what you reuse. A fixed intro, a fixed structure and a fixed place for the logo cut editing time per episode. Record two episodes back to back if your guests allow it, so you pay the studio setup only once.

A podcast is not a one off expense but a piece of content marketing: it only works after a run of episodes. So plan a season, not an episode. If you are torn between a podcast and an ordinary company film, also read what corporate video costs. And if you would rather have a live conversation with audience questions, look at webinar production.