Can Podcasts Be Live?
The short answer is no, not really. If you really want to, though, you can live podcast, in a manner of speaking. There’s no way to livestream a podcast right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t livestream your podcast. Keep reading to learn more.
Ever been driving around, listening to your favorite radio station, and heard your DJ doing a live set somewhere? Probably a bar down by the harbor if you live on the ocean, or maybe a hot new club on a Saturday night. Live radio broadcasts have always been a great way to for businesses to attract new clients, and for stations to add a new line of revenue to their books. So why can’t podcasting be the same way. The truth is it can, if you live produce or live record your episodes on site somwhere cool.
If you’re a podcaster, you already know that consistency is the most important tool in your bag. Showing up every week for your audience, with consistently awesome content, is how you build a following that will stick with you. It’s also how you build a following who will show up and support the businesses who, hopefully, are supporting you in turn.
Say you run a geek podcast, like I do, for The Parentacons. Most towns have a local comic book shop, and like any retail environment generating foot traffic is a key part of their business model. If you can convince the store owner that you can attract people to the store, they might let you set up on a Saturday afternoon and record some content.
You’re probably thinking one of two things at this point:
I’m not a live streamer, I edit my content before posting it.
You can still edit your content as much as you want after recording. Like I said above, there’s no way to livestream a podcast directly to podcast platforms (e.g. Apple, Spotify, etc.) right now. You can, however, livestream your content to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok, all while still capturing it so your editor (check my rates) can polish it off in post-production. And, if livestreaming isn’t your thing, you can still have a cool event live recording your content.
My audience isn’t local, they’re national—or even international.
Good for you! That’s a huge accomplishment to draw a national or international audience. It means you’re reaching beyond your own local network, and your contacts’ networks, to build a truly organic, sustainable audience of your own. That’s hard work! Consider choosing a different retail environment, perhaps a virtual environment rather than a physical one. You could livestream an episode directly to a company’s website, conceivably, and re-stream it all over the internet to draw new traffic to the company’s website and increase their sales. Online trackers mean you can really dig deep into how effective this is for the company. Make sure price your livestream accordingly!
How, you might ask does all of this benefit you? Well first, you’ll probably get an exposure bump, just by virtue of collaborating with someone else. Second, the magic word. Sponsorship. You can, and should, be asking the owner of any business where you’re recording a live podcast episode, to sponsor that episode.
The bottom line is producing a live podcast episode, whether you push it out live then or not.
Looking for help getting started? Let me be a resource for you.
