Quality is in the ears of the listener

"Some people are so poor, all they have is money.” -- Bob Marley

Today, quality is not reserved only for big, well-funded studios anymore. Your podcast can now be recorded with the same fidelity as any big studio. That means both you and the big studio have an equal chance based solely on the quality level expected by a listener. It also means both you and the big studio have an equal chance at creating the next breakout hit. This is the listener-driven nature of podcasting and the frustrating bane to a big studio's existence.

First, your audience doesn’t care if you recorded your podcasts in a $100,000 studio in Seattle or your upstairs walk-in closet. When your audio is good enough – meaning it is devoid of any real distractions – your sound quality is almost indistinguishable from professionally recorded audio. This is because many of the big studios fail to understand how their podcast is being consumed. A typical podcast listener is listening while driving a car, taking a shower, riding a mountain bike, on a run, mowing the lawn, washing dishes, or even just sitting at work. At no point are their listeners playing their podcasts on a full-blown stereo system for a studio audience.

Then why do they pump so much money into over-produced recordings when a good enough recording will do? Good question. If I asked 10 podcast listeners to tell me the difference between a good enough recording made in a closet versus a high-quality recording made in a big studio do you know what they would tell me? I have my money on ‘there is no difference’.

The proof? The proof is in the audio and content quality of the so-called Top 100 podcasts on any podcast directory during any given month. As an experiment, take a listen to just the Top 40 podcasts from either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Of those podcasts at the top, please tell me which were recorded in a closet and which were recorded in a big studio.

I’ll wait. 

You, can’t, can you?

That’s because they all share a common factor. They all have clean audio that is good enough. This is what I mean when I say quality is in the ears of the listener. Quality is an it factor – a factor that listeners have a hard time describing but just know it when they hear it! This makes audio quality, once you remove all the distractions, subjective for each listener. What they think is valuable is the most important aspect of podcasting. 

For big studios, this is a problem. Sure, they may have an advantage in talent selection, expendable budgets, and advertising interest. However, they do not have an advantage in what a listener finds valuable. Additionally, they don’t have a clue what podcasts will become a hit either. All those advantages over the independent podcaster and yet still no guarantee that they will produce a hit show.

Independent podcasters are proving every day that a studio-of-one can run circles around a big production team. While having a big team gives you a lot of advantages concerning the division of labor, it also requires you to produce sustainable revenue high enough to pay them all. Meanwhile, an indy podcaster with $300 worth of gear and a coat closet can produce a podcast that is equal to, or even greater than, a big studio.

Additionally, sponsors don’t care how big or good the team is. They only care about the size of your audience and how that audience can improve their sales. Plus, sponsors are learning very quickly that indy podcasters with similar audiences to big studios are both cheaper and a better-engaged partner. Especially when the product being advertised matches the needs and wants of their podcast audience.   

So, I ask you then, why spend all that money to be great when good will do?

That is still a mystery.

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Oncetold is podcast education and media hosting for new podcasters who yearn to be yarn weavers, big dreamers, and story believers. Start telling your story at oncetold.us and follow Kyle M. Bondo on his podcasts Not Easily Squished and War Yankee.