If you take a listen to the top 100 podcasts on iTunes, you’ll notice that many of them use various production elements including sound effects, background music and sounds (also called “sound beds”), and pre-recorded segments. Here is a list of elements you might want to add to your show:
Music clips for transitions
Sound effects
Previously recorded segments and interviews
Pre-recorded intros and outros
A full pre-recorded show (hosts who want to add live interaction upload their full show in the audio clips page and then run it as start-up audio)
We’ll dedicate a future guide to the creative decision-making behind sound effects and focus on the production process here.
Gather your pod safe music files. They must be in .wav or .mp3 format and be under 100 MB. Head to the Audio Clips page. There, you can upload your clips. You’ll know our servers are done processing your clips when they say “ready”. You can also choose to make clips start as soon as your episode begins. This is how many hosts add live callers and interaction on top of their pre-produced content.