Video has taken podcasting by storm, but how do you know if it's right for your show?
As a podcaster, how are you interacting with and utilizing video? More and more, we're hearing about creators tacking on this visual element, and platforms like YouTube and Spotify are eagerly showcasing all the success stories of podcasters giving their audience a fresh way to consume content.

Sure, it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get your hands on video recording equipment these days, and it's straightforward to drop the final video into platforms like YouTube. But what about editing, and lighting, and additional preparations like your hair, outfit, and background? Video requires a lot of moving parts, and you still have to generate high-quality audio on top of all that. 

In this episode, Mary breaks down the meteoric rise of video podcasts and encourages you to really ponder how adding video would affect your workflow and your budget. How will video get you closer to your podcasting goals, or is it a timesuck you just don't need? 

Dig into the pros and cons of tackling this extra format:

• How easy is it really to "just" add a video component?
• How do you figure out if your audience even wants to watch your podcast?
• Just how helpful will AI be for editing and marketing?

Links worth mentioning from the episode:

• Episode 89, "Your Podcasting Questions Answered" - https://www.organizedsound.ca/your-podcasting-questions-answered-and-a-year-end-break-episode-89/
• Spotify research, "Spotify Unveils Uninterrupted Video Podcasts, Audience-Driven Payments, and the New Spotify for Creators Platform" - https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-11-13/spotify-unveils-uninterrupted-video-podcasts-audience-driven-payments-and-the-new-spotify-for-creators-platform
• Sounds Profitable, "Audio and Video Podcast Consumers in 2024, Part One" - https://soundsprofitable.com/article/audio-and-video-podcast/

Connect with Mary!

• Leave a voice note with your feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/VisibleVoice or email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com
• Get the full transcript of the episode at http://www.visiblevoicepodcast.com
• Read up on more secrets with the Visible Voice Insights Newsletter https://www.organizedsound.ca/newsletter
• To learn more or work with Mary, check out https://www.organizedsound.ca
• Link up on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychan-organizedsound/
• Engage on Instagram @OrganizedSoundProductions https://www.instagram.com/organizedsoundproductions

Show Credits:

• Podcast audio design, engineering, and edited by Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions
• Show notes written by Shannon Kirk of Right Words Studio
• Post-production support by Kristalee Forre of Forre You VA
• Podcast cover art by Emily Johnston of Artio Design Co.

Transcript with Audio Description:

[MUSIC IN - GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL "LET'S GO" BEGINS]

​​MARY: Video. It's one of the biggest things that people talk about these days for podcasting, because it feels like video is all the rage in the digital world. For podcasting you see clips of those interviews on social media. You hear of big names creating a studio and filming their podcast. You also see people talking with microphones. Like that visual aspect of a podcast is people with microphones. So the lines of audio first podcasting versus video podcasts are kind of blurring. But are they really? What's driving this need for video? And is it worth it for you as a podcaster to create a video for your podcast?

I touched on this a little bit in episode 89, that's the episode on Your Podcasting Questions Answered as my last episode of 2024. But I wanted to bring this topic back up for an entire episode of its own because, like I said, there's so much talk about video these days that I wanted to address it. But like anything in tech, things change quickly. So know that this is recorded in March of 2025, and I may have a new episode in the future for more video talk, because I'm sure this isn't the end of it, and I'm sure that there's a lot more things I want to add, but there's only so much that can go into this short little solo episode. So as of today, I figure, let's talk video podcasts as of right now, and are they right for you and how you can potentially integrate video into your podcasting workflow if you choose to record visuals as well. 

This is episode number 92 of the Podcaster's Guide to a Visible Voice. 

<< WOMAN SINGS: So so so so let's go >>

Hey, welcome to the show. Thanks for listening. Yeah, we're going to talk about video. 

[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

The appeal of video for podcasting is growing. It's making a huge shift. And you know what? It actually started a while ago, too. Spotify started to offer video podcasts in 2020. So that's five years ago now. Toward the end of last year, Spotify reported that more than 50% of their creators are actively publishing videos monthly on Spotify. But video for podcasting isn't new. There's been a version of that called vidcasts, or videocasts that have been around since the early 2000's. So why the push now? Why video podcasts today? 

And it all has to do with tech, right? With the rise of TikTok, YouTube focusing on podcasting, which they started in about 2023, so two years ago now. And of course, the integration of easily recording video, it's so accessible for everyone now. Cameras on laptops, your devices, your phones, right? Easily bought camera gear that is, you know, accessible. You can go to a store and just pick up some stuff and it's a pretty good price point for the pretty good quality. Video's point of entry has gotten easier and easier over the years. So that brings us to today. It is easy to record your podcast online with platforms like Riverside, Squadcast, Zencastr, you know, even straight into your phone, and then easily take that video and drop it into YouTube, video podcast done, right? Check. But in fact, many of those platforms come with AI as well, so they can cut your interviews into bite sized little clips. 

And some of my clients seeing all this on those video platforms like Riverside, Squadcast, Zencastr, et cetera, they're asking me about video for their podcasts. Should I be recording video too? They used it mainly just to facilitate the conversation with that video portion, but they never published the video, but now they're asking about doing that. So with all these new tools, it sounds like a no brainer. I mean it's already there. You can easily just record it with a hit another button, right? But is it really that easy? Or maybe the question is, is video really that effective for your podcast? 

[MUSIC IN]

So I want to make my first argument here that making a video podcast is not as easy as it sounds. It's not like, okay, we're hitting record anyway, might as well just record video for it. Bang, you're done. Video podcast isn't easy, especially in terms of creating one that is engaging. Because today in our world of video zoom conferences, all that stuff, are we really excited to see talking heads talk back and forth, does that make for a good video? 

So sure, anyone can record video, but to have video of a certain quality that also has good audio, because if video doesn't have good audio, people are going to turn that off. So a good video with good audio doesn't come easily. There's a lot of setup and different workflow flows to make sure that not only are you recording your audio, but you are also going to be recording your video now, it's an additional step or multiple steps as, uh, you'll hear. You have to think about camera. Are you going to use more than what that camera is already on your laptop? Do you have to get a separate webcam? The quality of that webcam, the tech aspects of it all. Better lighting, especially when we're getting into daylight savings and it's darker later in the day and you might be recording episodes later in the day as well. Lighting is great. You need that. 

What's your background gonna look like? Some people are still recording their podcasts in their closet. Do they want to have their closet in the background? And then talking about closets, what are you gonna wear? You gotta wear something from like, waist up at least, right in your video. So you gotta put on some decent clothes and if you're inclined to also put on some makeup and even wash your hair, make sure it's a hair washing night the day before you do your podcast, right? That's a lot of e