Podcasting is probably the best thing happening lately for studio equipment sellers. Smart sellers and retailers have created packages to cater to podcasters. But… is studio quality sound necessary for podcasting? I hear it all the time especially from die hard acoustic aficionados

You need a studio quality mic like Shure or Audio Technica to avoid sounding tinny and awful on cheap computer microphones

or

Your computer’s soundcard isn’t going to cut it. You should get a professional soundcard (that looks more like a hard drive and with fancy controllers I’ll never understand)

What is often left out is the price. Yes, some of them tell you – you need to pay the price to sound good and that is certainly true no argument with that but do you need to sound like you just stepped into a recording studio? I think not. Like everything else online, content is King. Studio sound is like having a fancy eye candy type website. If your podcast has no substance, people will not listen no matter how good you sound.

For the casual podcaster, the cost of these equipment does not make sense. Many new podcasters are just testing waters. They don’t necessarily know if they can continue doing so.

For business podcasters, yes, I agree you should sound decent to come accross as a professional business but let’s not forget many podcast listeners are not acoustic savvy, most don’t care. They subscribe to your podcast to listen to what you have to say and sometimes, to take something away from your shows. Besides, unless you’re really serious about your own radio show or something along those lines in the future, studio quality equipment is something nice but not absolutely necessary. If your business has nothing to do with acoustics or a radio show and your podcast is merely for marketing, list building or traffic building purposes, your money should be better spent elsewhere.

You should however invest in a decent quality microphone
and sound card – and not the cheapest one you can find. But when the cost turns into hundreds and thousands of dollars, you need to take a look at what is important. Is the podcast the money maker or some other marketing effort? How long do you intend to keep podcasting? Is the podcast going to turn into your main product? How popular is the podcast?

If the podcast will be your main breadwinner in the near future or is already one then it may make sense to upgrade to something more studio like. But if you’re starting out – go with mid-quality and take it from there.