Podcast studio hire is quoted inconsistently, which makes comparing two prices harder than it should be. One rate covers a room and a camera operator; another covers a room and nothing else. This is what the number is made of, what tends to sit outside it, and the questions worth asking before you book.
What you are actually paying for
Three things, in rough order of cost: the room, the people, and what happens afterwards. A room with microphones is the cheapest version of this and the one most often quoted, because it is the easiest to price.
The people are where the difference shows. A studio with an operator running cameras and sound produces something usable on the day. A room you let yourself produces footage that someone still has to rescue.
Editing is the third, and it is the one most often quoted separately. A recorded session is not an episode until somebody has cut it, graded it, mixed the audio and produced the clips.
What moves the number
How many cameras. A single locked camera on two people is a different job from three cameras cut together, and the cost difference is in the edit rather than the hire.
How many people on the record. Each additional person is another microphone, another seat in frame and another audio channel to balance.
How long you book. Studios are usually priced by the half day or the day, and the set-up time is the same whether you record for one hour or four. Booking a full day and recording several episodes is almost always cheaper per episode than booking four separate sessions.
What you want out. A full episode is one deliverable. A full episode, five vertical clips and the audio mixed for podcast platforms is four.
What usually sits outside the rate
Short-form clips, almost always. They are a separate edit, and the number of them is the main variable.
Audio mastering for the podcast platforms, which is a different output from the audio on the video.
Thumbnails, titles and anything to do with publishing. Many studios stop at delivering files.
Travel and get-in time if the recording is somewhere other than the studio.
Four questions that make quotes comparable
How many cameras, and is an operator running them or are they locked off?
What is the turnaround, and does the rate include the edit or only the recording?
How many short-form clips are included, if any?
Who owns the footage, and do you get the raw files?
Two quotes that look miles apart usually differ on these four rather than on the room.
Where the money is usually best spent
On the audio and on the edit, in that order. Viewers forgive imperfect pictures and abandon bad sound within seconds, and an episode nobody cuts properly is an hour of footage rather than content.
Then on recording several episodes in one visit. The biggest saving available in podcasting is not a cheaper studio, it is fewer set-ups.
Common questions
- Is it cheaper to build a studio at the office?
- Rarely, unless you are recording weekly and have a room that is acoustically usable without work. The equipment is the small part; the room treatment, the lighting and somebody to run it are the expensive parts.
- How many episodes can you record in a day?
- Three to four is comfortable with guests arriving in sequence, and it is where studio hire starts to look good value. Beyond that, people tire and it shows on camera.