How to launch a successful music podcast

With 250 episodes under its belt, CD Baby's DIY Musician podcast is one of the best for emerging talent to tune into. 

Hosted by CD Baby's Kevin Breuner, formerly a Grammy-nominated musician with his band Smalltown Poets, the podcast has explored myriad aspects in the fledgling star's journey to success, from building a powerful set list to finding the right producer to work with. 

As an increasingly popular medium for artists and music business entrepreneurs (including our own alumna Lauren Moore and her 'Let's Talk Moore About' video podcast), we caught up with Kevin to learn his essential advice on how to launch a successful podcast. Get stuck into this top tips below... 

What was the motivation to launch a podcast? 

At that time, my job at CD Baby was to talk to artists all day and help them with their distribution and music promotion. The podcast seemed like a natural extension of that work and allowed everyone to benefit from those same types of conversations.

Talking about the mechanics of making a podcast, what kind of equipment does the fledgling podcaster need? Are there any essential pieces of gear or tech needed to start out?   

The main thing you need is a decent microphone. There are so many good options these days that are very affordable."  

I use Audacity for editing the audio (free) and layout the podcast with bumper music and such in Garageband.

How can you expose your podcast to more people? Are there any tips or 'quick wins' around getting more listeners? 

I’d start by looking for online communities interested in similar topics. Things like Facebook groups, Reddit, and blogs that talk about similar things. It’s also a good idea to ask your listeners to share with their friends.

What is the secret to launching a successful podcast? How do you stand out in a crowded market place? 

To me it’s all about the content. If you have good content and are interesting to listen to, you should be able to build an audience. The potential size of that audience all depends on topic you’re discussing. Get a few episodes under your belt before you go out and start promoting.

For anyone starting out on their podcasting journey, are there any essential tips or pieces of advice you would give them? 

Don’t get hung up on production value and focus on the content. How are you going to keep it going after 10 episodes or 20 episodes? Do you have a plan for that?" 

Most podcasts don’t make it past four episodes. When we started the DIY Musician Podcast, we had10 episodes mapped out before we even started recording episode one.

In terms of your DIY Musician podcast, what have been your favourite episodes to make? 

My favorite episodes are always the ones where I feel like I’m learning just as much as the audience is learning. For example if we’re discussing a marketing technique or how to use a new music platform. I find those inspiring because we’re all learning together.

What does the future look like for your podcast? 

We have a lot of episodes already mapped out for 2020, so much more to come. There are so many new music and marketing platforms that there is a wealth of information to discuss.

Visit podcast.cdbaby.com to find out more and listen to the latest episode. 

Image by Daniel Friesenecker from Pixabay