The Best Equipment To Start Your Podcast, According To Professional Podcasters

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So you’ve decided. It’s finally time to start that podcast. Congratulations! Whether you’re hoping to cover sports, finance, fashion, dating or books, you gotta get clear on your angle before hitting record. As comedian Ashley Hamilton says, creating captivating long-form audio means knowing what you’re talking about.

“What you want to do is find a niche,” Hamilton, co-host of the podcast “Celebrity Memoir Book Club,” told HuffPost. “No one really wants to hear random people just blab,” she added. “If you wanna attract an audience, there has to be an added value.”

For Hamilton, this “value” comes in the form of critique, analysis, hot takes, jokes, personal anecdotes and unedited feelings. It’s the stuff that got her into listening to podcasts and, eventually, what inspired her to launch her own.

Hamilton said that starting a podcast also requires finding a hosting platform like Libsyn, Buzzsprout or Anchor. These platforms create an “RSS feed” for your podcast or a digital file that automatically uploads to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other places podcasts are streamed, containing the recording of the episode as well as the title and description. Hamilton said this process is how all podcasters get their latest episodes onto the air, from mega-famous stars with millions of streams to friends that record at home.

The next step is making sure you have all the gear you need to record. Huffpost spoke with Hamilton and Ada Enechi, head of culture at BuzzFeed UK and cohost of the “Seasoned Sessions” podcast, to figure the best equipment for a new home studio.