Complete Review of Buzzsprout: Become a Podcasting Pro

Want to start a podcast? If so, then you should check out Buzzsprout.

Simply put, Buzzsprout will give you just about all the resources you need to get the ball rolling. All that’s left is for you to use your imagination and create the right type of podcast that you think will resonate with your target audience.

But you’re not left totally alone when it comes to that part. The Buzzsprout website offers a few pointers for inspiration.

In this Buzzsprout review, I’ll cover the features of the service. I’ll also explain its pricing structure so you can do a cost/benefit analysis.

Buzzsprout Review: The Easiest Way to Start Podcasting

In this part of the Buzzsprout review, I’ll explain how the service helps you reach your audience online.

It’s this simple: if you want folks to listen to your podcast, you’ll need to get it listed on all the popular directories.

Buzzsprout helps with that by doing the heavy lifting for you. It will get your podcast listed on:

People can find your podcast by searching for keywords in those directories. That’s why you need to make sure that your podcast title and description include search terms relevant to your brand and your industry.

In-Depth Buzzsprout Review of Features:

Magic Mastering (Buzzsprout’s Secret Weapon)

In this part of the Buzzsprout review, I’ll go over the concept of Magic Mastering, a proprietary technology that enhances your podcast audio files.

You can think of Magic Mastering as an Instagram filter for audio. It takes what you already have and makes it better.

In a nutshell: your podcast will sound clearer, crisper, and match prevailing industry standards for quality audio.

According to the Apple Podcasts Authoring Best Practices, all episodes should be “pre-conditioned in such a way that the overall loudness remains around -16 dB LKFS, with a +/- 1 dB tolerance and a true-peak value that doesn’t exceed -1 dB FS.”

However, it’s not quite that simple.

Apple muddies the waters a bit by saying that heavily compressed and amplified content might be too loud and introduce distortions. On the other hand, low audio levels might have the necessary range but the sound will be too quiet or unintelligible.

In other words, you gotta nail it. Like Goldilocks, you need to pick the option that’s just right.

Enter Magic Mastering. It will update your audio compositions to match Apple Podcasts Authoring Best Practices. MM will also optimize encoding for the spoken word (96k mono) or music heavy (192k stereo).

“Beyond that, Buzzsprout will also apply an adaptive leveling process to correct for any distracting volume differences between multiple speakers or segments in your episode and it can fix some minor problems like noise and hum reduction.”

Here’s a breakdown of how Magic Mastering enhances your audio:

• Smart Adaptive Leveling – Corrects level differences between speakers. No more annoying “one speaker is louder than the other” podcasts.
• True Peak Targeting – Masters your podcast to the correct audio level. That helps you with listeners who move from one podcast to the next.
• Audio Sweetening – Removes noise in each audio region. It also cuts disturbing low frequencies. Say goodbye to power line hums and electromagnetic interference.
• Optimized for Content – Enhances your podcast file for speaking if that’s how you roll or for music if you’re performing a virtual concert.

Keep in mind, though: you’ll need to pay an additional fee for the Magic Mastering service.

According to Buzzsprout: “Ensuring an audio file is correctly leveled, filtered, pre-conditioned, and encoded requires significant processing power since the audio file must be analyzed multiple times. Additionally, Buzzsprout has licensed advanced algorithms from Auphonic to provide the best results possible. For these reasons, we must charge a small fee to cover these additional expenses.”

Optimization Made Easy

In this part of the Buzzsprout review, I’ll explain how the service optimizes your file

With Buzzsprout, you won’t need to worry about bitrates, file types, or ID3 tags. Instead, all you need to do is upload the audio file and Buzzsprout will take care of the rest.

It will optimize your episodes not only in terms of audio, but also for publication date and time.

You can publish your podcast immediately or schedule the day and time you’d like it to go live.

Just set it and forget it!

Dynamic Content

In this part of the Buzzsprout review, I’ll explain its Dynamic Content tool.

That tool lets you add pre-roll and post-roll segments to your podcast episodes. You can remove segments as well.

How does that come in handy? It gives you the opportunity to send a message to all your listeners regardless of which podcast episode they’re listening to.

Buzzsprout Transcriptions

How would you like to make your podcast available to people who are hard of hearing?

Good news on that front: Buzzsprout will transcribe your podcast episode for you.

Use that transcript to make your podcast more accessible to search engines and speed readers as well as those with difficulty hearing.

Podcast Player

Buzzsprout also gives you the ability to add a podcast player to your website.

And you don’t even need to know how to do any coding to make it happen. If you can copy and paste, you can add the player.

Then, people who visit your website can listen to your podcast in addition to reading the content on your blog.

Buzzsprout Review of Monetization System

Buzzsprout also offers you the ability to monetize your podcast with affiliate marketing.

According to the company website, Buzzsprout has partnered with different brands to help you generate income from your podcast episodes.

Keep in mind, though: you might not want to go that route if you’re using the podcast to generate brand-name awareness or position yourself as an authority in your field. If you do, you might just irritate people with commercials and lose connections you might have otherwise gained.

Analytics

Like all good digital marketing tools, Buzzsprout offers a reporting component so you can gain insights about your podcast reach.

You’ll learn about the kinds of people who listen to your podcast, where they live, and how many people downloaded it.

Use that info to fine-tune your podcast so you can maximize your reach.

Pricing

You’ll pay a monthly fee for Buzzsprout. The amount of that monthly fee depends on how many hours you want to upload every month.

If you want to upload no more than two hours every month and keep those podcasts around for a maximum of 90 days, you can get started for free.

Yep. That won’t cost you anything.

But you probably don’t want your podcast episodes deleted after three months. Fortunately, there are inexpensive options available with Buzzsprout.

For just $12 per month you can upload three hours worth of podcasts that the company will host indefinitely.

Keep in mind: I think “indefinitely” here means as long as you stay with the service. So if you cancel, your podcasts are probably gone.

If you’d like to upload 12 hours of podcasts, that will cost you $24 per month.

The Magic Mastering service ranges from $6 per month to $12 per month. It’s not available with the free plan, though.

Wrapping It Up

There it is: a complete review of Buzzsprout.

If you’re interested in launching a podcast but haven’t yet started the process, give the Buzzsprout website a visit. If you like what you see, try the free plan.

And if you like what you see there, sign on with one of the paid options.