Podcast software tools help you create high-quality podcasts, even without a recording studio and professional team. These platforms help with recording, editing, publishing, and distribution, so you can reach your target audience and provide them with a great listening experience.
Podcasting can be a marketing channel for brands to connect with their audience. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, Forge founder and digital strategist Ashwinn Krishnaswamy discusses the trend of brands using podcasts as a way to build organic, top-of-funnel awareness. “Customer acquisition channels getting saturated are forcing brands to think more creatively and more long-term about how to acquire customers and how to build a business,” he says.
Read on to learn what podcast software can do, features to look for, and seven podcast software solutions to record high-quality audio, edit it, and distribute your podcast worldwide.
What is podcast software?
Podcast software helps people record, edit, publish, distribute, and analyze podcast content. These tools fall into two main categories: recording and editing software and hosting and publishing platforms. You use recording and editing tools for recording your voice, editing in remote cohosts and guests, and adding post-production elements, such as sound effects and background music. Then, use hosting and publishing software to store your podcast on the cloud and distribute your shows to leading platforms, like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and YouTube.
Here are some of the key tasks podcast software supports:
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Recording. Podcast recording software captures high-fidelity audio and video from participants in the same room or joining remotely.
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Audio editing. Allows you to arrange your recordings, cut mistakes, and edit for narrative flow. These range from waveform editors to text-based tools that allow you to edit audio as easily as you would edit a document.
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Video editing. This involves creating and editing video recordings of your podcast. Given the popularity of video podcasts—more people consume podcasts on YouTube than any other platform—you may find yourself being as much of a video editor as an audio one.
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AI audio enhancement. AI-powered tools use machine learning to polish your sound through tasks like background noise removal, filler word removal, and the normalization of volume levels.
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Hosting and distribution. These are the back-end services that store your media files and generate an RSS feed—the file format that delivers your episodes to podcast distribution channels, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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Management and analysis. These features help you plan your content calendar, uncover listener demographics, and track marketing metrics to measure the success of your show.
Using podcast software to create polished shows not only delivers a quality listener experience and improves your brand image, it also allows you to more easily repurpose that content for other marketing channels. For example, Erika Gerarts, founder of Fluff, uses the brand’s podcast, Pretty Hard, to generate content for social media channels, which is easily shareable by her team and the show’s guests. “The people that we talk to generally repost that content themselves, and that gives us access to their audiences and communities,” she says on an episode of Shopify Masters.
Features to look for in podcast software
The right podcast software depends on your specific workflow and business goals. When evaluating your options, consider these key functionalities:
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Local recording. If your process involves remote recording, look for software that offers local recording—recording directly onto a local storage device. The alternative is cloud recording, which relies on an internet connection to record and store.
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Video recording. If you plan to release your podcast in video format, choose software that handles video files with the same ease that it records audio. It should be easy to capture video (either from your computer’s built-in camera or an external device), quickly edit video content, and trim clips to post on YouTube and social media platforms.
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Built-in publishing tools. You can use separate software programs to create and publish your episodes, or invest in an all-in-one tool with a full suite of publishing features. Look for cloud storage for podcast hosting and the ability to publish to multiple platforms simultaneously.
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AI support. AI-powered podcast software can remove filler words, remove background noise, and generate transcripts.
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Monetization and ecommerce integration. Look for tools that make it easy to insert dynamic audio ads and sponsored content or link directly to your products in your episode show notes.
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Budget and scalability. If you’re new to podcasting or bootstrapping with very little funds, consider the “freemium” model. Some tools offer a limited free version, with the option to upgrade to paid plans with premium features.
7 podcast software solutions
Here’s a look at seven popular audio and video podcast software solutions. Riverside, Descript, Adobe Podcast, and Audacity focus on recording and editing, while Buzzsprout, Libsyn, and Podbean are known for hosting and distribution. That said, there is some overlap; some recording platforms have hosting capabilities and vice versa:
Riverside
Riverside is a browser-based recording and editing tool that records studio-quality local 4K video and uncompressed 48 kHz audio. Its Magic Clips feature leverages AI to automatically turn long-form recordings into short, social-media-ready videos. It can also transcribe audio to text in more than 100 languages and allows text-based editing rather than waveforms. Riverside also handles hosting and publishing and provides access to show analytics.
Pricing: Subscriptions start at $24 per month.
Descript
Like Riverside, Descript is a recording and editing tool with text-based editing. You can edit the show by making changes in the text of the transcript, which changes the audio file accordingly. Descript also offers an overdub feature that lets you create an AI clone of your voice to fix a mistake or add a sentence without re-recording. The software has recently added a suite of AI tools for video called Underlord, designed to quickly enhance the production value of your visual content and prepare it for YouTube and social media platforms. For example, with the tap of a button, it can center every speaker in the middle of the screen or add chyrons (electronically generated captions) for every segment.
Pricing: Descript subscriptions start at $16 per month for the Hobbyist plan.
Adobe Podcast
Adobe Podcast is a recording and editing software with a suite of AI tools designed for creators with low-tech or loud recording environments. Adobe Podcast’s Enhance Speech feature can make audio recorded on an inexpensive microphone in a noisy room sound like it was captured with professional recording equipment in a studio environment. Like Descript and Riverside, it can quickly create an editable text transcript from an audio recording.
Pricing: Adobe Podcast starts at $10 per month for the Premium plan. It’s also included in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, which features all the tools Adobe offers (like Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere) for $99 per month.
Audacity
Audacity is a free, open-source digital audio workstation (DAW). While it does not have AI features, it is a robust tool for those who want total manual control over their tracks. Audacity has a large, active user base and offers a massive library of community-created plug-ins to handle everything from EQ to compression.
Pricing: Audacity is free.
Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout is a hosting platform that automatically optimizes your audio files and provides a simple dashboard for distribution. It allows for one-click submissions to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, along with a high-quality embeddable player for your Shopify site, so you can showcase your podcast within the “walls” of your ecommerce store.
Pricing: Buzzsprout has paid plans starting at $18 per month for audio only and $30 per month for audio and video.
Libsyn
As one of the original podcast hosting platforms, Libsyn is built for stable file hosting and in-depth analytics. Libsyn Connect is Libsyn’s recording software. It provides a built-in remote recording tool, allowing you to record interviews directly into your hosting dashboard without a separate recording app. The platform also offers Libsyn Ads, which helps established shows search for potential sponsors and manage dynamic ads.
Pricing: Libsyn’s plans start at $12 per month.
Podbean
Podbean is an all-in-one recording, editing, hosting, and publishing platform that features audience engagement tools, including livestreaming and the ability to host live events where listeners can call in or send virtual gifts called “Golden Beans,” which can be a lucrative monetization stream.
Pricing: Podbean’s Unlimited Audio plans start at $17 per month.
Podcast software FAQ
What is the best software for podcasting?
The best audio editing tools for podcasting depend on your needs and technical abilities. Riverside has a web-based interface, while Adobe Podcast has affordable, full-featured plans. Descript features AI transcription tools and robust customer support.
What platform do most podcasters use?
Two popular platforms among podcasters are Riverside and Libsyn. Riverside has a full range of video and audio editing tools that also handles hosting, while Libsyn is primarily a hosting platform that also has recording and editing capabilities.
Can ChatGPT edit a podcast?
ChatGPT can help edit a podcast by refining scripts, suggesting cuts, and improving structure, but you’ll still need software to edit the actual audio files.
How does a beginner start a podcast?
As a beginner, you can start a podcast by recording with simple equipment, editing the audio, and publishing it through a hosting platform to distribute on apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
