If You Aren't Serious About Your Podcast Project Files, You Aren't Serious About Your Podcast - The Podcast Report

If you aren't serious about your podcast project file, you aren't serious about your podcast. It's the podcast report, episode 125, show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com125. It's a short rant, but it's an important one. I just got off the phone with the client. Client is dealing with heartache, pain, cost overruns, and when all is said and done, we're not going to have the end product we want because simply the project file wasn't kept. And because the project file wasn't kept, we're going to have a lot of problems. As you know, the project file is where all of a podcast comes together. Whether you're listening to something as fancy as an NPR produced S Town type of situation, or even something as simple as this. Me, a microphone and a couple of sound effects. This didn't happen all at once. Many times. It wasn't mixed at the board. This was a project. In my case, Audacity. In other cases, Adobe Audition. In other cases, GarageBand don't care. Project file. You know this. You need to keep the project file because sometimes you gotta come back in later and change something. And if there's a quote that has a music fade and it has a sound effect in the background and you take out something and you can't take out the music because it's all mixed together, you have problems. See, if you don't value the podcast project file, you don't value your podcast. And by the way, if you're giving these to a consultant and the consultant doesn't keep the project files, get a new consultant. The problem here is not keeping, not maintaining, not having a reverence or a good attitude towards your project files simply means that you are born to problems later on. Why wouldn't somebody keep a project file? Well, there's just the bad concept. Well, the show's made. We're done. We're not going to go back. Nah, that doesn't happen. Sometimes you go back, even if just just for posterity, you go back. It's a bad idea. Some do this because simply they're sloppy and they don't want to go through the process of archiving a project file or that type of thing. Others do it because it's not sexy to keep a project file. My work here is done. My podcast is complete. It's another masterwork. All of these are ridiculous. All of these are the problem. You need to be able to go back in and you'd be able to grab your podcast project file and make an edit. Maybe it's a legal issue, maybe it's a. A semantic issue, maybe it's a historical issue. Maybe you're going back and you're taking past episodes and producing an audiobook from it or something like that. Doesn't matter what it is. Keep your podcast project file. If you don't treat your podcast like an asset, it will never become an asset. And one of your biggest assets is again, the podcast project file. Now, with this particular client, they were dealing with someone who just didn't see the need to keep the master files. And sometimes keeping the master files is a logistical issue and a headache. And maybe somebody isn't paid for it. But one of the secrets about a podcast project file is all the assets that are used are in the project file. So all you have to do is archive that. Now, some have said, some have told me, oh, it's not worth it. It takes too much space. These days are over. Hosting is, for all sakes and purposes, free. Everything we pay for is, at this point, really an administrative cost. A couple ideas for you. Dropbox business now. Unlimited. Put your project there. Amazon hosting, if you must. If you're a prime member, it's like $5 a month for unlimited. Take your project files, zip those up, put them there. Maybe put it at S3, I don't care. But get your project file, put it somewhere so that if you have to come back and fix something, you can. People don't keep project files for one of two reasons. Both are terrifying. Reason number one, they don't really care. Their job is not asset creation. Their job is not history. Their job is not making something that goes on for a long time. Their job is getting this MP3 out the door or the MP4 out the door. They're not thinking long term, long run, long rung, long run. That's not you. You need to move to that. You need to keep a project file. You need to do that from episode one. You need to do that to the end. There are those who don't care. And then really, the flip side of it are there's those who don't value. Now, maybe the value issue is, you know, you've brought in someone who doesn't get paid by the hour. They get paid to do it quickly. Maybe they've pulled the wool over your eyes. Maybe they've found themselves in a situation where it doesn't. Or the value of the project file isn't nearly worth as much as the value of backing up the project file. And having a library and having a history of the project file. And again, if someone is treating you that way, they are not valuing you, they are not valuing your show, they don't really care and you need to get away from that. Project files, it's not an issue of platform. You can zip anything, you can take any project file, you can back that up. That's not the case. If it's hard to take the project file and back it up, I'll tell you GarageBand, it takes a lot of steps to get that whole thing backed up doable. But I'll tell you this, the harder it is to back up a project file, I'm going to suggest to you that the harder it is, the less of the pro platform it is. Because again, if your software for producing this doesn't make it easier for you to go back in and fix it at a later date, then they're not thinking about you, they don't really care about you, they don't really value you. So let's change some things. MP3 is distribution only. It's not production. If you are recording an MP3, if you are producing an MP3, if you are editing an MP3, yes, I know there is fancy pants software that does non destructive editing and that type of thing. I don't care. Lossless files edited in a project like a big boy or like a big girl is what you want to do. MP3 is distribution, not production. This is a short rant, but this is key. If you are not keeping podcast production files, figure out why and start keeping your podcast production files. This episode of the Podcast Report has been brought to you by how to podcast training@howtopodcasttraining.com thank you so much. We will chat next week. It'll be longer and it'll be worth it. Chat with you then. Bye.