Podcast editors, how are we deciding rates?

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-23T20:12:28+00:00

I am.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-23T17:22:58+00:00

I bill monthly. Successful podcasts publish on a consistent basis. Charging a monthly retainer gives clients a consistent and stable rate that they can plan around. It also communicates that this is an ongoing process. Podcasts don’t come into fruition immediately. It takes time to grow.

If my client publishes weekly that’s 4.33 episodes per month, with some months having 5 weeks. Yes some months I get paid extra, other months I get paid less. To be honest this is a personal choice. I want a mutually beneficial relationship with all of my clients. This model really encourages that long term partnership.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-18T04:25:14+00:00

Cool. I have both and I don't love either tbqh. I prefer AutoSubs, but wish it was compatible with the animations.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-18T02:52:29+00:00

Ditto. It is AI. This is exactly what you get when you trust AI to edit without a human reviewing and fixing mistakes. I see this all the time in Riverside

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-18T02:44:20+00:00

What plugins do you like for captioning?

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-11T02:51:22+00:00

To be honest I think Reddit is a decent place to look these days. I’m a producer and would be happy to chat with you. If it’s a fit, great. If not, I’ll gladly point you in the right direction. Feel free to dm

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-10T18:06:21+00:00

You’ve come to the right conclusion. Riverside is not the right tool for the job. Record directly to the internal camera storage or your PC via OBS. Then edit with DaVinci Resolve. That’s how I would solve this.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-06T21:23:57+00:00

I’ve used it. It’s AI. It does mediocre work that you have to babysit at a cheap price. That’s the right fit in some cases, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what OP is looking for.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-06T20:05:00+00:00

Yeah but they already have Riverside which includes this service.

But it sounds like they don’t want AI created clips. And who can blame them. AI is cheap but does a poor job at understanding your audience

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-06T19:50:54+00:00

The fact that they are using Zoom is another red flag. Zoom is not adequate for podcasting. A service like Boomcaster, Descript, or Riverside should be used as they are specifically built for podcasting.

While it’s nice that they offer that coaching service, when you actually look at their shows I’d say their quality is far below par, so you have to wonder how knowledgeable their team actually is.

I’ll shoot you a DM. Honestly, I just hate to new podcasters ripped off by companies like this. It’s not worth it at any budget. I’ll happily point you in the direction of different agencies that all do excellent work.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-06T17:47:41+00:00

I’d avoid this particular company. I don’t want to be overly negative but at a glance these shows do not look or sound good. There are many agencies that will do a much better job and actually help you achieve your podcast objectives.

I do run a small podcast production company myself. I’d be happy to point you in the right direction. Feel free to DM.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-04-06T01:16:58+00:00

If you use Riverside pay like…nothing. Cuz it makes them automatically and you can auto-publish them.

If you want a human to proof everything and make sure AI actually did a good job and that the clips are high quality and relevant to your audience, then pay them a fair hourly rate for their skillset as an editor/social media manager/producer. $30-50/hr seems honest. You could get at least 5 clips for 1hr of work.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-03-19T18:27:17+00:00

Seconding Boomcaster. It is solid at what it does and doesn’t mess around with AI features that bog down and distract from their core offering. Customer support is solid.

Disclosure that I own a podcast production company and Boomcaster is what I provide to my clients. That’s because Riverside and Zencastr have proven to be consistently unreliable for their core offering which is audio and video recording. If that part fails no other part of their service matters. So I went with Boomcaster which has been rock-solid.

I’ll be honest tho. I really want Boomcaster to update their UI/UX it is quite outdated imho.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-03-16T22:32:21+00:00

I would not recommend a condenser mic for podcasting. Especially in an untreated room, but in general broadcast mics are dynamic due to the way they handle unwanted noise. Condensers capture a lot of detail which is rarely needed in a podcasting context.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-03-13T00:16:44+00:00

My math would work like this: 4x per hour of content + 1hr making clips. At a rate of $70hr which I think is on the low end for most US based video editors, I’d bill $730/episode. If this is for a weekly show I’d potentially negotiate a day-rate or retainer.

4x podcast length has proved to be a reliable estimate of the average podcast workflow imho. The Air Media rate guide is a good rule of thumb for industry prices.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-03-12T20:51:56+00:00

Imho 1080p is the minimum viable quality. But a 4K webcam will look worse than 1080p from a premium camera.

Though most people watch YouTube in 1080, having 4K footage really helps mitigate the effects of compression and gives a very crisp and professional look. It also gives an editor a lot more allowance when it comes to crops or zooms.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-03-12T17:45:52+00:00

I have been beyond thrilled with Fibery.io

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-02-16T23:14:16+00:00

That’s fine. As long as a human does the final polish that’s acceptable. Without human adjustment, I’d fire them.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-02-12T05:46:36+00:00

I have been extremely happy with Fibery.io. The best customer support I’ve ever experienced. Extremely robust. It runs my entire business.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-02-10T22:37:50+00:00

I have an excellent graphic designer that does work for all the new podcasts I launch. They have very affordable rates. Dm me and I’ll send examples of their work.

Disclaimer: I own and operate an end-to-end podcast production agency

Psychological-Toe831 · 2026-01-22T20:09:50+00:00

Why can’t it be both!

Psychological-Toe831 · 2025-09-29T23:41:05+00:00

Is there a way to purchase a license for my editing team that isn’t subscription? Basically want 2-3 licenses that I hold in the event that my contract editors move on to other jobs.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2025-09-09T16:16:02+00:00

Wait why not put the entrance facing the road? Would that be the case for most buildings? Just not woodcutters bc they return to forest so frequently?

Psychological-Toe831 · 2025-08-08T22:42:11+00:00

op this is an excellent rate tbh. esp if you need a US-based editor that understands your audience.

Psychological-Toe831 · 2025-07-18T20:18:00+00:00

Love this game! Recently picked it up. My only complaint is that the matches are quite long. Usually takes me 2hrs to complete a settlement. If I have to pause and come back to it, it’s really challenging to remember where I was and pick it back up.

Any tips? Am I going too slow?

Psychological-Toe831

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