Best Podcast Courses for All Budgets & Schedules
Are you thinking of starting a podcast? Or maybe you’ve published a few episodes, but feel overwhelmed by the steep learning curve. Either way, you’re probably looking for a podcast course to help. Excellent. Get ready for a fresh batch of some of the best podcasting courses available in 2024, for any schedule.
What Can You Learn From a Podcast Course?
You can learn every phase of podcasting (recording, editing, publishing, promotion) in a general or comprehensive way. Some podcast courses are short, honing in on one aspect of podcast production in detail. Others offer the complete production workflow in broad strokes.
Depending on how you learn, one course may be better than another. Most of these courses are videos followed by exercises and discussions. Take some time to think about whether you learn best by reading, watching, listening, or doing.
What follows is a sampler platter of the best podcasting courses, ranging from general to specific, to ensure you get what you need. These courses below range in price from free to investment size. Okay, let’s get started.
Free, Short Podcast Courses
Pocket-Sized Podcasting with Alitu
Price: Free
If you don’t want an entire course, but do want some podcasting instruction, Pocket-Sized Podcasting With Alitu may suit your needs. Each episode is less than 2 minutes, answering the most common questions about creating a podcast like:
- What gear do I need to start a podcast?
- Can I use any music in my podcast?
- How do I find listeners?
Though the episodes are short, they’re structured to build on each other like a podcasting course. You’ll learn the basics first, then move on to more advanced topics. Don’t forget, when you have a question about the material, you can pop into our IndiePod Community to chat with other podcasters.
Idea to Podcast Simplified With Pod Sound School
Price: Free
The Pod Sound School’s short course is meant for business owners who already use content marketing and want to use a podcast to convert leads to clients. Veronica (marketing) and Studio Steve (audio) combine their professional prowess in this free mini-course. To learn more, sign up for Podcasting Smart’s one-hour masterclass.
Short, Inexpensive Beginner Podcast Courses
Most independent podcasters juggle producing their show around a full-time job, a family, and other responsibilities. If you want to learn more about podcast production but need to fit those lessons around other commitments, try one of these podcast courses for size.
The Podcraft Academy: Monthly or Annual Guidance
If you want detailed lessons, personalized attention, a vital community element, and the option for annual pricing, Podcraft Academy may be the best fit. The Academy covers everything:
Launch at Last, Conquer the Tech, Grow Your Audience, Earn From Your Show, Get Personal Help.”
The Podcraft Academy offers multiple practical courses, timesaving checklists, free music and SFX, an ebook library, and live coaching and support. In short, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Academy, it probably doesn’t exist yet. We’re always trying out new technology and systems as podcasting grows. We might offer a future course where you just think about something real hard, and POOF, out pops a podcast.
Price: $45 per month or $350 a year
The Podcraft Academy may seem like an overwhelming amount of information and resources. However, the learning modules are short and valuable, with concrete exercises for practice. And, of course, the Indiepod Community is there to help you revisit topics. This is probably why the yearly price is so popular; it gives podcasters time to sink their teeth into all the ways they can create and grow their podcast.
LinkedIn Learning’s Podcasting Courses
Many people think of LinkedIn as a jobs board, but it’s a lot more. Lately, it feels like Facebook with more professional behavior. Experts from different industries talk about topics in their niche or promote events and publications. People who are starting a new chapter in their employment story can share valuable intel.
LinkedIn Learning can help you improve your podcasting skills as well as your career skills.
When you take a LinkedIn course, you can display it on your LinkedIn profile. Then, when you apply for a job, potential employers can see how hireable you are. LinkedIn Learning offers podcasting courses ranging from the broad (e.g., “Producing Podcasts”) to the specific (“Editing Regions in Garageband”).
LinkedIn Learning costs about $40 a month, depending on whether you pay annually or monthly. Often, there’s a 30-day free trial.
You may be able to access LinkedIn Learning through your local library’s website. Many libraries used to partner with Lynda.com, a platform for computer and job skills, provided free or at a low cost. When LinkedIn bought Lynda, part of the deal was to honor Lynda’s commitment to education through libraries.
While browsing the LinkedIn Learning site, I noticed a course called “Learn Podcasting with Anchor.” So, definitely check the course details and make sure they’re relevant to you before committing. LinkedIn Learning is a good choice if you want to learn specific skills in sprints, and improve your resume.
Advanced Podcasting Courses
If you’ve already launched your podcast and want to refine your process, some of these advanced courses may be up your alley.
Narrative Podcasts
Laura Joyce Davis and Nate Davis of Shelter in Place are deeply invested in podcasts and digital storytelling. Their approach, as Narrative Podcasts, requires you to examine your motivation and needs as much as how to set up a digital audio workstation. You don’t simply learn how to craft a good story. You’ll learn how to make that story meaningful.
This may seem overwhelming. Fortunately, Narrative Podcasts offers long and short courses. Their one-day workshops are two hours, so you have time to prepare before and reflect afterward. Longer courses are a bundle of these two-hour workshops or courses that include scriptwriting, narration, sound design, and creative living topics, which can help you sustain your podcasting practice for the long haul.
Each class is a live video session, available as a replay one week later.
Pricing for Narrative Podcasts’ Courses:
- Individual Workshops: Each two-hour training session costs $95.
- Workshop Bundle: Three of the workshop training sessions cost $250.
- The Podcast Course: For $895, you get three Saturday workshops, a 30-minute private coaching session, a four-month subscription to Hindenburg, and a discount on Shure products.
Narrative Podcasts’ approach focuses on why you want to make a podcast as much as how you make it. This is a good choice for podcasters who want their work to have a social impact.
Podcast Marketing Academy
If you’ve been producing your show for over a year and want to focus on promotion, Podcast Marketing Academy is one of the most comprehensive options available. Created by Jeremy Enns, writer of the Scrappy Podcasting Newsletter and founder and lead strategist of podcast consultancy Counterweight Creative, this membership program will walk you through building a robust & effective podcast marketing strategy from the ground up.
Pricing: $350 per quarter, or $1000 annually
The curriculum offers over 20 hours of video content. Plus, you get a 60-minute small-group coaching call once a week. Podcast Marketing Academy also offers a community of members who have produced at least 100 episodes each.
Where Else Can You Find Podcasting Courses?
You’re more likely to find podcasting courses online, but your local library or university has some options.
. For example, you can try:
- Education platforms like Skillshare, Udemy, or Coursera
- Your podcast host’s resource areas (such as Captivate, Buzzsprout, etc.)
- Universities (such as University of San Diego or Cornell)
- Podcasting pros, trade organizations, and advocacy networks, like AudioUK, Black Podcasters Association, ShePodcasts, or the Asian American Podcasters Association.
The focus and tone of these courses vary by the organization that offers them and its goals. For example, Skillshare teaches things people like to do for fun, so its courses may be more entertaining. A university podcasting course may fall under journalism, audio production, or business and marketing, so try different search terms to find what meets your needs. And, of course, the prices vary.
Wherever you look for a podcasting course, think about what kind of podcast you want to make, as you choose the class.
Podcast Courses Help You Refine Your Skills
When you’re looking for a podcast course, the most obvious factors are cost and time commitment. However, you also need to consider how much experience you have so far, and what goals you want to reach.
Finding the right podcast course is much easier once you know what you have in your tool belt and what you want to add to it. I hope this information has made the decision a bit easier so you can get on with the fun part: creating the best content for your podcast.
Remember, you can get free daily podcasting tips via Pocket-Sized Podcasting, and we have courses on everything from planning and launching to growth and monetization over at the Podcraft Academy!