Start with what you need
Three different services share the name. Editing and mixing starts from your recording. Full production adds planning, recording support and publishing. A podcast agency adds strategy, guest booking and promotion.
Decide which you need before you ask for proposals, or you will compare different jobs.
Six questions to ask
Put these to every company on your list and keep the answers in writing.
- What exactly do I receive for each episode, and in which format?
- Who edits it, and does a second person check it before it reaches me?
- What loudness and peak levels do you master to, and do you measure the file before delivery?
- How many rounds of changes are included, and what happens after them?
- How long does an episode take, and can delivery dates be fixed in advance?
- Who owns the recordings, the edited files and the music rights at the end?
Red flags
Some answers should slow you down.
- A promise of downloads, chart positions or leads: nobody controls those.
- No written scope: what is included lives in a call, not in a document.
- No sample, or a sample that is not from the type of show you want.
How to judge a sample
Ask for a sample close to your format and listen to it twice: once on headphones and once on a phone speaker. Check that every voice sits at a similar level, that the music never covers speech, that cuts do not clip a word and that the loudness matches the shows you already listen to.
If a company will not share a sample of its own work, ask why.
How radio.app answers
Here is how we answer the same questions, so you can compare.
- Deliverable: one finished file per episode, in the format agreed in the quote.
- Spec: −16 LUFS integrated with true peaks below −1 dBTP, measured before delivery.
- Scope: written in the quote. Content strategy, guest booking, hosting and promotion are not included.