What is Asynchronous Podcasting?

Imagine this scenario: You are a freelance content marketer for an agency and have to interview an expert for an article. This interview will become a podcast and a blog article. You have the audio editor’s support in your agency’s team, but you cannot find a time slot that matches the availability of the guest. How will you record a podcast remotely when the guest is not available? 

Obviously, you can’t record a regular (i.e., synchronous) podcast. You will have to innovate and find a way to record the podcast asynchronously.

You, the host, will have to record your questions separately and let the guest answer them in their own time. After receiving their answers, you’ll be able to stitch both tracks together to simulate a conversation. This podcasting style is called asynchronous podcasting, and it allows you to quickly produce more episodes in less time. 

Today, I will cover the following topics: 

• What is asynchronous podcasting, and how does it work? (with examples)
• How to create an asynchronous podcast? (with gear and production process)
• What are the benefits of asynchronous podcasting? (for corporations, agencies, & their clients)

What is asynchronous podcasting, and how does it work?

The short answer is that asynchronous podcasting is a form of recorded audio interview where the communicating parties talk independently in their respective timeline. The host edits these disparate tracks together to create a single podcast episode. 

Traditionally, podcasting involves conducting live interviews - either in person or remotely using software such as Zoom, recording their calls, and publishing them as podcasts. Asynchronous (async) podcasting provides a way to simulate audio interviews without the host and the guest ever having to get on a call together at the same time

Asynchronous podcasting follows a simple 4-step process:

1. The host enters the questions into an async podcast recording software.
2. The host invites one or more guests to the interview using the software.
3. Guests use the podcast recording software to asynchronously record their answers. 
4. Host receives recorded answers and edits them into one of a variety of possible formats in the podcast recording software to produce a fresh podcast episode. 

Examples of asynchronous podcasts

Single guest episodes

Here is a list of conversational interviews with a single guest, recorded as asynchronous podcast episodes:

• Episode 85 of The Voice Tech Podcast: Conversation Design Festival, interview with Hans van Dam
• Season 1, Episode 4 of the Audio Leads Podcast: Brand Differentiation using Audio, interview with Jeanna Isham
• Episode 19 of the Bixby Developers Chat: Brand Differentiation using Audio, interview with Carl Robinson (Rumble Studio CEO)

Crowdsourced (or multi-guest) interviews

You can also use asynchronous podcasting to crowdsource interviews. The host invites many guests to answer questions in this interview and creates a round-table discussion episode from their answers. 

That is how episode 243 of the Voicebot Podcast - Voice AI Predictions 2022 with 7 Industry Leaders - was recorded.

Narrative style episodes

Here’s an example of an interview that was recorded on Rumble Studio with Arielle Nissenblatt, Community Manager at SquadCast.fm. 

Rumble Studio Narrative podcast example

This host audio was recorded after the interview, then the episode was edited to create this narrative style.

How to create an asynchronous podcast

Gear for an asynchronous podcast

For the async podcast's host, the gear won’t be any different from a regular synchronous podcast.

Here is a list of recommended resources for you:

• The best podcast equipment on a budget
• The best mid-range podcast equipment setup
• The best premium podcast equipment setup

For the guest, you will have to create an email template with a list of noise reduction tips that will accompany every invitation email.

How to create an asynchronous podcast 

We will assume Rumble Studio is the async podcast recording software being used here. All features mentioned here are available in Rumble Studio but may not be available in other async podcasting software. The process may also vary slightly if you use another software to record your async software. 

Here are the steps to record an async podcast:

1. As the content creator, you write your questions for the guest using the async podcast software. You may also get a set of question templates to use. You will send these questions to your guest as a special “invite link”.
2. The guest clicks the link, and then the software interviews the guest(s) using conversational AI. Each guest records their audio answers. Depending on the software, they may also be able to add text, images, and other media in response to the questions. 
3. Depending on the software’s capabilities, it may also generate relevant follow-up questions in real-time based on the guest’s responses. This helps create a more spontaneous and natural interaction, which results in better audio content for the end consumer.
4. You listen to the guest audio or read the transcripts to save time, then select the best guest responses. Then you record your additional Host audio (e.g., follow-up comments, jingles, etc.) and export the final audio. The software handles all the audio processing and the host doesn’t need to have any audio editing skills or specialized software for this.

You can publish this final audio as a podcast on all podcast platforms, as an audio FAQ on your website, on social media through videos, and more using only the software application. This feature is available in Rumble Studio but may not be available with other async podcasting software.

What are the benefits of asynchronous podcasting?

Benefits for corporations

Produce more content volume at a lower cost

By decoupling the host and the guest, corporations can create more audio episodes in less time. This lowers the cost of audio content creation. 

They also save a lot of time because there’s often little to no post-production to do.

The more content companies can release, the greater mindshare of customers they can capture in the same duration when compared to synchronous audio creation.

Greater convenience allows more team members to participate 

Asynchronous interviews eliminate the need to schedule calls and meetings to record and allow participants to record at their own time. This makes it much easier for team members to create audio on their own schedules, especially when interviewing hard-to-reach guests like senior management or C-suite executives.

Better quality content

With Rumble Studio, you can interview multiple guests with ease by inviting many people to the same interview. This crowdsourcing of content is unique to Rumble and results in more engaging content for the listener, as you can include multiple points of view on a topic.

Also, you get better-informed answers from guests, as they have time to think about their answers in a relaxed environment before recording, unlike in a live interview.

Stakeholder reviews and corporate governance

Our asynchronous system allows you to involve more stakeholders. You can:

• review questions before sending them to guests 
• review guest answers after receiving them
• carefully craft the narrative of the host audio with input from the management.

Companies who work in sensitive environments such as medicine and pharmaceuticals can especially appreciate this level of transparency and control over the messaging.

More engagement with the community

By crowdsourcing the guest audio, we involve more of the community in the process, generating valuable engagement and goodwill for our corporate customers. 

For example, pharmaceutical companies could engage the medical community of doctors and nurses, crowdsourcing their opinions on a new drug.

Benefits for agencies and their clients

Increased revenue

When content creation is simplified and becomes so easy, you can produce episodes faster in bulk. With Rumble Studio, the same team that writes the interview questions can also record the asynchronous podcasts. 

Or you can separate guest research and question creation from recording and let both processes work in parallel. 

You can design and pitch podcasts to clients looking for more exposure on audio channels. Easy scalability of the process will allow you to serve more clients and generate higher revenue. 

Reduce the cost of other content formats

Establish an audio-first content funnel to turn your audio into social posts, videos, blog articles, and more. By repurposing the audio you record, you increase its ROI, while reducing the work needed to create other content formats. Turning audio smaller clips into social posts such as audiograms is a great example of this. 

The transcript of the edited episode will make blog creation faster and, therefore, cheaper. 

Drive engagement from your client’s audience

If the client’s goal with the podcast is to engage their community, how awesome would people feel if they get a chance to appear on their favorite brand’s podcast! They get visibility and you derive engagement from the same episode.

Rumble Studio makes it easier to involve listeners and create round-table episodes by interviewing multiple people. 

Record and reuse insights 

You will not only record responses to use as content, but you will also learn from their responses. Eventually, audio becomes the core truth of your client’s audience and you can use these insights to provide additional services to your client.

What makes Rumble Studio a unique async podcasting solution?

Rumble Studio is a SaaS product and a set of services that help companies create podcasts for marketing using cutting-edge conversational AI technology. We have an online tool that enables creators, agencies, and corporations to conduct remote guest interviews. These interviews are asynchronous conversations that are like “audio Typeform” in the most basic sense. The result is branded or non-branded podcasts that are much easier to create than with the traditional stack of podcasting tools.

Another use of Rumble Studio is for internal podcasts for communications, research and client testimonial gathering, employee recruitment, and many more use-cases.

Asynchronous podcasting is just getting started

Asynchronous podcasting has a lot of potential. It’s beneficial for corporations looking to start their own podcasts as well as for agencies looking to scale multiple podcasts at once. 

Which benefit of asynchronous podcasts do you like the most?

Useful Links

• Rumble Studio - Create your free account!
• Rumble Studio Blog