How to podcast live

Live podcasting has become a whole lot easier recently after social media and podcast companies moved swiftly to compete with the swift popularity of Clubhouse. 

The benefits of live podcasting include increased visibility, better audience engagement (through live feedback or live questions) and allowing you to refresh your podcast offering.

You can make it a regular event (e.g. monthly) or just use it for special episodes and announcements. 

Here are some of the easiest ways to podcast live.

Twitter Spaces

Twitter Spaces is an audio-only option. You need to have the Twitter app on your phone and you can have two co-hosts (in addition to the main host) and up to 10 other speakers.

Here’s Twitter’s guide to using Spaces. As always, I’d recommend having a few trial runs before using this. Twitter is free to use. 

Riverside live

Riverside is the remote podcasting recording platform I use. It’s easy to get started (you don’t need to download anything) and it’s stolen a march on its competitors by offering lots of great tools, including the option to live stream through numerous social media platforms.

You can do a live video podcast that’s broadcast simultaneously on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Twitch (a popular gaming platform). It will also record the podcast, meaning you can then upload it to your hosting platform. 

This is Riverside’s guide to live podcasting. To stream live on Riverside you’ll need their standard pricing plan costing $15/month (the free pricing plan doesn’t include live streaming). 

YouTube live

Video is becoming increasingly important for podcasts and is something to consider once you’ve got your podcast up and running. 

YouTube has this guide for live streaming using a webcam, and this guide for live streaming using your mobile phone (you’ll need at least 50 followers). YouTube offers free live streaming.

Facebook and Instagram live

Both Facebook and Instagram offer easy options for live video podcasts, but the audience reach may be more limited than YouTube. Both are a great way of getting started with live streaming and building an audience for your podcast, particularly if you have a private Facebook group for your audience or wider community. 

Facebook and Instagram are both free to use.