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How To Get Podcast Subscribers To Listen To All Of Your Podcasts Episodes

Bruce Chamoff Founder of the World Podcast Network
Bruce Chamoff
January 19, 2025
Podcast Growth, Podcast Production
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The secret to getting podcast subscribers to binge-listen to all of your podcasts episodes is in this blog post. One of the biggest challenges for podcasters to get subscribers is to listen to all of your episodes. After getting people to become subscribers from listening to their podcast episodes is keeping those subscribers. Podcasts benefit greatly from having their subscribers binge-listen to their show. When we say binge-listen, we take this term from binge-watching on streaming TV platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. We want subscribers to listen to our podcast from episode to episode. When subscribers binge-listen, that increases the opportunity for the podcaster to make more money through monetization opportunities by playing more advertisements on each episode to earn more money.  The challenge of getting subscribers to listen from episode to episode and even come back to listen to their podcast in general is compounded by the competition of thousands of podcasts. In the same scene or category, listeners can jump from one podcast of a specific category to another podcast on the same category or theme.

The big reason why subscribers do not listen from episode to episode

I hear a lot of podcasts that have varying sound levels, not just between podcasts, but also between different episodes within the same podcast. Most podcasters focus just on content, editing, monetization, writing show notes and marketing, but do not seem to focus on a consistent sound level. That may deter your podcast subscribers and listeners from continuing to listen and even subscribe to your podcast. A consistent sound level is the key to keeping people on your podcast and to listen from episode to episode. For those of us who use Audacity or another software for recording and editing our podcast episodes, this is an easy step, but overlooked. On a side note: For rock and pop music, the music industry practices mastering as a way to make each song "radio friendly" with a consistent volume to keep the listener from changing their volume knob from song to song, as well as songs within an album.  Should podcasters practice the same standard of keeping our volume the same between podcasts and podcast episodes? Should we do something similar to mastering to make our podcast "radio friendly"? Keep in mind what I mean by radio friendly. It doesn't mean making it friendly for radio, because who listens to the radio today? However, the concept is that podcasts should have the same sound between them and their episodes.  We are not just podcasters. We are literally “podcast producers”. That means that we need to make sure that our podcast sounds professional and also that the sound and volume between episode is consistent. Without this consistency, subscribers will not stay on your podcast.  One important thing to watch is a software like Audacity is the level meter. We want the podcast to peak at no louder or lower than 0db. Db stands for decibel and it is a term to measure sound. The music industry finalizes their music in the mastering process at 0db as well. If our podcast is on a streaming platform like Sirius XM, we also need to take into account that we are competing against music of all types and genres. Music is naturally louder than podcast because usually, music can be recorded on an average of 5 to 20 tracks whereas podcast can be recorded on an average of three or five tracks. The more tracks, the music becomes louder naturally, so we compete with music producers.  With that said, you can also master your podcast. There are services like lander and remastered that can be used to master your podcast. All you need to do in Audacity is create what's called headroom, which is basically a peak level of about six to nine decibels. The mastering process will automatically make your podcast match the zero DB level. The services do cost money and are well worth it to create a consistent sound among our podcast episodes. Mastering our podcast also helps us compete against other podcasts in the same category.  How to watch the meters in Audacity to have a clear consistent sound level for subscribers to give them a better listening experience.   If you don't have the money to do mastering for your podcast, you can always make sure that your level and Audacity peak at 0db. There still may be audio issues doing this, but at least you'll maintain a nice consistent sound level. On the podcast that I host Become a Successful Podcast, I master all of my episodes. When you listen to my podcast, as my subscriber, I make it very easy for you to binge listen to all my episodes. I do hear from my subscribers that they listen to all of my episodes, which is a nice, pleasant surprise. I do attribute this to a consistent cell level and taking care that my podcast episodes are mastered to 0db.  As a musician and music producer of both pop and rock music, I do make sure that my music is mastered and I use Landr for that purpose. You do not need to use lander but if you do have the investment, you can definitely try it out for your podcast and its episodes. You might be pleasantly surprised how good your podcast sounds. Other features to make your podcast episodes consistent We also have control of our podcast over the high and low levels of our podcast audio. The high end controls the trouble of our podcast. The low end controls the bass of our podcast. There is also a mid control which if done correctly can make our podcast audio thicker or thinner. You can use the mids to bring up the thickness if needed. Bringing down the thickness by increasing the thinness. You can experiment with this control.  How to set Audacity for your podcast to get subscribers to listen to your episodes at a consistent volume.   The high end and low end of your podcast can be controlled by the Bass and Treble screen in Audacity.

How easy is mastering your podcast and getting consistent sound levels?

Mastering your podcast and getting consistent sound levels is not as easy as it seems. A lot of work goes into the consistency of your sound. ss in the music industry it takes a skilled professional properly. Master your podcast episodes. You may want to hire faith professional for this important task. The most important part of getting consistent podcast sound levels is to use the consistent high-end, low end, and mids between episodes so your subscribers can feel comfortable listening from episode to episode. The frequency of how often you release podcast episodes is irrelevant here. In other words, whether you launch podcast episodes everyday or once a month, you still need to practice consistency within your sound levels.

For this reason, mastering your podcast and getting consistent levels is not easy.

On the World Podcast Network, we also offer mastering services and can help master your podcast episodes for $5 per 30 minutes of episode time. Just let us know if you’d like this service on our contact form.
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