I have a podcast—The Beer Crate, since you asked—which is written and produced using free software, and released under the CC by-nc-nd license. It’s a fun little hobby that keeps me off the street, and gives me an excuse to drink and review beer. But had free software not existed, how much would it cost to produce and host a show using proprietary software? I set out to investigate…

Introduction

For many, a podcast features one or more performers sat behind a microphone, and talking wistfully about some random topic of the day. But to achieve any degree of professionalism there’s a lot more to it than that. Assuming you have the hardware at your disposal, e.g. microphone, PC, broadband, and hosting server, there’s still a script to write, a theme tune to source, a web site to design, and editing to be done on all those constituent bits. All of a sudden, it doesn’t seem so simple.

To compute the effective cost of my podcast I’m going to consider the pricing of two alternate, non-free, offerings. One will be a budget solution, and the other will use the standard proprietary software you’d expect as part of traditional employment.

Two offerings might seem limited. However, the cost of evaluating all the possible solutions is more expensive than simply paying for a basic proprietary package. Also, when costing applications, software upgrades are only considered when it’s reasonable to expect an end user owning a previous version, from which an upgrade is possible.

The Script

Before I begin recording, I always write a script for the forthcoming episode. Sure, I improvise when in front of the microphone, and add new things as they occur to me, but for the most part I work from the written word. These words are created in a text editor—usually vi. Sometimes it’ll be in OpenOffice, or sent as an email to myself using Thunderbird, and occasionally stored on my private ‘TODO’ wiki—but the script is still generally written in vi. If I am to remain true to my word of using equivalent proprietary software, I can’t use anything that is free—which includes the tools of GNU/Linux, such as vi. So instead, I must purchase a word processor. Sure, I could use notepad… but it’d drive me insane before I’d finished detailing the list of beer festivals. And don’t even ask me about my handwriting!

I could use notepad… but it’d drive me insane

A quick search provides a sensibly-priced budget word processor called Jarte, which costs $29. I’ve never used it, but it’s certainly cheaper than the so-called industry standard of Microsoft Word, clocking in at $150.

This is not a cheap start.

The Music

I like music. A lot. So it seemed only right to have a theme tune for “The Beer Crate”, along with some audio stings to separate the various segments. In a proprietary world I’d have to buy some royalty-free music. This is when you pay for the right to use the music, without having to pay on royalty each time it’s used. There are several sites on the Internet that will provide this—for a fee.

To budget effectively, you need to know what you’re budgeting for. My podcast has four main sections: weekly news, articles, “quick tastings”, and “try before you die”. Ideally I’d like music between each section, plus and intro and outro, making five pieces in total. Fortunately, when music such as this is purchased you often get a theme supplied in 29 and 59 second versions for the same money. Or at least, very little extra money. Additionally, I’d like two stings: one to audibly separate the two articles, and another to be placed between each of the beer reviews in “quick tastings”. So to recap, three pieces of music, a theme, and two stings.

Royalty-Free

Knowing that paying a composer would be prohibitively expensive (start with a four figure sum and work upwards), royalty-free music can be purchased from any number of sites. Royalty Free Music, for example, charge $99 for a CD of music, regardless of the number of tracks you use, so with luck I could find everything I wanted on a single disc. In reality, I’d probably need two, but let’s keep optimistic. I didn’t see any disc with short stings though, so I’ll need to buy those separately.