Should your podcast episodes have a consistent length?
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
Unlike traditional broadcasting, there are no show clocks,
scheduled ad breaks, or rigid time slots for podcasts.
So should you then care about publishing episodes of different lengths?
Maybe one episode at 15 minutes, one at 30, one at 15, one at 10, one at 45 minutes, one at two hours.
Should you really care if you have episodes that are different lengths like that?
While I think episodes don't have to be the same length, there are some considerations.
So I don't have a straight yes or no for you on this, but some things for you to think about.
But in general, I think they do not have to be the same length.
However, here are some things for you to consider.
Number one, what does your audience expect?
People don't usually pick a podcast because of its episode lengths.
Hey, you gotta check out this podcast.
It doesn't matter what it's about, but the episodes are 26 minutes long.
No way, a 26-minute long podcast?
That's exactly what I've been looking for.
Sign me up right now.
No one does that.
But they do often prioritize their listening based on the lengths of the episodes.
I know I do this.
I have my podcasts and multiple playlists inside my podcast app.
And I do have a playlist for the quick episodes.
And I have a playlist for everything else.
I don't have a playlist for long episodes.
But I do prioritize some of my personal listening based on the lengths of the episodes.
For example, if I know that I have only a short amount of time to listen to a podcast, then I might pick something a little shorter.
However, usually I'm choosing based on the kind of podcast I'm going to listen to and whether I know if it's a podcast that is easily interruptible that I can listen to, pause it, maybe even for a few days and then come back to later or find a good time to pause it.
And most of the podcasts I listen to do work that way, whether they're comedy, news related
or anything else like that.
They often have those moments very frequently in the episode where I could easily pause
them.
Like take, for example, that story show, my all time favorite podcast.
It's a clean comedy podcast.
They're telling funny life stories in that podcast.
So I could pause it between a story.
The stories don't last very long.
Each story they share is maybe a few minutes at most.
So I could easily pause it.
So I know that even if an episode is an hour long, it's not an hour long commitment for
me, but I can listen to it, pause it, come back to it later.
That's the way that a lot of people actually consume their podcasts.
So don't believe this whole thing of, oh, the average commute is 25 minutes and therefore
you must make your episodes 25 minutes or shorter.
No, instead, think of it as make sure your episodes are interruptible or possible at
different points, regardless of how long it is. So other people may intentionally save long podcasts
for road trips, chores, or non-focused work, but they might be quicker to listen to shorter podcasts.
So this isn't saying you have to do short or you even have to do consistent. It's just something
to think about. And note that I specifically said podcasts several times here and not episodes.
Remember, last episode, I talked about how podcasts really should refer to the whole series,
not the individual episodes.
And here, I am talking about podcasts as a whole because your podcast will build an expectation
in your audience's mind for how long its episodes usually are, even if you don't explicitly
say so.
For example, I know that episodes of No Agenda with Adam McCurry and John C. Dvorak are usually
three to three and a half hours long.
That doesn't keep me from listening to them, though.
In fact, they published an episode today on the day that I'm recording this episode of
my podcast.
I haven't started listening to it yet, but I know I'm going to start listening.
I have waterproof earbuds, so I listen to podcasts in the shower, and I'm looking forward
to starting to listen to that episode as soon as I get in the shower, and I'll be listening
to it as well tomorrow.
I also know that episodes of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History are of varying lengths, but
almost always very long and very in-depth, not very interruptible, but very worth it.
Even if you don't really like history, sometimes his stories and the way he tells the information
is so good, you just get enraptured in the story.
And I know that Ask the Podcast Coach with Dave Jackson and Jim Collison, those episodes
are usually about 90 minutes long.
But none of these shows have made any promises about how long they are.
the audience might have come to expect something.
And your audience might expect pressing play on any episode of your podcast
will be some level of commitment for an approximate amount of time,
whatever that is that they're expecting.
And remember, too, that a lot of people listen at faster speeds.
So even if it's a 30-minute episode,
that might be 15 or 10 minutes to them based on how they play it.
So don't worry so much about the actual time.
Worry about the value.
Nonetheless, significantly differing from whatever that normal is that you have, if you have a
norm, that might sort of crack their expectations a little.
And I say crack because not completely break their expectations or dash their hopes or anything
like that, but just maybe a little crack in it, just a little.
It could leave them disappointed or frustrated, depending on how long or how short or what
or hoped for from the episode. So think of it this way. If you've made a promise to your audience,
then always strive to keep it. For example, The Newsworthy with Erica Mandy promises episodes to
be about 10 minutes long, and they are. One Minute Podcast Tips with Danny Brown gives podcasting
tips in about a minute, wrapped with some other stuff, which is why episodes are usually two to
three minutes long, but he does share a tip in about a minute. And the original version of The
Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe promised mysteries, quote, for the curious mind with a short attention
span, unquote. And I miss the original show. But remember that your audience expects an experience
more than they expect an amount of time. I think it's okay to break from your audience's typical
time expectations, but still deliver the experience that they want from your podcast.
The laughter, the education, the inspiration, the help, the encouragement, the relationships,
the conversation, informing them of current events.
Whatever it is that is that experience they come to your podcast for, make sure you are
delivering on that experience however long the episode is.
Number two, don't force a length.
Perhaps the worst reasonable thing you could do in your podcast, and I say reasonable there
because there are lots of horrible things you could do in your podcast, but they're not
reasonable that you might actually do them.
So that's why I'm saying this is the worst reasonable thing you could do in your podcast
is to force it to be a particular length.
Because think of it as if you've recorded much longer and you're trying to force it
down to a shorter length.
Well, that could mean cutting out great content just to make it shorter.
Or what I think is even worse, it could mean filling the episode with stuff that wastes
your audience time just so your episode can be longer.
And I will confess, I've done that before.
And I did it on the worst possible podcast to do it with, my comedy podcast that I used
to host.
I felt like the episodes needed to be an hour long.
And I remember a couple of times trying to force the episode to be longer because it seemed
We got through our funny stuff way too quickly, and we should have been done.
We should have just ended it.
That extra amount of time was not all that funny.
Yeah, there were a few extra laughs in there, but it's nothing that we had to include in it.
In fact, I think the episodes could have been better if we didn't try to make it longer
in those particular cases that I'm thinking of.
TV shows have to do this because they have to fill that time slot.
If it's an hour-long show, and we put that in quotation marks because an hour-long show is more like 42 or 43 minutes because of the ad breaks in it.
But they can't go longer than that hour because that goes into the next time slot for the next TV show.
So they have to end so that the next show can start.
And side note, this frustrates me when a streaming show, something that you can only get on a
streaming platform like Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, whatever.
It frustrates me when I can see that the episodes are consistent lengths, because that tells
me that they edited it to that length intentionally, but for no good reason other than the possibility
that the show may be traditionally broadcast someday.
And that's why they're trying to keep it to the broadcast clock
instead of just letting the episodes be as long or as short as they need to be.
However, I'm seeing on some of the more modern shows,
especially lately, I am seeing varying lengths
where one episode might be 50 minutes long
and another episode is an hour and eight minutes long.
And there's no way that you can fit an hour and eight minutes
into a one hour time slot.
So that lets me know that maybe then they're not cutting out good stuff.
And as I'm saying this, you can probably already remember episodes of your favorite TV shows
that felt longer than they should have been, or maybe episodes that felt shorter than they
should have been.
I did a podcast about the TV show once upon a time, and there were several episodes of
the show that they had story to move along, but then they had other stuff that really felt
into the story. Like the episode could have been just as good without those extra scenes or without
that storyline or anything like that because that storyline didn't add any value. It didn't move
along the plot. It didn't help us get to know the characters better. It was just the same old, same
old repeated. But your podcast doesn't have to have those restraints. Even if your description
says your episodes are usually about 30 minutes, and by the way here, usually is a great word to
use because then you're letting them know this is what it usually is, but it might be different
sometimes. So even if your description says that your show is usually a certain amount of time,
your audience will never hate you for giving them back their time. And that's what you can often do
when you're publishing a shorter episode that's at least shorter than they expected.
You've probably noticed that as I've gotten better with The Audacity to Podcast,
my episodes have gotten shorter.
I think part of that is the result of more preparation
that I do now compared to before,
and thus less directionless talking,
even though I do still go on tangents
like I've gone on a couple tangents in this episode
that I didn't plan for.
But I actually feel better when I publish shorter episodes
because I know that means you have more time to take action
or because you're a podcaster
and probably I can assume you listen
to a lot of podcasts yourself.
If I publish a shorter episode, it means that you have more time to listen to other episodes
that you also want to listen to.
So I'm giving you back some of your time when I publish a short episode.
And when I publish those short episodes, it also tells me that I didn't waste your time.
Or at least, not very much of it.
But some topics simply require me to share more information, and thus, they end up longer.
I would so much rather do a longer episode to give you all of the information you need
than shorter split episodes. And after doing this for 15 years, and now more than 400 episodes,
I've never received a single complaint about having inconsistent lengths of my episodes.
And I think a big reason for that is because my content is educational, and thus people don't mind
it when it's shorter, but also because they might have come to expect varying lengths.
Number three, should you mention the difference in length?
Whether your episode is much shorter or longer than your usual,
if you acknowledge that difference, it's ultimately up to you.
But here's my main suggestion.
Be positive and don't apologize.
Here are a couple examples so you can think about how these would feel
if you heard them in your favorite podcast that you listen to.
Someone might say,
I'm sorry this episode went long, but I had a lot to share.
See, that's an apology.
Versus saying something like,
This episode is longer than usual because there's so much to love here.
See, that's more positive.
It's setting up the expectation of, yeah, it's longer,
but it's longer because there's a lot of great stuff in this.
And even without using the word but in there.
Or another example.
Sorry this was shorter than usual.
Again, that's an apology.
Versus saying something like, yes, this was shorter.
Now you have more time to take action.
Or you could say nothing at all.
Thus, the most important things for you to remember are to keep your explicit or implied
promises to your audience and don't force the length.
A quick glance over at the community corner.
Thanks for the streaming support totaling 113 satoshis from Randy Black.
And I'm pleased to say that I will be speaking at Podcast Movement 2025 in Dallas, Texas,
and I would love for you to come to my session.
I'll be presenting what you need to know about podcasting 2.0 Wednesday morning in the expo
hall.
I don't really like that's in the expo hall, but hey, maybe I'll get more people in the
session for that and we can build up some enthusiasm.
So if you come and sit in the audience, please cheer, please clap, please laugh loudly, you
know, make it so that people want to be there with you too.
And I hope to see you in the audience.
And there will be another session with the podfather, the creator of podcasting and creator
of Podcasting 2.0, Adam Curry, will also be speaking later on that same day. So our sessions
are going to kind of build upon each other. Mine will be more the what you need to know kind of
why this matters, how to get started. His will probably focus more on the practical side as well
as why was this even created in the first place. So some of the behind the scenes stuff as well as
maybe demonstrating what some of the features do. I'll be focusing more on why you should even care
as well as why some of the features are exciting.
And if you love The Audacity to Podcast
and value the podcasting inspiration and education I provide,
would you please consider giving back what you feel it's worth to you?
Whether that's a dollar, $10, $1,000, if you feel like that,
it's totally up to you.
You can go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/giveback
or stream Satoshis or send a Boostergram through your Podcasting 2.0 app
or even it doesn't cost you anything at all,
get another podcaster listening to The Audacity to Podcast.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools,
it's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast,
no matter the lengths of the episodes that you publish, for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Thanks for listening.