What is Anchor?

Founded in 2015 by Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman, Ballast was initially launched every bit a social audio service for brusque-class content. The platform was updated in 2018 for the making and publishing of podcasts, and in 2019, Anchor was caused by Spotify for a sweet $150 million. Not too shabby.

Ballast was fabricated on the principle of democratizing audio, believing that anybody should have the option of a costless podcast service without upload limits. This podcast host allows you to create an unlimited number of episodes without paying and has built in advertizing integration to help y'all earn income from your show. Anchor likewise offers an episode-architect function, allowing y'all to tape and edit your podcast through their mobile app or desktop website. Their slogan is "Anchor – The easiest fashion to make a podcast," and they provide a scattering of boosted features to aid in podcast creation, non just hosting.

Related reading: the best podcast hosting platforms, gratis podcast hosting reviews

Creating a Podcast in Anchor

It's unproblematic to go started on Anchor, and they provide you a roadmap for doing it. After you've made your account, you tin can create and upload a first episode before deciding on a title, description, and/or art, or go straight to finalizing the details of your show. They also offering the option to import your RSS feed if you're switching to Anchor from a different hosting service. Currently, podcasts in Anchor currently tin can't be individual or password protected.

When uploading your embrace art, Ballast gives you the option of having the anchor icon in the upper correct mitt side of your comprehend fine art. This tin can be toggled on and off. If yous don't have cover art already fabricated, Anchor will aid y'all make one; you tin upload a background or have one selected for y'all from Unsplash and add together the text of your championship on top of information technology.

In one case you've uploaded your first episode, Anchor volition submit your feed to several listening platforms, which are: Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Clouded, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, and Spotify. It's important to note that when Anchor submits your show to Apple tree Podcasts, it'south nether Anchor'south own account. If you want to admission your Apple tree Podcasts analytics, you'll take to do a few actress steps, which include contacting Apple to transfer buying of the podcast to your Apple account. If you desire to distribute your podcast to other platforms (such as Stitcher), you lot can still manually submit your RSS feed through their site.

Anchor provides a public website to go with your podcast. Episodes can be listened to on this website, and information technology gives links to other listening platforms (and an external website, if listed on the account). I especially similar that one of the provided links is the RSS feed, which is frequently difficult to observe as a listener but oftentimes needed when a show isn't coming upward in search results.

However, this website is not specially customizable. You can't add data about the show beyond its standard clarification. If you lot wanted to display crew information, attach a press kit, or link to transcripts, the anchor-provided website is not sufficient.

The Anchor App

One thing that sets Anchor apart from most hosting services is that you tin download the Anchor App and use information technology to tape and produce your podcast. The interface is surprisingly easy to utilise. You hit a push to record, and you're good to go, while a timer keeps track of the length and a elementary waveform tells you lot if it's picking upward sound. Y'all tin can also add together a flag to mark instances in recording you desire to get back to for editing after. The mobile app supports a recording time of 120 minutes. You lot can't pause while recording your audio directly with Anchor, but you can tape multiple segments and edit them together.

I tested out this mobile recording, and I plant that the audio quality was best when holding my telephone upward to the side of my confront equally if I was on a telephone call. Holding it out in front (like one might practice when on speakerphone) allowed me to go along an eye on the length and flag moments faster, but the mic picked up more plosives. The audio quality is about what you'd expect for a phone mic – it'due south not the all-time thing out there, but the speaker is clear and the words are discernable.

The Anchor App also supports smartphone mics and bluetooth podcast equipment for recording, though they annotation that they don't recommend using headsets to record, "every bit they are typically for telephone calls and might not piece of work well when using Anchor."

In one case you've recorded, the clips become into the library, and you tin can modify the start/end fourth dimension of them as well as divide them upwards into smaller clips from here. Splitting a prune volition introduce two new files into the library (before the split and after the split up). Y'all can build an episode right on your phone using the clips you've recorded, in add-on to transition music and a handful of SFX that Anchor provides. This takes place in an "episode builder" window, where each clip becomes a segment of your bear witness. There is also the selection to import sound from outside the app, though depending on what blazon of mobile phone you have, this tin be difficult.

The episode architect (left) and the library (right)

What editing a clip on mobile looks like.

The episode builder is non a DAW. Yous tin't layer clips, which means putting your ain music or SFX under dialogue isn't an selection. You lot don't have the ability to modify clip volume, fade in or out of clips, or run noise reduction (though, Ballast does offer some background music you can select to run nether segments). Using the Anchor episode builder ways you've got what you got – just for a phone app, it isn't bad. You can too save your episode equally a draft and come back to it later, so you don't have to create your unabridged episode in one sitting.

Not only can you publish an episode from your telephone, you tin likewise create your whole podcast in the app, including making cover art and submitting your testify to directories. And when not actively podcasting, you lot can likewise use the app to check your podcasts stats.

This app is dissimilar anything I've seen for other podcasts hosts, and I recall it'due south bully for accessibility. If your laptop can't run Audacity? No problem! All y'all need to brand a podcast is a smartphone. This is a peachy tool for beginners who aren't set on investing in equipment or software, and want to dip their toes into podcasting.

The Anchor Website

Logging into your business relationship on Anchor's desktop site gives you lot the same options every bit the phone app. You tin can tape directly through the website and build an episode using provided transitions and SFX, though you don't have the same prune editing abilities. (You cannot trim sound outside of iOS and Android, so you're express to splitting it into a new prune and going from there). The maximum amount of recording time on the web is xxx minutes on Google Chrome and 5 minutes on Safari, dissimilar from the 2 hour limit on the mobile app. If this is a problem, Ballast suggests using an alternative programme for recording (may I recommend Audacity?)

The podcast creator view on desktop.

What editing a clip on a desktop looks like.

If you upload an audio clip recorded exterior of Anchor, you can yet add their transitions; imported clips are treated as merely another segment. You also don't demand to add anything to what you upload – you can brand a single segment your entire episode without any result. Though information technology should be noted, if yous desire to take an Anchor-integrated midroll ad, you'll take to carve up your clip where you want that advertising to go, making it into two segments (and then that you lot can put a sponsored segment in the middle).

A view of an incorporated sponsored segment in the episode builder.

There is a 250 MB upload limit to each prune imported into Ballast. If your file is larger, you tin can split it and upload information technology in segments – the size of your concluding episode is not limited, and you can accept as many clips and segments equally you want. Anchor also suggests compressing your clips if they're too large, using mp3 files instead of wavs.

Your Anchor Account

Clips recorded on a phone are still accessible from the website, and vice versa, as your library is the same beyond devices. You can likewise access episode drafts from one device to some other, significant that you can start building an episode on desktop and continue it on your phone.

You're limited to one podcast feed per account. With dissimilar emails, you can accept multiple shows, though I wouldn't recommend this – if you're planning multiple shows, it would be a proficient thought to use a hosting service compatible with more one feed instead of juggling a handful of emails. Even so, it's not a violation of Anchor'due south terms and conditions to sign up multiple times with unlike emails. You can do then and even make money as one person running multiple shows.

Unlike almost free podcast hosting platforms, Anchor offers unlimited storage for your feed for an unlimited time. Y'all can upload as many episodes as yous want in whatsoever fourth dimension frame. Additionally, published episodes tin can be edited – new segments can be added and private clips can besides be modified.

Anchor also provides a healthy corporeality of stats: a chart of the number of plays each day (and what episodes they came from), a breakdown of your top episodes, the geographic location (what per centum of listeners are from which country), a pie chart of listening platforms, the gender breakdown of your listeners (sourced from Spotify, and includes Female, Male person, Non-binary, and Non Specificed), and the age breakdown of your listeners (likewise sourced from Spotify). You can see these stats for any engagement range of your choosing. For a free service, these offerings aren't bad at all.

If you want to motion to a dissimilar hosting platform, Anchor makes it piece of cake with a "Redirect URL" at the bottom of the distribution folio, where you lot can paste your new RSS feed in and take your show redirect. If, for instance, yous want hosting with more than specific statistics, you're not stuck where you lot started.

Monetization – Ad Integration and Listener Support

For users within the The states, Anchor has built in ad integration. Y'all are matched with sponsors (every bit a new prove, your first sponsor is Anchor) to record your own ads for. Anchor helps you with your ad read – when testing advert creation for myself, I was given a script with suggested talking points and a mandatory telephone call to action to read out at the cease. Ballast says that "New sponsors are first matched with shows who have a growing audience base and whose ads have performed well in the past — we currently aren't able to guarantee you a sponsor at all times, and we recommend standing to grow your prove to qualify for new sponsors in the future." You control where the ads show up in your show by placing them yourself, which means you don't have to worry nearly being interrupted mid-sentence.

Anchor takes a xxx% cutting of revenue generated from sponsorships bundled via Advertisement Integration. If a sponsor offers a $20CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and you go 1000 impressions, $half-dozen volition be deducted for the Anchor fee. Users in the US tin also activate Listener Support, which allows you lot to accept monthly donations from your audience. Ballast takes a 4.v% fee from donations through this feature.

All payment is processed through Stripe. Y'all need to accept made at least $10 before cashing out, and there is a $0.25 processing fee to do so. If you leave a balance for more 90 days, information technology will exist automatically cashed out for y'all.

Tape with Friends

Record With Friends is a feature that lets you remotely tape your podcast sound with upwardly to five others. Guests can apply the Ballast app or go to the Ballast website to join in on the call, which must be initiated via the app. Yous invite friends  from the recording page of the app, which allows you to send them a link to join. Sound is recorded locally, so the quality of the remote guests does non sound similar a typical telephone call.  At that place is a two hour recording limit when recording with friends, and Anchor recommends non using external podcast microphones when using this feature on the app. Currently there is no option to mute guests or intermission recording.

Related reading: detailed breakup and reviews of podcast microphones,podcast headphones.

I call up this is a actually helpful feature for new shows that desire to have guests on. It can be catchy working out how to record a phone telephone call, and difficult to have a good quality remote recording. While there are certainly amend options for having remote guests on your podcast, this is a costless and relatively easy way to facilitate remote recording, and I think that's great.

Spotify Music

Ballast allows y'all to create an episode using music from Spotify, though episodes that do so demand to be reviewed and will simply be available to Spotify listeners. Music tracks cannot be contradistinct or talked over, and they are shown every bit separate segments in the episode builder. Additionally, only Spotify Premium users will hear the full-length versions of the songs (Spotify Free users will hear a 30 2nd preview).

I call back this feature might be useful for talk shows that reference or talk about specific songs and want their audition to be able to hear the music without the liscensing issues that usually come with sticking a song into your podcast. However, since including music makes an episode become Spotify sectional, at that place are some pretty big downsides to this. Still, it's a skilful option to accept, and no 1 is being required to include Spotify Music in their podcasts.

How Complimentary is Free?

Having used Anchor myself, I can confirm that there's no surprise fees hidden within Ballast, no special pay-to-play features downwardly the line. Information technology is truly a gratis hosting platform, monetarily speaking. But at that place's that saying – if you're not paying for something, and then you're the product (the 30% fee Ballast takes on sponsorship deals is peradventure indicative of this).

In 2018 Ballast savage under criticism for a department of their terms and conditions which unsaid that Anchor might ain what you produce on the platform. Mignano tweeted in response, on June 21 2018, "First and foremost, when using Anchor, creators have, and always will, own their content. We've made this really explicit so there isn't any confusion." The terms and conditions were clarified to point a license to distribute (but non ain) your content. The "Rights you grant to us" department of these terms now starts with "You retain ownership of your User Content. Using Anchor does not cause you to lose ownership of your content."

I spoke to Gavin Gaddis, podcast creator and critic, who said, "There's a footling bit in the ToS that gives Anchor permission to employ your IP however they desire. Functionally information technology means nothing to minor podcasters, but if someone is serious nearly their cosmos and intends on going the distance, using Anchor might hateful that some 24-hour interval they'll turn on Spotify and hear an ad that cuts clips of their show in a quirky style to make it sound like the podcast is directly endorsing Anchor, all without having paid that podcast a cent or signed any sort of exclusivity deal. Anchor hasn't done that and fabricated efforts to clarify their ToS after getting in social media hot h2o a while back, but that footling bit all the same sits there. Other hosts similar Pinecast don't have anything in their ToS reserving the correct to apply someone's podcast IP however they encounter fit."

In Conclusion

I'd recommend Anchor for those who are just starting out in podcasting. Information technology's an incredibly accessible service – you go a lot for the low toll of completely costless. Withal, as a free platform, it lacks some of the features more serious podcasters might want: multiple feeds, more thorough stats, dynamic ads, and no connection to Spotify (and possible IP use thereof). Users who want these features should host their podcast elsewhere, simply if your priorities for a podcast host are low cost and ease of interface, Anchor volition likely piece of work swell for y'all!