Three Easy Steps to Turn your Video Into an Audio Podcast
Why You Should Post the Audio
You may think that people wouldn’t want to listen to your video as a podcast episode, but that’s incorrect. When I was in high school a friend of mine had a cassette tape of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” You’d think that if anything wouldn’t translate to audio, it would be the visuals and sight-gags incorporated into that masterpiece, yet we wore that tape out listening to it over and over again as we drove around town.
There are also several podcast episodes I’ve heard of people giving speeches, having discussions on panels, or contributing to round-table discussions where the visual element is important, but the message is still communicated well through audio. So, if you’re recording your talks, your company meetings, or even your YouTube or Facebook videos.
Software You’ll need
No matter what software you use to record the video from your latest talk, meeting, or conference, there’s only one program you’ll need to turn that into an audio file and that’s VLC. VLC is an open-source media platform that can playback nearly every type of video or audio CODEC. This is particularly helpful if you have an older or off-brand recorder you’ve been using.
VLC can also convert your video from its current CODEC to one recognized by other programs. (E.g. .mp3 .mp4)
Other than VLC, the only programs you’ll need are the ones that come with your computer to download your video off your device. If you recorded onto a card or flashdrive that you can plug into your computer, then you won’t even need those.
How to Convert
Now that you have your video available on your computer, you need to open VLC.
CODEC
Coder-Decoder is a device or computer program that encodes and decodes media. Many programmers and manufacturers have created their own CODECs for their devices or programs to support the recording and playback of media.
Then click on “Media” and select “Convert/Save.” You should get a box that looks like this:
Click “+ Add” and then find and select your video file in the folder or on the drive where you’ve saved it. Most programs and devices will save files in a alphanumeric naming structure and it can be confusing. Fortunately they also save with the date and time of the recording, so if you’re having trouble finding it under it’s name, look for when the recording was made.
Once you’ve Added the video file, click on “Convert/Save” at the bottom. Your screen should now look like this:
In this screen you can select the new CODEC you want to use. One of the most recognizable options is going to be an MP3. This a smaller file size that is recognized by just about every audio device and program out there.
Also in this screen you need to select the destination of your file. I recommend creating a new folder just for your converted audio, in either your Podcast folder, or in your default Music or Sounds folder.
Click on the “Start” button and then you’re file will convert to audio. Depending on the length of your talk, it may take awhile.
Now you have a shiny new audio file that you can edit or upload into your podcast stream for everyone to enjoy.
Creating More New Content is Easy
Not only is this a great way to convert any talks, panels, or other video you’ve created into a new episode of your podcast, you can also use the transcript of this audio as a supplement to the video you’ve created. It’s a great thing to put onto a blog post for SEO purposes, and you can pull out some of the better quotes for use on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
So take the time and turn your videos into podcasts now. Then take that and make even more content off of it. Your listeners are waiting.
