How to Start a Video Podcast (Built for Clips)

A video podcast is an episodic show recorded on camera, where people can watch the hosts or just listen. A vodcast is the same thing: Merriam-Webster defines "vodcast" simply as a video podcast.

A good video podcast still works as audio. Someone driving should be able to follow it without the picture. The video adds faces, reactions and the room, which is what makes people feel they know the hosts. There are three common formats.

Start with video if you can handle the extra work, because that is now where most of the audience is. In The Podcast Consumer 2026 from Edison Research at SSRS, 82% of weekly podcast consumers were actively watching video, against 78% listening to audio only. Video first passed audio-only in Edison Podcast Metrics data in Q3 2025.

YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts all now treat video as a core part of podcasting. YouTube said in February 2025 that it has more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content, and that in 2024 viewers watched over 400 million hours of podcasts a month on living room devices. Spotify said in May 2026 that more than 500 million users have streamed a video podcast, up nearly 50% year over year. Apple announced a new video experience for Apple Podcasts, built on HLS streaming, in February 2026.

Audio only is still a fine choice if you cannot commit to video every week. It is cheaper, faster to edit and easier to record on the road. A show that keeps publishing beats a nicer show that stops after five episodes.

If you only have audio, clips still work, just with less to show. The piece on how to grow a podcast with clips covers what to do in that case.

Starting a video podcast takes seven steps, and the order matters because each one sets up the next. Decide the format first, since a solo show, a two-person table and a remote interview each need a different setup.

The recording decides how good the clips can be, so step 7 is won or lost at step 4. Most setup guides stop once the episode is published. The rest of this page is about making the clips easy before you record.

4K matters because a vertical clip is cut out of a horizontal frame, and the crop can only be as tall as your video. A vertical clip is 9:16, and the usual target size is 1,080 by 1,920 pixels.

Worked example in 4K. A 4K frame is 3,840 × 2,160 pixels. A 9:16 crop at full height is 2,160 × 9 ÷ 16 = 1,215 pixels wide, so each crop is 1,215 × 2,160. That is bigger than 1,080 × 1,920, so the clip is scaled down, not up, and it stays sharp. The frame is 3,840 pixels wide, and 3,840 ÷ 1,215 = 3.16, so in the best case up to three people fit side by side, each with a full-quality crop.

The same example in 1080p. A 1080p frame is 1,920 × 1,080 pixels. A 9:16 crop at full height is 1,080 × 9 ÷ 16 = 607.5, so about 608 × 1,080 pixels. To fill 1,080 × 1,920, that crop has to be stretched 1,920 ÷ 1,080 = 1.78 times, and you will see it as soft, slightly blurry video. Recording in 1080p and zooming in to cut each speaker is exactly where that softness shows up.

"Best case" means people are spread evenly across the frame with no overlap, and real tables are tighter. With two or more people, a close-up camera per person is safer than one wide shot.

You need a camera, one microphone per person, headphones, a light and a way to record. The phone in your pocket can be the camera. Riverside's recording guide puts the minimum as a mic, headphones and a camera, and what you add beyond that depends on how many people are on the show.

A dynamic mic picks up less of the room than a condenser mic, which is why it suits an untreated room. For a two-person show, the upgrade that matters most is not one better mic. It is two mics into an interface or recorder that keeps each voice on its own track, and the next section explains why.

Film a podcast for clips by giving each speaker their own camera angle and audio track, and seating every face where a vertical crop can reach it. Most setup guides are written for the full episode. The full episode is horizontal and your clips are vertical. If you only plan for the first, the second gets hard.

A remote guest is only as sharp as their own camera. Ask guests to use the best camera they have, and record with a tool that saves each person's file locally rather than the video call's compressed feed.

You need software that records each person on their own track. For an in-person show, that is often the camera's own recording plus an audio recorder or interface. For a remote show, use a tool that records each guest on their own device.

Pick one recording tool and learn it well. Switching tools every month costs more time than any feature saves.

Publish the full episode in three places: YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Each one takes video a little differently.

Each platform sets its own clip length limit, and they are not the same. These are the limits confirmed on each platform's own pages.

Check TikTok and LinkedIn limits on the day you export, because they change often. Being allowed 3 minutes does not mean you should use them. For what to clip and how long to make it, see these podcast clip ideas.

A recording is ready for clips when every speaker has their own mic and track, the camera records in 4K, and every face sits where a vertical crop can reach it. Run through the eight checks below before you press record. Each yes makes the clips easier and sharper.

How to read your score. 7 to 8 means the episode is ready to cut into sharp clips. 4 to 6 means clips are possible but will take longer to edit or look softer. 0 to 3 means fix the audio tracks and the camera first, because no edit can add detail that was never recorded.

Recording is a one-time setup, but clipping happens every week. A 60-minute episode has many moments worth posting, and finding, cutting, captioning and posting them takes real hours. Even the most watched podcast episodes spread through clips, not the full recording.

There are three ways to get the clips made: do it yourself, use an AI tool, or hand it to a team. Some hosts cut their own. Some use an AI tool to find moments and then fix the cuts by hand. Some hand it to a podcast clipping agency that cuts the clips and posts them across many creator accounts, so the show reaches people who have never heard of it. Whether that pays off depends on what you measure, which is the question behind does podcast clipping work. For the step-by-step version, read how to repurpose long-form video into clips.