Module 6: Launching Shows
A launch is the highest-stakes work a producer sells: a new show, no audience yet, and a pile of setup that has to be right before episode one exists publicly. This module covers what a launch includes, how to run it over 2–4 weeks, and how the engagements are priced.
Anatomy of a launch
A launch is four buckets of work. Foundation: the show's format locked on paper (episode length, structure, release day, who does what), a hosting platform chosen and configured, the show submitted to the listening apps, and an RSS feed verified working. Submitting to directories takes days of approval time, which is one reason launches are scheduled in weeks, not days. Brand assets: cover artwork sized for the platforms, intro and outro produced, music licensed, and the show description written. Artwork may belong to a designer — your job is making sure it exists, meets the platform specs, and arrives on time.
The trailer: a short episode, one to two minutes, that says who the show is for and what it delivers. The trailer isn't a teaser gimmick — it's what lets the show exist in the apps, collect followers, and give the host something to share before episode one. The first batch: three to five episodes recorded, edited, and loaded before launch day. Never launch with a single episode. A listener who likes episode one and finds nothing else usually doesn't come back; a listener who can binge three episodes becomes a subscriber. The batch also proves the production pipeline works before the weekly pressure starts.
Notice what a launch really is: every system from Modules 2 through 5, built once, under deadline, for a show with no momentum to hide behind. That's why it's priced as its own engagement instead of being folded into the first month's episodes.
A new host wants to “launch fast”: record episode one this Friday and publish it Monday, with artwork and directory submissions handled “as we go.” What's the producer's answer?
The launch timeline
A standard launch runs 2–4 weeks. Week one is decisions and setup: format locked, hosting configured, directory submissions sent (they're the long pole — everything else can be hurried, approvals can't), artwork briefed, music chosen, recording dates for the batch put on calendars. By the end of week one, nothing about the show should still be a matter of opinion.
Week two is production: the trailer recorded and edited, batch episodes recorded, first episodes into the pipeline. The trailer ships to the feed as soon as the directories approve the show, so the host can start collecting followers and sharing the link. Week three is finishing: the batch edited and mastered, show notes written, launch-day posts and clips prepared, episodes uploaded and scheduled in the host platform. If the launch runs four weeks, the extra week usually goes to a bigger batch or a guest schedule that needed chasing — say which, in writing, when you set the date.
Launch day itself should be boring. Everything is already uploaded and scheduled; your job is verification — the feed is live in the apps, links work, the first episodes play from the top — and then watching the first numbers. Set the host's expectations before the day: a launch is a starting line measured in dozens or hundreds of listeners for most shows, not thousands. The producer who says that early and is believed keeps the client for the season. The one who lets a host expect a chart debut spends launch week apologizing.
You're planning a launch. Which item has to start first because its timing is outside your control?
Pricing launches
A producer running a full launch — setup, trailer, first batch, the works, over 2–4 weeks — commonly charges $4,900–13,000 at mid-level. That range surprises people until they count what's inside: hosting and directory setup, format development, artwork coordination, a produced trailer, three to five full-post episodes, launch assets, and several meetings across a month. Priced as separate episodes and hours it would cost more. The engagement price is the discount.
Not every client can or should buy that. A scoped starter launch trims the deliverables, not the standards: fewer batch episodes (three, not five), host handles their own artwork with your specs and review, a tighter timeline. What you never trim is the foundation — directory setup done properly, a trailer, a real batch. A cheap launch that skips the foundation isn't a smaller launch; it's a failed one with an invoice.
Scope lines from Module 8 apply with extra force here: one revision round is the standard, and launches attract revision requests the way openings attract opinions — the artwork, the trailer voice, the intro music, all of it. State the round, price extra rounds and rush turnarounds as extras, and put the batch size in the agreement as a number. Then tie the launch to what follows: most launches should end with a monthly production arrangement already agreed, so the show doesn't launch into a producer-shaped hole in week five. Quote the ongoing work at the same time as the launch itself, while the client is picturing a running show — a weekly podcast needs a producer every week, and the person who built the pipeline is the obvious candidate to run it.
A client loves the full launch package but their budget is half the quote. What do you offer?
What you can now do
- Scope a launch across its four buckets: foundation and directory setup, brand assets, a produced trailer, and the first batch of episodes.
- Run a launch on a two-to-four-week timeline that sends directory submissions in week one, because approvals are the one part you can't hurry.
- Price a full launch by counting everything inside it, instead of quietly discounting a month of work into per-episode rates.