SquadCast Sees Cloud Recording Studios as the Future of Podcasting

By Grit Daily Staff Grit Daily Staff has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on August 23, 2022

From snail mail and telegrams to radio and tv to podcasts and streaming services, the way people receive information has been evolving for centuries. Podcasts are one of the most recent trends in information and entertainment, and they have steadily increased in popularity. While the number of podcast listeners only increased from 55% to 57% in the past year, it has doubled over the last 10 years.

Listening to podcasts hasn’t been the only way podcasting has gained popularity, as many people have also created their own. Recording podcasts has become a fun leisure activity for many individuals as well as a serious profession for others. According to Podcast Insights, In 2021, there were over two million podcasts, with over 48 million total episodes. 

As the world becomes more digitally connected and globalized, it only makes sense that the need to improve podcast capabilities is prevalent. And Squadcast has changed the way content can be recorded remotely. We spoke with Zachariah Moreno, co-founder and CEO of Squadcast about the future of podcasting and how their company is making an impact. 

Grit Daily: What is SquadCast? What is your purpose and founding story?

Zachariah Moreno: SquadCast is the leader in defining the Cloud Recording Studio category, which makes it possible to record audio and video content in studio quality with remote collaborators around the world.

Our mission is to amplify collaboration, and we do that by building advanced technology for professional creators designed to help them scale their productions.

Rockwell Felder, co-founder and CTO of SquadCast, and myself founded SquadCast because we experienced challenges firsthand when we set out to produce a SciFi audio drama podcast with a remote-first team in 2016. We pivoted from the podcast to founding SquadCast after building a demo prototype. We validated the opportunity with creators while sponsoring the Podcast Movement conference and identified key opportunities to innovate and define what would become the Cloud Recording Studio category.

Grit Daily: How are you attempting to make podcasting more accessible?

Zachariah Moreno: There are not enough physical recording studios to scale with the creator economy. Our platform removes that barrier by creating a virtual studio. Recording quality is also made more accessible because it is no longer limited to physical studios.

Grit Daily: Why will cloud-based studios be the future of podcasting?

Zachariah Moreno: All platforms depend on creation and consumption to grow. Listening to podcasts has long been accessible because of the web’s vast distribution. While, in contrast, creating podcasts has largely been an offline experience, limiting potential collaborators geographically. For podcasting to grow, creators need cloud recording studios to scale collaboration globally while upholding professional quality standards.

Grit Daily: How does your cloud-based recording studio differentiate you from traditional podcasting platforms?

Zachariah Moreno: Traditionally, podcasts have been recorded in person within a physical recording studio, edited offline, published to podcast media hosts, and distributed to listeners who subscribe to an RSS feed. If the production was remote, the recording quality would be degraded because of its dependency on the network connectivity of each collaborator — think telephones, Skype, and Zoom.

On SquadCast, recording quality does not depend on the network connectivity of each collaborator because it is recorded locally at the source for everyone, resulting in professional audio and video quality. Because the recordings are captured in full quality at the source, they need to be uploaded to the cloud for creators to access them. We solved for this by inventing and patenting Progressive Uploads technology that is very fast and reliable.

We have also patented our solution to normalize audio drift between multiple recordings of the same conversation. We are the first in our category on a number of innovations like, cloud backup recordings, recording previews, search, public API, and full cross platform accessibility.

Fundamentally we are creators. We know what quality and reliability mean, and we care more because of it.

Grit Daily: What are your goals moving forward?

Zachariah Moreno: We hope to help more creators and businesses professionalize their content production and scale it remotely. Providing content creators with quality resources will help to reduce the time between clicking record and clicking publish.

Do you have any final advice for entrepreneurs in the tech space?

We need more women, black, and brown founders. While I’m proud to contribute to this effort as a Latino founder, diversity is still seriously lacking within the entrepreneurial tech space. Technology has the potential to scale any idea globally, but we need the teams creating this technology to reflect and represent the global marketplace if we want the future to include everyone.

As the tech industry is constantly changing, people bringing in new ideas that help others will always find success. SquadCast noticed a need and has created advanced technology for professional creators. The Cloud Recording Studio category has improved accessibility to quality recording across distances, bringing people together. As collaboration is improved, there’s no telling how the podcast industry will evolve, but it’s definitely going to be exciting.

By Grit Daily Staff Grit Daily Staff has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Journalist verified by Muck Rack verified

Grit Daily News is the premier startup news hub. It is the top news source on Millennial and Gen Z startups — from fashion, tech, influencers, entrepreneurship, and funding. Based in New York, our team is global and brings with it over 400 years of combined reporting experience.

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