I am considering renting a small space downtown and starting a podcasting (and audio/video recording) studio rental business. It would be for podcasting, social media recording, advertising, stuff like that but no music, specialty photoshoots, etc. Has anyone on here done this? How well did it work out? I can't tell if it would be a decent business or a total bust with zero demand. What's a good way to test that out before spending all the time and money setting it up? Or is it just a roll of the dice?

I'd probably want to spend around $10,000 or so, for starters. I was thinking:

(4) Sony MDR7506 Pro

(4) RODE Pod mics

(1) RODE Caster Pro Podcast Headboard

(4) Argomax Ergonomical Chair (or your run of the mill office chair)

That runs around $2,400. Then foam for the walls, a big/decent size table, and miscellaneous things like cables, power strips, wifi, etc. Probably spend at least $1,000-2,000 on advertising to get clients. Probably get a couple of big, nice lights for around 300 each, maybe a screen, some basic "podcast decor". I could probably borrow a family Nikon D4 (old but should be decent still) or just get a "basic" camcorder type thing. Not sure about video, haven't looked into that too much yet.

Ideally, I'd love to have it be just a rental studio where people could come and record without me, so partially passive income, though I know more often than not new people will need help. I was thinking the goal would be to sign people up for a subscription (like $100-150?/mo gets you 4-8? hrs of unattended time) and the recurring clients would be able to work the soundboard themselves. Then the ones who sign up for just one hour and need help would be like $60-75/hr.

It would be best to have it booked as much as possible even if the price is low, because rent would be around 350-750 (with internet and utilities are included for a small space like this usually). Once the gear is paid off, a couple of clients a month would pay for the ongoing expenses and the rest is profit. I'm in a small-medium size city so there's not much competition that I know of, but that may mean little demand as well. So what do you all think? Thank you.

Hello all, I wanted to reach out and ask this group of podcasters for some insight.

I am launching the first podcast studio in my city. The studio is set up with video as a primary focus. The set is customizable (lighting colours, logo on the tv as well as whatever decorations you want to bring), with space for up to 4 guests. There are 3 cameras and everything is ready to go, all you need to do is book a time slot and get recording. You will be provided an engineer who will live cut your episode so by the time you are finished recording, your files are completed, you will have a full episode video as well as the audio files.

Additionally you can get 6-7 short form vertical videos from clips of your full episode to post on instagram reels, tiktok and youtube shorts.

The equipment is all professional grade and the studio is designed to provide high quality podcast episodes, without the hassle of producing the entire podcast yourself.

I wanted to get your feedback on whether or not you guys like the concept and if you would use it if there were a location near you. You can even provide how much you would be willing to spend (per episode)!

Thanks so much for your time!

I'm brand new to the subreddit, so please excuse any ignorance I have here. I'm close to opening a podcast studio in NYC to rent to podcasters. I love that podcasting can be done with a simple laptop and very little upfront costs. However, a lot of the most popular podcasts are shot with high quality equipment and production. We're seeking to provide high quality production, equipment, space, etc. at an affordable cost and in an area of the city with no other studios. Almost all of the major NYC studios for rent are near the garment district/times square/etc.

Does anyone here RENT studio space? Where do you rent? How often? How much do you pay? What does that include? How hard is it to book a slot? What kind of things did you look for in a studio? Do you do your own editing? If so, both audio/video? Do you do audio only or with video? I have a lot more questions I'd like to ask folks in comments. Thanks in advance for any and all imput!