Course Catalog / BMU 185 / Getting started

Getting Started: BMU 185 Start Your Podcast: Plan, Record and Grow

About 4 minutes to read. Read this once before your first lesson.

Welcome from BMU Learning

Welcome. We are glad you are here. This course was built for busy adults, so every lesson is short, plain, and practical. You can go at your own pace, and you can come back to any page as often as you need.

About this course

Many people have something worth saying and want to share it as a podcast. This course is not about overnight fame or fast money. You define your show and your listener, set up a low cost recording space, record clean audio, and edit to a simple standard. Then you publish through a host with an RSS feed, list your show on the big apps, follow music rights and sponsor disclosure rules, and plan growth and income honestly. You finish with a pilot episode, which can be public, unlisted, or private, and a four episode plan.

Who it is for:

• You want to start a podcast about a skill, story, or point of view
• You want a plan you can keep with the phone or computer you already have
• You want the publishing, copyright, disclosure, and tax rules from official sources

Who made it: BMU Learning wrote and checked this course. There is no live instructor and no made up teacher. When audio and video are added, the narration will be an AI voice, not a real person, and captions and a transcript will be on the page.

How support works: BMU Learner Support answers questions about the course, your progress, and technical problems. See How to get help below.

What you will be able to do

• Define a show concept, a target listener, and a format: write a one sentence show statement (who, what they get, format and length, why you), choose a pace the learner can keep, and outline a pilot in five parts.
• Set up a low cost recording space and record clean audio: pick a small, soft space, place a phone or laptop at the distances in Spotify's equipment guide, run a 30 second test against four checks, and use a double ender for remote guests.
• Edit an episode to a simple five step standard (trim, cut, level, frame, listen), aim near Apple's recommended loudness, export in an accepted format and bit rate with a clean file name, and write short show notes.
• Publish through a podcast host with an RSS feed that meets Apple's main requirements, list the show on at least one major app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube where available), and choose public, unlisted, or private for the pilot.
• Follow music rights and sponsor disclosure rules: explain the two copyrights in a recorded song, sort each sound with the rights flowchart, and disclose pay or free products clearly under the FTC Endorsement Guides, including the podcast example.
• Plan growth and income honestly: pick one growth step and one number to track, compare sponsors, platform ad programs, listener support, and products by their official entry rules, and note the IRS rules for side income.

How to find your way around

1. Start with the Pretest. It is not graded. It shows what you already know.
2. Take the 7 lessons in order. Each one builds on the last.
3. Inside each lesson, the parts come in the same order: why it matters and what you will learn, the teaching, a worked example, strong and weak examples, practice with feedback, a short check, and a recap.
4. Do the Try it step in your real life. That is where the skill sticks.
5. Finish with the performance task, then the Posttest.

Your map of the whole course is the syllabus. Words you may not know are in the glossary.

What you need

• A phone, tablet, or computer with internet. Keep your web browser up to date.
• About 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Printing is optional.
• No special software. Answers open with a tap. Pages work with a keyboard, a screen reader, and zoom.
• Prerequisites: none. If you can read this page, you can take this course.

Your Course Project: each lesson tells you which part of the Course Project it builds. The page checks each part for you and saves your work on this device.

How to get help

• Quick answers: the BMU Help Center can help with your progress, your certificate, billing, and tech problems.
• Ask a person: use the Contact BMU support form and pick a topic. Please do not send card numbers or passwords.
• Something not working: refresh the page and try a current browser. If it still fails, contact support, choose Technical problem, and tell us the page, your device, and your browser.
• In crisis: BMU support cannot respond to emergencies. Call or text 988, or call 911.

If you fall behind or get stuck

• There are no deadlines and no late penalties. If you miss a week, pick up where you left off.
• Start each return visit with the Quick review at the top of the next lesson.
• Missed a check question? Open the feedback, reread the section it points to, and try again. There is no limit on tries.
• Still stuck after two tries? Contact BMU Learner Support with the lesson name and the step. We will point you to the right part.

How you finish

To complete the course, you need two things: build your Course Project until every part passes its automatic check, and pass the Posttest with 80% or higher. The Certificate of Completion unlocks when both are done. You can revise the project and retake the Posttest as many times as you need. The survey at the end is optional and never blocks your certificate.

Start lesson 1