Should You Publish Episodes in Stereo or Mono?

If you’re wondering whether you should publish your final episodes in stereo or mono, here are a few ideas to consider:

1. If every element of your episode is mono (voices, effects, music, etc.), _AND_ you haven’t panned _ANY_ of them left or right, then you should publish in mono because your audio _IS_ mono. By the way, publishing a mono audio file in stereo doesn’t change or enhance the sound — it only doubles the file size, thereby unnecessarily causing you to publish a larger file (which with some hosting companies will cost you more money) _AND_ forcing listeners to download or stream a larger file (which for some will more quickly eat up their limited monthly mobile bandwidth).
2. If there are _ANY_ stereo elements in your episode, I recommend publishing in stereo. (unless you have some limit on file size, etc.)

NOTE: The majority of podcasts use stereo intro music and publish in stereo, but some still opt to publish in mono (which is totally fine). Be aware that publishing stereo music in mono may cause it to sound a bit weird to some folks, but it’s not a major deal — it’ll just sound a bit flat, dimensionless, etc.

Do you publish in stereo or mono, and why?

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