Adobe Podcast's Enhance Speech model does in one upload what a freelance audio engineer charges $100–$200 per episode to do by hand: removes background noise, echo, HVAC hum, and microphone hiss from any recording. The 2026 v2 release adds source separation — independent stems for speech, noise, and music — that a studio would charge extra for.
The productized version is a podcast production retainer. You take a client's raw recordings each month, run them through Adobe Podcast Premium ($9.99/mo), edit the transcript in Descript, write show notes with Claude, and deliver polished episodes plus social clips. Charge $300–$500/mo for two episodes. The full tool stack runs $55/mo. Your first client pays for the entire year.
The sweet spot: thought-leaders, coaches, and consultants who record weekly on laptop mics or in hotel rooms and want broadcast-quality output without hiring a $1,500/mo production agency or building a studio.
The tools
Adobe Podcast
Adobe Podcast is the engine — specifically Enhance Speech, the AI model that processes audio through noise removal, Room Modeling, and transformer-based inpainting that reconstructs degraded phonemes. Source separation lets you download speech, noise, and music as independent stems, so clients with an existing editor get full-control stems and beginners get a single broadcast-ready master.
The free tier handles 30-minute files with no account required — enough to run a live demo that closes the sale in 10 minutes. Premium unlocks batch processing, video file support (enhance audio inside MP4s directly), 2-hour file limits, and 4 hours of daily processing — the full production pipeline.
Price: Free (30-min files, 1 hr/day, no account required); Premium $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr. What to charge: The enhanced file is the deliverable. Never break out the tool cost as a line item — bill the polished episode.
Descript
Descript is where the episode gets finished: load the enhanced audio, delete filler words and bad takes by editing the transcript, and export the clean version. The real unlock for retainer work is Descript's automatic clip surfacing — it pulls the three to five best 60-second moments from the transcript so you deliver social clips without scrubbing the whole episode.
Show notes take 20 minutes: Descript AI summary into Claude, add a call-to-action, done. A 45-minute episode goes from raw file to polished production in 90 minutes once the workflow is dialed.
Price: Hobbyist $16/mo annual ($24 monthly); Creator $24/mo annual ($35 monthly); Business $50/mo annual ($65 monthly). What to charge: Position Descript as the editing layer in a $500/mo retainer — 2 episodes, show notes, 3 clips each — or price standalone at $250–$400 per episode.
Otter.ai
Otter.ai handles the discovery call so the onboarding is fast and the copy is accurate. Record the client conversation, and by the time you hang up you have a transcript with speaker labels and action items. The pain points and vocabulary in that transcript go into Claude as context for show notes that actually sound like the client.
The free plan covers 300 minutes of transcription per month — more than enough for four 30-minute client calls before you pay anything.
Price: Free (300 min/mo); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly); Business $20/user/mo annual. What to charge: Backend infrastructure, not a client line item. The value is the faster onboarding and sharper copy it enables.
Claude
Claude writes everything the audio workflow generates: episode descriptions optimized for Spotify search, timestamped show notes, LinkedIn posts repurposing the key insight, and email announcements for clients who publish to a list. Create a Project per client and drop in their brand voice doc and past episode transcripts — by episode 3, the output sounds like them.
The description → show notes → social captions workflow takes about 20 minutes per episode with a good Skill template built once.
Price: Free tier; Pro $20/mo ($17/mo billed annually). What to charge: Writing is embedded in the retainer price, not itemized. Most clients can't do it themselves even with AI, which is what justifies the premium.
Canva
Canva finishes the package: audiogram graphics with the episode title, waveform, and quote pull; Instagram and LinkedIn graphics from episode highlights; and a custom podcast cover if the client doesn't have one yet. Each client's brand kit lives in Canva so episode assets regenerate in two clicks.
This layer turns a podcast production retainer into a content marketing retainer. A $400–$500/mo engagement becomes $650–$800/mo when the social distribution graphics are included.
Price: Free plan (limited Magic Studio); Pro $15/mo monthly or $120/yr. What to charge: Add $150–$300/mo to the retainer for social graphics. Offer it as an upsell after the first 60 days — clients almost always say yes once the workflow is running.
A workflow that sells
Here's the exact sequence for a 2-episode monthly retainer:
- Intake. Client drops raw audio (MP3 or WAV) in a shared Google Drive folder every 2 weeks.
- Enhance. Run batch Enhance Speech on Adobe Podcast Premium. Download the enhanced master plus speaker-separated stems if the client's editor needs them. 15 minutes per episode.
- Edit. Load the enhanced audio into Descript. Cut filler words, bad takes, and overlong pauses by editing the transcript. Export the clean episode. 30–45 minutes per episode.
- Write. Paste the Descript AI summary plus the client's LinkedIn bio into Claude. Run the "show notes + episode description + 3 social captions" Skill. Edit for voice. 20 minutes per episode.
- Design. Pull the key quote from Claude's output, drop it into the client's Canva audiogram template, export. 10 minutes per episode.
- Deliver. Upload to the shared folder: enhanced master audio, episode description, timestamped show notes, 5 social captions, and 1 audiogram graphic.
Total per episode: 75–90 minutes. At $250/episode, that's $150–$200/hr effective rate before tool costs.
The money
The entry offer: 2-episode monthly podcast production retainer at $400–$500/mo. Delivery time: 3 hours/mo. Tool cost: $55/mo (Adobe Podcast $9.99 + Descript $16 + Otter.ai $8.33 + Claude Pro $17 + Canva Pro $10). Net margin per client: $345–$445/mo.
Five clients at $400/mo is $2,000/mo for 15 hours of work — a $130/hr effective rate before tools. Add the Canva graphics package at $200/mo per client and the same five clients generates $3,000/mo.
The upsell ladder: start with audio-only production at $250–$300/mo, add show notes at $100/mo, add social graphics at $150–$200/mo, add email newsletter at $200/mo. A client who buys all four at $750/mo taking 5 hours/mo is paying you $150/hr.
The productized training and client-closing system lives inside AI Operator Academy — $999/yr.
More solopreneur production stacks at Best AI Tools for Solopreneurs and the full content creator angle at Best AI Tools for Content Creators.
FAQ
Is Adobe Podcast free good enough to start with?
Yes. The free tier processes files up to 30 minutes with no account required — enough to clean a full client episode or run a live demo that closes the sale. Upgrade to Premium ($9.99/mo) when you have your first paying client and need batch processing for multiple episodes.
Can I run this stack without audio editing experience?
Yes. The workflow is designed to avoid traditional audio editing. Adobe Podcast handles the audio cleanup; Descript edits by transcript so you delete words, not waveforms. If you can edit a Google Doc, you can deliver a polished episode.
What kind of clients need podcast production?
Thought-leaders, coaches, and consultants who record solo or with guests from home offices, hotel rooms, or cars. They have good content trapped in poor audio — background noise that would get a listener to stop the episode in 30 seconds. They find you through LinkedIn creator communities, coaching industry forums, and among your existing consulting clients who already publish content.
What if a client already uses a different editor?
Run Adobe Podcast enhancement first regardless — it sits upstream of any editing workflow. Hand the client the enhanced master and the speaker-separated stems. They give the stems to their existing editor. Descript and Claude are your value-add on top, not a replacement for what they already have.
How do I price the first client?
Charge $250–$300/mo for audio-only production on 2 episodes to land the first one. After 2–3 months of frictionless delivery, raise to $400–$500/mo and add show notes. At $400 × 5 clients, you're at $2,000/mo recurring on 15 hours of work — and the tool cost is fully covered by client 1, month 1.