107. Do I Need a Release From My Podcast Guest? | Podcasting Legal Tip for Online Business Growth and Solopreneurs

FAQ Friday answering the podcasting question of "Do I Need a Release From My Podcast Guest?"

https://www.gordonfiremark.com/PodcastRelease

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Transcript

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Welcome to Podcasting for Solopreneurs and FAQ Friday, where I answer a podcasting question in five minutes or less. Today's question is, do I need a release from my podcast guest? This question comes from a membership that I'm a part of, and yes, it is best practice to have your guest sign a release. A release protects both you and your guest. It ensures that you're on the same page about how the episode will be used, and it can help prevent sticky situations down the road. Now, if you haven't used one before, don't panic. It's not the end of the world, especially if your guest appearances have gone smoothly so far. But I do recommend making it part of your process moving forward. Think of a guest release form kind of like insurance.

You hope that you will never need it, but if a situation comes up, you're gonna be really glad that you have it. So imagine that you do a guest interview with someone who seems great, you just met this person, you do the interview, everything's good, you publish the episode and start promoting it, and then a few days later that guest reaches out to you and they are upset about something. Maybe they feel like something important was cut out from the interview or maybe you left something in, maybe a moment where they stumbled or they said something that they now regret, and they're asking you to either re edit the episode or maybe even take the entire episode down. If you do not have a guest release signed, you are kind of in a bit of a bind. You're left to negotiate back and forth, and if things escalate, your guest could even bring in legal support, and that is a whole headache that you definitely do not want to deal with. But if you do have a signed release form, then you are covered because they agreed to the terms ahead of time, including your right to edit and publish the episode as you see fit. Now it's important to note that having a release does not mean that you have to ignore any guest concerns. It just means that you get to use your judgment.

Maybe the guest is someone who you really value the relationship with and you want to maintain that. You absolutely can choose to take down or re edit the episode upon their request. But the difference is that you're making that decision because you want to. So again, just like insurance, a guest release form gives you peace of mind, so I recommend one. And there's a great free one available from podcast lawyer, Gordon Firemark. I'll leave his link in the description so that you can grab his free template and you can customize it for your show. If you have a podcasting question, click the send me your question link in the episode description and I'll answer it in an upcoming episode. Until next time, happy podcasting.