The guided meditation has become uber popular. New apps, websites, speakers, all wanting to create a superb guided meditation experience. Guided meditations have enveloped a new singular space as an offered product.
In my career of developing and producing hundreds of guided meditations, there are a few key elements that can make or break a good guided meditation. Here are a few key steps to consider before making a guided meditation.
1) WRITE
I can’t stress it enough, content is king. This is the first step in creating any guided meditation. Create a plan and decide what you’re going to say. It’s not really the point to try and say something prophetic, but really a function of just deciding what you want to say and writing it down.
Get your content in line first and you’ll save money, you’ll save time, you’ll have a more clear idea of how to present yourself with music and marketing.
2) RECORD
Once your content is in line, recording is the next step. It’s an important part of the process but shouldn’t drain your wallet.
Top choice? Go to a studio where you have pro gear and sound treated walls to let your voice sound the best. If that’s not in your budget you can always do a home recording, provided that your home or space is relatively quiet. Small hums and white noise can be simple to eliminate in a recording but a barking dog or drive-by-training are more challenging and will end up costing in the long run.
If you decide to home record, there are several great USB mics that easily plug into your computer and provide quality sound. I usually recommend Blue’s Yeti Microphone to clients on a budget.
3) MUSIC
You’ve recorded your magnificent words with your rockstar voice. Now what? Well, now you get to pick some music to go along with your meditation.
I’m not suggesting that music is mandatory and sometimes a guided meditation can work without it, but the standard for guided meditations typically includes a music bed so you’ll probably at least want to start there.
A great place to start your search for excellent guided meditation music is at EnlightenedAudio.com. There is a lot of chinsy sounding meditation music out there and this guy is NOT that. Full spectrum of sound and movement for a beautiful backdrop.
4) EDIT
Got your music and voice? Just put them all together now. That’s the basic process but if it were that simple, I’d probably be out of business.
I recommend going to a pro audio engineer/mixer to edit your content together. It’s not impossible to mix your music and voice by yourself for an easy guided meditation and I sometimes recommend that to my clients.
However, someone who has experience in mixing sound and better yet, creating guided meditations, will have a wealth of knowledge and skills that could really make your guided meditations stand out. Someone who’s trained their ears to know what sounds good, what frequencies to cut out and what to leave can really be the difference between a sound that’s “Ugghh” and a sound that’s “Wow”.
5) DELIVER
You’re happy with the sound, you have these WAV or MP3 files with you guided meditations, now what?
Depending on your strategy and long term goals, there are several ways to get your content out there.
You can start a blog with WordPress and drive your fans to your site. You can launch a podcast and deliver your guided meditations to your fans that way. Or you can create an album or meditation single under an artist name and deliver your material to iTunes, Amazon and Pandora.
If you decide to go with the latter, I usually recommend my clients use Tunecore. Its an easy one-stop-shop for music delivery that anyone can sign-up to that will get your music in iTunes and on Amazon quickly and for a low cost.
How about that? Look mom, I’m on iTunes!
These are the basic steps to follow in creating a great guided meditation. There are obviously finer points within each step but this will at least get you thinking on the right track.