How to publish your podcast (and how a podcast production company can help!)
So you’ve done all the work to plan a format for your podcast, planned your content, and maybe even retained a podcast production company to record, edit, mix and master your podcast for you. But then what? How do you get your podcast actually available – in those famous words – ‘wherever you get your podcasts’?
Do you have to pay to be on Spotify? What is a podcast host? How do you get into the Apple Podcasts charts? How do you get featured? It seems overwhelming, but we’re here to help. We can help with this guide, but also, as a leading podcast production company, we are of course standing by to do all this for you if we make, distribute and amplify your podcast for you.
What is a podcast?
There is a standard technical definition of what a podcast is, but increasingly people are using it for any kind of episodic content. Time was, the definition could be at least limited to audio-only formats but the rise in video podcasting has further blurred the line. Are you making an online TV show? Training material? What even is a podcast?
Happily, you don’t really need to sweat it. You can call pretty much anything a podcast if you want to, but it typically means content that’s produced episodically (which can mean stuff that’s a similar format produced week after week, or a narrative story told over several episodes) with the intent to accrete an audience over time.
At a technical level, the traditional definition is of a show that is hosted (stored) in the cloud, with a bunch of episodes sitting in a folder somewhere, with descriptions and other information written in a technical format called RSS sitting next to them. It’s this RSS feed that’s the heart of your podcast, and to which people subscribe – though usually via a podcast directory, see below.
The good news is that you don’t have to have any technical skills to write this RSS document; your host will give you a simple interface to enter all the details.
What is a podcast host?
A podcast host is similar to the host you might use for a website, but it’s focussed on podcasts. Once you have an account, you upload your audio file and enter a few details, such as title and description, and publish. If you’ve already submitted your show’s RSS feed to podcast directories, then it will automatically appear on the phones and other devices of your followers.
Your host will give you basic analytics about how many times your podcast has been downloaded, on what devices and where, but podcast directories/players can give additional richer analytics for those listeners who access your show via each.
Examples include Acast, Buzzsprout and Megaphone, and unlike when choosing a podcast production company, there’s not usually significant differences between hosts – unless you want to run advertising.
What is a podcast directory?
Podcast directories – and the biggest are Apple and Spotify – are in effect shopfronts where people can browse categorised and charting podcasts stored on any different host, and easily subscribe through dedicated apps – usually on their phones.
Although Apple and Spotify dominate podcast listening, YouTube is a huge and unusual rival, and there are dozens more smaller directories.
So is Spotify a host or a directory?
It’s both, confusingly, though they’re separate experiences and products.
Most people will be familiar with Spotify as a player, and Spotify has made a big push into podcasting in the last few years, adding podcasts and audiobooks to its player app.
But Spotify is also a host. Twice, in fact. You can host your podcasts for free with Spotify for Creators (formerly Spotify for Podcasters, formerly Anchor before Spotify bought it), or you can use the enterprise-level Megaphone service which offers more richness.
How do I get my podcast on Apple and Spotify?
You’ll need an account for Spotify and Apple ID, and then once you have these set up, you grab the RSS feed address from your host, and enter it into the dashboards of these services. You only have to do this once, and then all the episodes you add to your host automatically propagate through.
Should I put my podcast on YouTube?
Probably, though it’s complicated. YouTube is brilliant for discovery, and it’s rapidly gaining traction as a podcast consumption platform, but it’s a little awkward. You can manually upload episodes – video or with simple graphics added to turn it into a video – or you can have YouTube slurp the episodes in from your RSS and republish them automatically.
That’s good, but you need to be aware that unlike with most other podcast listening methods, which accrete all your listen stats to your podcast host regardless of platform or app, when you have YouTube republish your RSS feed like this, any YouTube plays are counted there, and have to be manually reconciled with your host’s numbers.
Do I need to worry about other podcast directories?
If you just hit Apple and Spotify, you’re probably good for most people, not just because these are the biggest player platforms, but also because most of the smaller directories explicitly mirror what Apple lists in its storefront.
You can still claim your podcast on these smaller directories if you like, but the benefits are marginal if all you care about is being available “wherever you get your podcasts”.
The one significant exception is YouTube.
What if I want my podcast to be private, such as for an internal company comms podcast?
Podcasting as a technology is designed to be freely and publicly available, but there are hosting platforms such as Transistor which can mandate logins, so only employees, say, can listen.
How do you get on the front page of Apple and Spotify?
These areas are editorially curated, so you can’t just appear there algorithmically or by paying. But a good podcast production company like Message Heard will have strong relationships with the teams there.
How do you appear in the podcast charts?
The calculations that power podcast charts are a little opaque, but for example, Apple’s charts aren’t based on raw popularity as such, but on a mix of how fast you’re acquiring new subscribers and the completion rates of the audio. And so focus on those metrics rather than raw download numbers.
What else can I do to get my podcast out there?
There’s lots you can do, such as advertising your own podcast in other podcasts where there’s like to be audience overlap. Traditional PR as well as clever use of clips for social media can be great too, and placing your show next to relevant industry stories online. Of course, Message Heard has expertise in all these things, and we’d be happy to help.
How a podcast production company can help
As you can see, there's a lot to think about when it comes to getting your podcast out there. While going it alone is possible, partnering with a podcast production company can save you time, stress, and ensure you hit the ground running.
A good podcast production agency will handle all the technical aspects, from setting up your RSS feed to distributing your show across various platforms. They'll also have the expertise to optimize your podcast for discoverability, helping you reach a wider audience and achieve your podcasting goals.
Here at Message Heard, we're passionate about helping businesses like yours harness the power of podcasts. We can guide you through the entire process, from the initial planning stages to publishing and promotion. Our team has the skills and experience to ensure your podcast is not just heard, but truly makes an impact.