January 9, 2024 • 20 mins
In Episode 09 of How to Start a Podcast, you'll learn how to submit your new podcast to all the top listening apps and directories.
Next Steps:
- Submit your Show to Apple Podcasts (Blog)
- Submit your Show to Spotify (Blog)
- Submit your show to Google Podcasts (Blog)
- Submit your show to the Podcast Index (Submission Form)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
these directories are really acting like a phone book
Gilon (00:03):
phone, but they did your cell phone
Alban (00:06):
service is not in the book
Gilon (00:16):
Welcome to How To Start A Podcast podcast about starting
your podcast. I'm Gilon
Alban (00:21):
I'm Alban. In this episode, we're talking about how
to get your podcasts listed inApple podcasts, Spotify, and
Google podcasts.
Gilon (00:29):
So first things first, there's a lot of lingo in the
podcasting world. What is adirectory? Why are you laughing?
Alban (00:35):
I'm laughing because our first mock to my best idea, but
this is this is all we have. Sowhat is a podcast directory?
Well, the misconception is thatall these directories host your
files, so a lot of people saythings like, how do I upload my
podcast to Apple, and that won'twork. Apple doesn't accept
podcasts just being uploaded.
Instead, what's happening isyou're uploading your podcast
(00:57):
somewhere like Buzzsprout. Andthen we're helping get your
podcasts listed. And Applepodcasts is just a listing. And
it's similar to a phonebook.
This is something that happeneda long time ago. Every time I
say phonebook July just laughs
Gilon (01:15):
just dating so deeply.
It's you have to explain what itis because there are people that
have no, they have no idea theywere not alive. I think
Alban (01:21):
most people know what a phonebook is, but phonebook is
just a listing of phone numbersand names. So you could find
businesses and people and youcould search for them in this
book, and then call them on yourphone, Apple podcasts is really
just providing a listing of allthe podcasts. And so they're a
centralized place for you tosearch for podcasts and find
them and subscribe. And there'sreally four major podcast
(01:46):
directories. So there's fourthat are super important. And
there's always new ones poppingup. So we're going to kind of
talk through all the top onestoday,
Gilon (01:53):
the big four, right, like a Football Conference of
directory for the big four. Sowho would you say are the big
players in the directory world,
Alban (02:05):
head over to buzzsprout.com/global stats, and
you can see the platformstatistics for all of
Buzzsprout. These are all theapps that are downloading the
shows that are listed onBuzzsprout. So we can figure out
which are the biggest in theworld. And by a good margin is
Apple podcast with 37.2% of alldownloads are coming through
(02:27):
Apple podcasts, just that singleapp. Next up is Spotify at 28%.
So it's really strong. And thenwe go way, way, way, way down.
You got those two really bigones. And then people are
playing in web browsers mostlikely that next and that's 2.8%
Oh, wow. And the next app isGoogle podcasts. 2.3. And then
(02:51):
there's tons of other ones thatare around like the one 2.7%. So
really, you have a third lotbigger than a third Apple,
trying to get to a thirdSpotify. And then about a third
left for everything else. So thebig four in my mind are Apple
podcast, Google podcasts,Spotify, and podcast index. So
(03:16):
those are the four we will talkthrough today, because they're
all slightly different. And ifyou're getting your podcast
listed in each of those, yourpodcasts will probably show up
almost everywhere.
Gilon (03:25):
Yeah. And so we're talking about directories. We've
already sort of told you whatthey are, who the big ones are.
So then why would you want to bein a directory, there are a lot
of different reasons that peoplelist with directories. But the
big thing is exposure, right?
You want your content availableto as many people as possible.
And for most people, this iskind of the way that they want
to go, we want growth of thepodcast, audience growth, that's
a central metric of successfulpodcast. And other people may
(03:48):
just, you know, want to stick toone or two, which is completely
fine. There's not a right orwrong answer. But for the most
part, making your content asavailable as possible, as widely
available as possible is a goodgrowth strategy.
Alban (04:01):
So the default should be putting it into all these
because there's no additionalwork. Once you get listed. It's
just a one time submissionprocess. But sometimes people
decide not to place theirpodcast everywhere. So
Buzzsprout, some of our showsare not in Spotify, because
we're not big fans of howthey're trying to consolidate
the entire industry. There'speople who have exclusive shows
(04:22):
to one platform. So think ofsome of the shows that have gone
exclusive to Spotify, thenthere's some that only put out
episodes that are a little bitolder into certain platforms.
And then you have some peoplewho have actually not put their
podcasts and Spotify or taken itout due to disagreeing with some
of the content on theirplatform. So the default should
(04:43):
be put it everywhere. And thenif you have a reason maybe would
it put it into one or more ofthese directories,
Gilon (04:48):
just like each platform was a little bit different. This
submission process also can varypretty widely, depending on the
directory. So let's start withthe big name Apple podcasts.
Apple is probably You know wheremost people go to listen.
Historically, even Apple podcasthas been like one of the leader
leaders when it comes toproviding podcasts to the
general public. But they canalso be a little bit finicky
(05:11):
when it comes to getting yourpodcast listed. So we're going
to take you through thatprocess.
Alban (05:14):
Apple has been around the longest. So iTunes started
allowing podcasts into thesystem almost 16 years ago now.
So back I think, like 2006 waswhen they first did it. And it
really paved the way for lots ofpodcasts to get discovered,
because people had iPods andthey were downloading podcast to
iTunes, and they would movethose podcasts over and listen
(05:35):
to them while they're out in theworld. So it's always been
really important. So the defaultpodcast app is podcasts on
iPhone that is pulling fromApple podcasts, it also will
help you get listed in otherdirectories because Apple puts
their list of approved podcaststhat they've already vetted out
(05:56):
for any other podcast app touse. So there's lots of apps
like overcast that they justsay, I'm just going to show
whatever Apple shows, that'swhat I will show. So it's really
important and is the first oneto get into. Alright, so
Gilon (06:09):
let's talk through some of the pieces that you need to
get listed into Apple podcasts.
So first things first, you needa lot of the basic things we
talked about, like having atitle, having your author
figured out the description,those should be done. If you've
been following along and doingyour homework from the previous
episodes,
Alban (06:25):
then you're going to want to upload your podcast artwork.
So we talked to all thoseparameters, and you probably
created in the last episode. Sonow that you've got that ready,
upload that into Buzzsprout. Andpick your podcast category, you
can pick three, but you reallywant to pick one, make sure that
first one, that's the one thatApple is going to focus on. So
(06:46):
that's the one you want to makesure is the most reflective of
your podcast,
Gilon (06:50):
I will say that cover art is one of those things that
tends to cause delays whenpeople are submitting to Apple.
So it's really important thatyou get this right. So artwork,
all the other stuff, we needthat, then you absolutely have
to have a first episode, youactually cannot submit your
podcast to a directory withoutan episode. And it has to be a
published episode. So make sureyou've uploaded that episode,
(07:12):
like we talked about before.
Alban (07:13):
All these are really important because without these
things being done, I thinkactually in Buzzsprout, we will
not allow you to submit yourpodcast because we know it won't
work that is correct. But ifsome of these are a little bit
off, so it's hard for us to knowexactly the your artwork is like
two pixels off. But when Applegets it and they see those
artworks off, they aren't goingto approve it. And sometimes
(07:35):
those back and forth delays,they can cause a lot of hiccups.
So it's best just to make surewe have this done right on the
front end for so when we submitit's all smooth sailing. So now
that we've met theserequirements, we're ready to
actually submit our podcast, youwould go into Buzzsprout. And
then you go into thatdirectories tab, and under Apple
(07:56):
podcasts, you click get listed.
And there we will let you copyyour RSS feed. So this is just a
URL that has all the info aboutyour podcast. And if you
actually look at the page, itjust looks like a bunch of
computer code. But it's got allthe information, the title, the
description, the where you canget the links to the episodes,
all that is included, then youwill go to Apple podcasts and
(08:20):
create an apple id. If you ownan iPhone, or a Mac, or iPad, or
any Apple device, you have anApple ID already. And you can
use that one for this as well.
And it's preferable if you'reusing the same Apple ID you
already have. Now, let's headover to Apple podcast connect.
(08:42):
So this is a special websitewhere you can log in to submit a
podcast. So we log in, and youjust kind of walk through pretty
basic steps. So you can followthese along inside of
Buzzsprout. But you click theplus icon and you say I want to
add a new show and then you dropin the RSS feed from Buzzsprout.
And then what Apple is going todo is say, alright, we're
(09:04):
looking at this and we're seeingthere's an episode or saying
there's a category we'll seethere's a title, and they kind
of let you review it. And youclick Submit. And then there
will be a human review. So thisis the big difference with Apple
and pretty much every otherdirectory. All the other
directories are just lettingpeople submit, where Apple is
really actually checking thesewith a person. So it's a really
(09:26):
wonderful service. They're kindof providing for free for the
podcasting community. And makesure this stuff isn't just
complete spam that's gettinginto Apple podcasts. So it's
really nice. In about onaverage, I'd say it's like every
four days, but it can take up totwo weeks, you will get an email
that says your podcast has beenapproved. And you can go ahead
(09:47):
and celebrate because now yourpodcast is in Apple podcasts.
Gilon (09:50):
Yeah, if you got through that everything else will be a
breeze except for maybe Pandora.
Alban (09:54):
Pandora will definitely be harder but it's not one of
our top apps and most importantones so maybe not as critical.
So those are the steps for Applepodcasts. If you have any
questions, you should have stepby step instructions inside of
Buzzsprout. We have videos, wehave a guide out on the web. But
you can also reach out to Jalon.
And everybody else on thesupport team at support at
Buzzsprout COMM And they'll getback to you really, really
(10:17):
quickly.
Gilon (10:19):
It's true, we will next have our Big Four, Spotify.
What's the process for gettinginto Spotify,
Alban (10:25):
Spotify is quite a bit easier. The main thing you need
to be worried about with Spotifyis the do not have copyrighted
music. So the thing that theyhave that's a little bit
different is when you submit toSpotify, inside Buzzsprout,
you're just going to go and saythere's directories, Spotify get
listed. And then if you havealready gone through the apple
(10:46):
process, you must have alreadydone the things we need to do.
Like I have a title, I have adescription, I have my category
picked out my episode. Allthat's done. Now you just click
a button that says Submit toSpotify. And we submit for you
right then, and mostly withinlike two to three minutes you
are listed. So it's a really,really fast turnaround. And if
(11:08):
you've gone through the appleprocess, you know that
everything's already beenaccomplished. That is just a one
click entry. The big difference,though, with Spotify is they are
going to check for copyrightedmusic. And if there's
copyrighted music, it may take aday before they find it. But
when they find it, they're justgoing to kick you out. So don't
put copyrighted music in yourpodcast, just go ahead and pony
(11:30):
up a little bit of money onaudio jungle or one of these
websites and get some goodmusic. Don't try to take an
Ariana Grande song, it's notgoing to be your podcast jingle.
Gilon (11:39):
I mean, we recommend owning the copyright or the
license to anything you upload.
But Spotify is definitely very,very specific. So we've seen
some people that have like,they're like a DJ, and they have
a podcast about music mixes andthings like that. And they'll
suddenly not see their podcastson Spotify and like what
happened and Spotify is quick topull music podcast out without
really giving. I mean, they givea warning, but you'll kind of
(12:01):
notice your podcast is gonebefore you see that email.
Alban (12:05):
It makes sense because mostly these DJ podcasts and DJ
shows they are actuallylicensing the music. And so if
you think like, oh, it's morelike radio where I don't
actually have to own thelicenses, different rules for
radio different rules forpodcasts. So if you're putting
together a Dj Mix, that's notgoing to work on Buzzsprout. And
it's just a matter of time untilSpotify then Buzzsprout end up
(12:28):
having to pull your show. So ifit's not licensed music, don't
put it on Buzzsprout.
Gilon (12:33):
Alright, Google podcasts.
What's the process for Googlepodcasts?
Travis (12:37):
I can answer this one Gilon. So Google podcasts
operate a little bitdifferently, because it's a part
of the larger Google platform.
And so Google, the searchengine, normally goes through
and looks over the internet andtries to find new websites that
hasn't discovered before. And ifit finds websites or pages that
have podcast material on it, itsays, Oh, that you go and google
podcasts. And so when they firstlaunched Google podcasts, that
(12:58):
was the only way you could getin, you had to wait for Google
to find your show. But then nottoo long ago, they rolled out
Google podcasts Manager, whichis a platform that you can go to
to see how your podcast isshowing up and being consumed in
Google podcasts. And you'dactually add shows inside of
there. And so rather thanwaiting for Google to discover
you, you can say, hey, Google,I'm right over here, you should
(13:19):
list my show in Google podcasts.
So if you go to the directoriestab, instead of Buzzsprout, like
you have for Apple podcasts andSpotify, and click on Google
podcasts, there's a link thereto go to Google podcasts. And
you can manually submit yourshow to be included. They'll
send a verification email to theemail that you've put in the
podcast info for your show. Andit doesn't take too long after
(13:40):
you go through that submissionprocess for your podcast to show
up.
Alban (13:44):
So the last is the podcast index. And we talked a
little bit how Apple hasprovided a service to the
podcasting industry bymaintaining the apple podcast
directory. And the reason that'sa service is because not only
did they approve it for Applepodcasts, they made it so
anybody could download the listof all of the apple podcast
(14:04):
approved shows. And so there'slots of apps like overcast and
Pocket Cast and castbox. And anythird party app that wanted was
able to say, hey, just let mesee the full list of the 2
million shows that you'vealready approved. So for a long
time, Apple podcast was the onlygroup maintaining a central
directory that everybody elsecould use. And I think a few
(14:28):
years ago, as Spotify enteredthe game and Google more
podcasters were gettingconcerned like, oh, maybe apple
won't provide this service forfree forever. And so that's
where the podcast index camefrom. The podcast index is just
a place for anybody to submittheir show. And it's a
centralized hub for any app tobe able to download a list of
(14:49):
all the shows. So it's kind of abackup for what Apple podcasts
is providing. They're both doingsimilar things. Podcast index
just has a little bit easiersubmission form. process. So,
inside of Buzzsprout, you justclick to submit to the podcast
index. And all of your data hasbeen sent over there. And any
app that uses that for searchwill now be able to find your
(15:13):
podcast.
Gilon (15:13):
So we've talked about a number of podcast directories,
our top four, but there's athing about more companies
getting into the podcastinggame. So we're actually seeing a
lot of new directories as timegoes on. So what are some of
those new directories that we'veseen over the past couple years,
Alban (15:29):
there's a lot that kind of come and go, you mentioned
Pandora, there was a moment whenPandora seemed really interested
in podcasting. That's kind of acumbersome process to submit.
And then it may be months andmonths before you get approved.
But it's not a super importantone yet, Amazon music now has
podcasts. And you could submitto Amazon music that's
(15:51):
relatively easy. Facebook haslaunched some podcasting
features, they're almost a yearold, but they're really only US
centric right now. And for a fewpodcasters, they've actually
seen a decent amount of playsthrough Facebook. So there's
just lots of new options comingup all the time, whenever one
gets big enough, and needs adifferent submission process.
(16:15):
Buzzsprout will always go andupdate our directories page. So
if you spend an afternoon you gothrough and you submit all the
ones that we have available, youcan just rest assured, you've
got all your bases covered. Ifthere's anything that comes up
that needs its own uniquesubmission process, and is
actually has like point oh 1% ofthe market, then you can be
(16:37):
confident that it will be insideof Buzzsprout.
Gilon (16:38):
And I do want to make this distinction. Because I know
we've gotten a lot of emails andsupport where people upload
their content and be like,alright, so you put it on Apple
for me, didn't you? And it'slike, no, you do have to go
through the process. So wefacilitate the submission
process. But we do want you tobe able to go through that and
submit yourself so that youmaintain ownership of your
listing. So if you, God forbid,were to leave Buzzsprout, you
would be able to just move thata lot more seamlessly than if we
(17:00):
owned the listing as a company.
Alban (17:02):
Yeah, a long time ago. So back when I was the only person
working in support forBuzzsprout, people would write
in and say, I'm so confused. AndI would just go and submit their
URL for them. Because you didn'tactually put in any information
about yourself, you just put inthe RSS feed and click Submit.
Then when they rolled out Applepodcast, connect all the
(17:23):
podcasts that were associatedwith your Apple ID showed up.
And there are a lot of thingsyou could do. You could change
things about the show, you couldremove it from Apple, you could
redirect the feed. And then whatI saw was there were actually
like 12 shows that had been tiedto my Apple ID. And some of them
were still active. And so overtime, some of them asked, say,
(17:44):
Hey, can I get this shift overto me, I think there's still one
or two that are active, that areyou know, for five plus years,
they didn't have that listingconnected to them. So it's just
a benefit for you to submityourself because then you have
more control, more analytics,because a lot of these podcast
directories are going to providereally cool analytics on top of
(18:07):
your Buzzsprout stats. So insideof Buzzsprout, you could see,
oh, I had my podcast, downloaded200 times by Apple podcasts,
then you can actually click into Apple podcast dashboard
there. And you could see, well,that was actually by this many
people and they played it thismany times. And here's they
mostly listened through to the18 minute mark, and then they
(18:30):
dropped off. So you get moredata. When you have access to
all these platforms, uniquestats yourself. So Apple,
Spotify, Stitcher and Googlepodcast each have some
additional statistics that theyprovide inside their independent
dashboards.
Gilon (18:47):
Alright, so we have talked about the benefits of
podcast directories, how to getinto some of them, and all that
good stuff. Travis, is thereanything else any other
resources you would recommendfor them to just broaden their
knowledge base.
Travis (18:59):
So I would say if you plan on using Buzzsprout to host
your podcast and distributed toall these apps, the number one
thing you should do is just goahead and knock out all the
things you got to do to get yourpodcast ready to submit episode
titles, show title, showdescription, podcast, artwork,
categories, all the stuff yougot to do, and then just go step
by step through the instructionsin our directories tab. Now, if
(19:20):
you're planning on using adifferent podcast host, I will
link resources in thedescription of this episode to
help you walk through thatprocess manually. So no matter
where you host, your podcast,you know how to get your show
listed in all the maindirectories but just go ahead
and set aside some time to knockall these directory submissions
out. Like we said, it's a onetime thing you do it once at the
(19:41):
very beginning, then you neverhave to worry about it again.
And your podcast is availableeverywhere. The last thing you
want is to say hey, you shouldgo listen to my new awesome
podcast. And then your friendcomes back and says, I can't
find it in the app that Ilistened to. Are you sure that
you actually have a podcastthat's available to listen to?
You don't want that to happen toyou. So just go ahead and make
your point. podcasts areavailable everywhere that you
(20:02):
feel comfortable with. And thenthat's really going to help set
up your podcast for
Alban (20:05):
success. In the next episode, we are going to be
launching your podcast. So we'reat the end. If you've been
following along with yourhomework as John puts it, you
will be ready to launch yourpodcast as well go ahead and
submit your podcast to thosedirectories. And in the next
episode, we're on thehomestretch so looking forward
to seeing you there. As
Gilon (20:24):
always keep podcasting
these directories are really acting like a phone book
Gilon (00:03):
phone, but they did your cell phone
Alban (00:06):
service is not in the book
Gilon (00:16):
Welcome to How To Start A Podcast podcast about starting
your podcast. I'm Gilon
Alban (00:21):
I'm Alban. In this episode, we're talking about how
to get your podcasts listed inApple podcasts, Spotify, and
Google podcasts.
Gilon (00:29):
So first things first, there's a lot of lingo in the
podcasting world. What is adirectory? Why are you laughing?
Alban (00:35):
I'm laughing because our first mock to my best idea, but
this is this is all we have. Sowhat is a podcast directory?
Well, the misconception is thatall these directories host your
files, so a lot of people saythings like, how do I upload my
podcast to Apple, and that won'twork. Apple doesn't accept
podcasts just being uploaded.
Instead, what's happening isyou're uploading your podcast
(00:57):
somewhere like Buzzsprout. Andthen we're helping get your
podcasts listed. And Applepodcasts is just a listing. And
it's similar to a phonebook.
This is something that happeneda long time ago. Every time I
say phonebook July just laughs
Gilon (01:15):
just dating so deeply.
It's you have to explain what itis because there are people that
have no, they have no idea theywere not alive. I think
Alban (01:21):
most people know what a phonebook is, but phonebook is
just a listing of phone numbersand names. So you could find
businesses and people and youcould search for them in this
book, and then call them on yourphone, Apple podcasts is really
just providing a listing of allthe podcasts. And so they're a
centralized place for you tosearch for podcasts and find
them and subscribe. And there'sreally four major podcast
(01:46):
directories. So there's fourthat are super important. And
there's always new ones poppingup. So we're going to kind of
talk through all the top onestoday,
Gilon (01:53):
the big four, right, like a Football Conference of
directory for the big four. Sowho would you say are the big
players in the directory world,
Alban (02:05):
head over to buzzsprout.com/global stats, and
you can see the platformstatistics for all of
Buzzsprout. These are all theapps that are downloading the
shows that are listed onBuzzsprout. So we can figure out
which are the biggest in theworld. And by a good margin is
Apple podcast with 37.2% of alldownloads are coming through
(02:27):
Apple podcasts, just that singleapp. Next up is Spotify at 28%.
So it's really strong. And thenwe go way, way, way, way down.
You got those two really bigones. And then people are
playing in web browsers mostlikely that next and that's 2.8%
Oh, wow. And the next app isGoogle podcasts. 2.3. And then
(02:51):
there's tons of other ones thatare around like the one 2.7%. So
really, you have a third lotbigger than a third Apple,
trying to get to a thirdSpotify. And then about a third
left for everything else. So thebig four in my mind are Apple
podcast, Google podcasts,Spotify, and podcast index. So
(03:16):
those are the four we will talkthrough today, because they're
all slightly different. And ifyou're getting your podcast
listed in each of those, yourpodcasts will probably show up
almost everywhere.
Gilon (03:25):
Yeah. And so we're talking about directories. We've
already sort of told you whatthey are, who the big ones are.
So then why would you want to bein a directory, there are a lot
of different reasons that peoplelist with directories. But the
big thing is exposure, right?
You want your content availableto as many people as possible.
And for most people, this iskind of the way that they want
to go, we want growth of thepodcast, audience growth, that's
a central metric of successfulpodcast. And other people may
(03:48):
just, you know, want to stick toone or two, which is completely
fine. There's not a right orwrong answer. But for the most
part, making your content asavailable as possible, as widely
available as possible is a goodgrowth strategy.
Alban (04:01):
So the default should be putting it into all these
because there's no additionalwork. Once you get listed. It's
just a one time submissionprocess. But sometimes people
decide not to place theirpodcast everywhere. So
Buzzsprout, some of our showsare not in Spotify, because
we're not big fans of howthey're trying to consolidate
the entire industry. There'speople who have exclusive shows
(04:22):
to one platform. So think ofsome of the shows that have gone
exclusive to Spotify, thenthere's some that only put out
episodes that are a little bitolder into certain platforms.
And then you have some peoplewho have actually not put their
podcasts and Spotify or taken itout due to disagreeing with some
of the content on theirplatform. So the default should
(04:43):
be put it everywhere. And thenif you have a reason maybe would
it put it into one or more ofthese directories,
Gilon (04:48):
just like each platform was a little bit different. This
submission process also can varypretty widely, depending on the
directory. So let's start withthe big name Apple podcasts.
Apple is probably You know wheremost people go to listen.
Historically, even Apple podcasthas been like one of the leader
leaders when it comes toproviding podcasts to the
general public. But they canalso be a little bit finicky
(05:11):
when it comes to getting yourpodcast listed. So we're going
to take you through thatprocess.
Alban (05:14):
Apple has been around the longest. So iTunes started
allowing podcasts into thesystem almost 16 years ago now.
So back I think, like 2006 waswhen they first did it. And it
really paved the way for lots ofpodcasts to get discovered,
because people had iPods andthey were downloading podcast to
iTunes, and they would movethose podcasts over and listen
(05:35):
to them while they're out in theworld. So it's always been
really important. So the defaultpodcast app is podcasts on
iPhone that is pulling fromApple podcasts, it also will
help you get listed in otherdirectories because Apple puts
their list of approved podcaststhat they've already vetted out
(05:56):
for any other podcast app touse. So there's lots of apps
like overcast that they justsay, I'm just going to show
whatever Apple shows, that'swhat I will show. So it's really
important and is the first oneto get into. Alright, so
Gilon (06:09):
let's talk through some of the pieces that you need to
get listed into Apple podcasts.
So first things first, you needa lot of the basic things we
talked about, like having atitle, having your author
figured out the description,those should be done. If you've
been following along and doingyour homework from the previous
episodes,
Alban (06:25):
then you're going to want to upload your podcast artwork.
So we talked to all thoseparameters, and you probably
created in the last episode. Sonow that you've got that ready,
upload that into Buzzsprout. Andpick your podcast category, you
can pick three, but you reallywant to pick one, make sure that
first one, that's the one thatApple is going to focus on. So
(06:46):
that's the one you want to makesure is the most reflective of
your podcast,
Gilon (06:50):
I will say that cover art is one of those things that
tends to cause delays whenpeople are submitting to Apple.
So it's really important thatyou get this right. So artwork,
all the other stuff, we needthat, then you absolutely have
to have a first episode, youactually cannot submit your
podcast to a directory withoutan episode. And it has to be a
published episode. So make sureyou've uploaded that episode,
(07:12):
like we talked about before.
Alban (07:13):
All these are really important because without these
things being done, I thinkactually in Buzzsprout, we will
not allow you to submit yourpodcast because we know it won't
work that is correct. But ifsome of these are a little bit
off, so it's hard for us to knowexactly the your artwork is like
two pixels off. But when Applegets it and they see those
artworks off, they aren't goingto approve it. And sometimes
(07:35):
those back and forth delays,they can cause a lot of hiccups.
So it's best just to make surewe have this done right on the
front end for so when we submitit's all smooth sailing. So now
that we've met theserequirements, we're ready to
actually submit our podcast, youwould go into Buzzsprout. And
then you go into thatdirectories tab, and under Apple
(07:56):
podcasts, you click get listed.
And there we will let you copyyour RSS feed. So this is just a
URL that has all the info aboutyour podcast. And if you
actually look at the page, itjust looks like a bunch of
computer code. But it's got allthe information, the title, the
description, the where you canget the links to the episodes,
all that is included, then youwill go to Apple podcasts and
(08:20):
create an apple id. If you ownan iPhone, or a Mac, or iPad, or
any Apple device, you have anApple ID already. And you can
use that one for this as well.
And it's preferable if you'reusing the same Apple ID you
already have. Now, let's headover to Apple podcast connect.
(08:42):
So this is a special websitewhere you can log in to submit a
podcast. So we log in, and youjust kind of walk through pretty
basic steps. So you can followthese along inside of
Buzzsprout. But you click theplus icon and you say I want to
add a new show and then you dropin the RSS feed from Buzzsprout.
And then what Apple is going todo is say, alright, we're
(09:04):
looking at this and we're seeingthere's an episode or saying
there's a category we'll seethere's a title, and they kind
of let you review it. And youclick Submit. And then there
will be a human review. So thisis the big difference with Apple
and pretty much every otherdirectory. All the other
directories are just lettingpeople submit, where Apple is
really actually checking thesewith a person. So it's a really
(09:26):
wonderful service. They're kindof providing for free for the
podcasting community. And makesure this stuff isn't just
complete spam that's gettinginto Apple podcasts. So it's
really nice. In about onaverage, I'd say it's like every
four days, but it can take up totwo weeks, you will get an email
that says your podcast has beenapproved. And you can go ahead
(09:47):
and celebrate because now yourpodcast is in Apple podcasts.
Gilon (09:50):
Yeah, if you got through that everything else will be a
breeze except for maybe Pandora.
Alban (09:54):
Pandora will definitely be harder but it's not one of
our top apps and most importantones so maybe not as critical.
So those are the steps for Applepodcasts. If you have any
questions, you should have stepby step instructions inside of
Buzzsprout. We have videos, wehave a guide out on the web. But
you can also reach out to Jalon.
And everybody else on thesupport team at support at
Buzzsprout COMM And they'll getback to you really, really
(10:17):
quickly.
Gilon (10:19):
It's true, we will next have our Big Four, Spotify.
What's the process for gettinginto Spotify,
Alban (10:25):
Spotify is quite a bit easier. The main thing you need
to be worried about with Spotifyis the do not have copyrighted
music. So the thing that theyhave that's a little bit
different is when you submit toSpotify, inside Buzzsprout,
you're just going to go and saythere's directories, Spotify get
listed. And then if you havealready gone through the apple
(10:46):
process, you must have alreadydone the things we need to do.
Like I have a title, I have adescription, I have my category
picked out my episode. Allthat's done. Now you just click
a button that says Submit toSpotify. And we submit for you
right then, and mostly withinlike two to three minutes you
are listed. So it's a really,really fast turnaround. And if
(11:08):
you've gone through the appleprocess, you know that
everything's already beenaccomplished. That is just a one
click entry. The big difference,though, with Spotify is they are
going to check for copyrightedmusic. And if there's
copyrighted music, it may take aday before they find it. But
when they find it, they're justgoing to kick you out. So don't
put copyrighted music in yourpodcast, just go ahead and pony
(11:30):
up a little bit of money onaudio jungle or one of these
websites and get some goodmusic. Don't try to take an
Ariana Grande song, it's notgoing to be your podcast jingle.
Gilon (11:39):
I mean, we recommend owning the copyright or the
license to anything you upload.
But Spotify is definitely very,very specific. So we've seen
some people that have like,they're like a DJ, and they have
a podcast about music mixes andthings like that. And they'll
suddenly not see their podcastson Spotify and like what
happened and Spotify is quick topull music podcast out without
really giving. I mean, they givea warning, but you'll kind of
(12:01):
notice your podcast is gonebefore you see that email.
Alban (12:05):
It makes sense because mostly these DJ podcasts and DJ
shows they are actuallylicensing the music. And so if
you think like, oh, it's morelike radio where I don't
actually have to own thelicenses, different rules for
radio different rules forpodcasts. So if you're putting
together a Dj Mix, that's notgoing to work on Buzzsprout. And
it's just a matter of time untilSpotify then Buzzsprout end up
(12:28):
having to pull your show. So ifit's not licensed music, don't
put it on Buzzsprout.
Gilon (12:33):
Alright, Google podcasts.
What's the process for Googlepodcasts?
Travis (12:37):
I can answer this one Gilon. So Google podcasts
operate a little bitdifferently, because it's a part
of the larger Google platform.
And so Google, the searchengine, normally goes through
and looks over the internet andtries to find new websites that
hasn't discovered before. And ifit finds websites or pages that
have podcast material on it, itsays, Oh, that you go and google
podcasts. And so when they firstlaunched Google podcasts, that
(12:58):
was the only way you could getin, you had to wait for Google
to find your show. But then nottoo long ago, they rolled out
Google podcasts Manager, whichis a platform that you can go to
to see how your podcast isshowing up and being consumed in
Google podcasts. And you'dactually add shows inside of
there. And so rather thanwaiting for Google to discover
you, you can say, hey, Google,I'm right over here, you should
(13:19):
list my show in Google podcasts.
So if you go to the directoriestab, instead of Buzzsprout, like
you have for Apple podcasts andSpotify, and click on Google
podcasts, there's a link thereto go to Google podcasts. And
you can manually submit yourshow to be included. They'll
send a verification email to theemail that you've put in the
podcast info for your show. Andit doesn't take too long after
(13:40):
you go through that submissionprocess for your podcast to show
up.
Alban (13:44):
So the last is the podcast index. And we talked a
little bit how Apple hasprovided a service to the
podcasting industry bymaintaining the apple podcast
directory. And the reason that'sa service is because not only
did they approve it for Applepodcasts, they made it so
anybody could download the listof all of the apple podcast
(14:04):
approved shows. And so there'slots of apps like overcast and
Pocket Cast and castbox. And anythird party app that wanted was
able to say, hey, just let mesee the full list of the 2
million shows that you'vealready approved. So for a long
time, Apple podcast was the onlygroup maintaining a central
directory that everybody elsecould use. And I think a few
(14:28):
years ago, as Spotify enteredthe game and Google more
podcasters were gettingconcerned like, oh, maybe apple
won't provide this service forfree forever. And so that's
where the podcast index camefrom. The podcast index is just
a place for anybody to submittheir show. And it's a
centralized hub for any app tobe able to download a list of
(14:49):
all the shows. So it's kind of abackup for what Apple podcasts
is providing. They're both doingsimilar things. Podcast index
just has a little bit easiersubmission form. process. So,
inside of Buzzsprout, you justclick to submit to the podcast
index. And all of your data hasbeen sent over there. And any
app that uses that for searchwill now be able to find your
(15:13):
podcast.
Gilon (15:13):
So we've talked about a number of podcast directories,
our top four, but there's athing about more companies
getting into the podcastinggame. So we're actually seeing a
lot of new directories as timegoes on. So what are some of
those new directories that we'veseen over the past couple years,
Alban (15:29):
there's a lot that kind of come and go, you mentioned
Pandora, there was a moment whenPandora seemed really interested
in podcasting. That's kind of acumbersome process to submit.
And then it may be months andmonths before you get approved.
But it's not a super importantone yet, Amazon music now has
podcasts. And you could submitto Amazon music that's
(15:51):
relatively easy. Facebook haslaunched some podcasting
features, they're almost a yearold, but they're really only US
centric right now. And for a fewpodcasters, they've actually
seen a decent amount of playsthrough Facebook. So there's
just lots of new options comingup all the time, whenever one
gets big enough, and needs adifferent submission process.
(16:15):
Buzzsprout will always go andupdate our directories page. So
if you spend an afternoon you gothrough and you submit all the
ones that we have available, youcan just rest assured, you've
got all your bases covered. Ifthere's anything that comes up
that needs its own uniquesubmission process, and is
actually has like point oh 1% ofthe market, then you can be
(16:37):
confident that it will be insideof Buzzsprout.
Gilon (16:38):
And I do want to make this distinction. Because I know
we've gotten a lot of emails andsupport where people upload
their content and be like,alright, so you put it on Apple
for me, didn't you? And it'slike, no, you do have to go
through the process. So wefacilitate the submission
process. But we do want you tobe able to go through that and
submit yourself so that youmaintain ownership of your
listing. So if you, God forbid,were to leave Buzzsprout, you
would be able to just move thata lot more seamlessly than if we
(17:00):
owned the listing as a company.
Alban (17:02):
Yeah, a long time ago. So back when I was the only person
working in support forBuzzsprout, people would write
in and say, I'm so confused. AndI would just go and submit their
URL for them. Because you didn'tactually put in any information
about yourself, you just put inthe RSS feed and click Submit.
Then when they rolled out Applepodcast, connect all the
(17:23):
podcasts that were associatedwith your Apple ID showed up.
And there are a lot of thingsyou could do. You could change
things about the show, you couldremove it from Apple, you could
redirect the feed. And then whatI saw was there were actually
like 12 shows that had been tiedto my Apple ID. And some of them
were still active. And so overtime, some of them asked, say,
(17:44):
Hey, can I get this shift overto me, I think there's still one
or two that are active, that areyou know, for five plus years,
they didn't have that listingconnected to them. So it's just
a benefit for you to submityourself because then you have
more control, more analytics,because a lot of these podcast
directories are going to providereally cool analytics on top of
(18:07):
your Buzzsprout stats. So insideof Buzzsprout, you could see,
oh, I had my podcast, downloaded200 times by Apple podcasts,
then you can actually click into Apple podcast dashboard
there. And you could see, well,that was actually by this many
people and they played it thismany times. And here's they
mostly listened through to the18 minute mark, and then they
(18:30):
dropped off. So you get moredata. When you have access to
all these platforms, uniquestats yourself. So Apple,
Spotify, Stitcher and Googlepodcast each have some
additional statistics that theyprovide inside their independent
dashboards.
Gilon (18:47):
Alright, so we have talked about the benefits of
podcast directories, how to getinto some of them, and all that
good stuff. Travis, is thereanything else any other
resources you would recommendfor them to just broaden their
knowledge base.
Travis (18:59):
So I would say if you plan on using Buzzsprout to host
your podcast and distributed toall these apps, the number one
thing you should do is just goahead and knock out all the
things you got to do to get yourpodcast ready to submit episode
titles, show title, showdescription, podcast, artwork,
categories, all the stuff yougot to do, and then just go step
by step through the instructionsin our directories tab. Now, if
(19:20):
you're planning on using adifferent podcast host, I will
link resources in thedescription of this episode to
help you walk through thatprocess manually. So no matter
where you host, your podcast,you know how to get your show
listed in all the maindirectories but just go ahead
and set aside some time to knockall these directory submissions
out. Like we said, it's a onetime thing you do it once at the
(19:41):
very beginning, then you neverhave to worry about it again.
And your podcast is availableeverywhere. The last thing you
want is to say hey, you shouldgo listen to my new awesome
podcast. And then your friendcomes back and says, I can't
find it in the app that Ilistened to. Are you sure that
you actually have a podcastthat's available to listen to?
You don't want that to happen toyou. So just go ahead and make
your point. podcasts areavailable everywhere that you
(20:02):
feel comfortable with. And thenthat's really going to help set
up your podcast for
Alban (20:05):
success. In the next episode, we are going to be
launching your podcast. So we'reat the end. If you've been
following along with yourhomework as John puts it, you
will be ready to launch yourpodcast as well go ahead and
submit your podcast to thosedirectories. And in the next
episode, we're on thehomestretch so looking forward
to seeing you there. As
Gilon (20:24):
always keep podcasting
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