10: Distribution

You've recorded your podcast, edited and mixed it, and uploaded the final MP3 to your hosting service... now what? Now you need to get it everywhere so that it can be heard.

Listening to podcasts frees up your eyes so you'll notice the ceiling more often, and its delights!

The RSS Feed

The RSS feed of your podcast is created by your Host service - if you're setting up your own host platform, you'll need to write your own RSS feed.

An RSS feed is a type of web feed that allows applications (podcast apps) to get updates from websites. So whenever you upload and publish a new podcast episode, the RSS feed will reflect the update and send the new information to the various podcast syndication platforms (iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, etc) which will then have access to the new episode.

A typical RSS feed.

Hosting Services

A lot of Host platforms (Libsyn, Blubrry, Anchor, etc) offer some degree of distribution to syndication platforms for your published episodes. But, just in case yours doesn't, I'll list a few here with links where you can submit your podcast's RSS feed.

The RSS feed is coded in an XML file accessible as a URL, like a website address, and is accessible through your host platform, for example:

​www.yourpodcasthost.com/yourpodcastname.xml

This URL is what you copy and paste, and send to the various syndication platforms to get your podcast submitted.

Even though Chloe, Dave, Martin, Isobel, and Emma all used different podcast apps, they were all able to listen to the same episode of the same podcast at the same time, and annoy the people below them.

Popular Syndication Platforms

The Big 4

• Apple Podcasts - many podcast apps get their info from Apple Podcasts, so this is an important one to be on. You'll need to create an Apple ID if you haven't already got one.
• Spotify - one of the largest music streaming services does podcasts too, and owns Anchor and Gimlet Media. You'll need to create an account (free) to submit your podcast.
• Stitcher - another biggie, and you'll need to create another (free) account.
• Google Podcasts - there's no direct submission process, the Google Podcast app, like Google, just finds podcasts and lists them... this might take a while, try the app to see if your podcast is there, and if not then search for it within the app's search function.

There are many more places to submit your podcast feed - the more the merrier:

• Acast 
• Blubrry 
• Deezer 
• iHeartRadio 
• PodKnife 
• PlayerFM 
• TuneIn

"In order to grow your audience, you must be in as many places as possible" - Sam Wanwise.