Before you can host and distribute a podcast with Libsyn, you must sign up for a hosting account here:
- Complete the fields on the Signup page.
First Name, Last Name, Email, Password
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Podcast Title | Enter a title for your show. |
Promo Code | You can enter a promo code if you have one.
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First Name | You must enter a first name. |
Last Name | You must enter a last name. |
You must enter the email address for your show. | |
Company | Optionally, you can enter a company name. |
Billing Location Lookup | Start typing your address, and select the correct address from the list that displays. This will autocomplete the address fields below. |
Billing Address | You must enter your billing street address. |
Suite/Apt | Enter a suite or apartment number if applicable. |
State | You must enter your billing state. |
City | You must enter your billing city. |
Postal Code | You must enter your billing postal code. |
Country | You must select your billing country. |
$5 / Month | You’ll be able to upload 3 hours of new content per month.
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$7 / Month | You’ll be able to upload 3 hours of new content per month, with access to basic statistics. |
$15 / Month | You’ll be able to upload 6 hours of new content per month, with access to basic statistics. |
$20 / Month | You’ll be able to upload 10 hours of new content per month, with access to advanced statistics and social promotion tools, as well as access to Libsyn Connect. |
Card | Select to pay with a credit card. Libsyn accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, UnionPay, and UCB.
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PayPal | Click the PayPal button and enter your credentials to log in to PayPal. |
Set Up Your Podcast
When you first create a show, you need to provide some key information about it. Libsyn uses the information you enter to create your RSS feed and to provide information to all the publication destinations to which you want to connect. The information you enter determines how your show will appear in podcast directories, as well as other places, such as your Podcast Page, the Libsyn Podcast Directory, and other websites and social media accounts.
To set up your show:
- Click the icon in the top of your Libsyn account to display the Settings page.
- Click Podcast. The Podcast Settings form opens.
- Enter your show’s information in the fields. For more details about these fields, see About Your Podcast Settings.
When setting up your show, you must enter key information in the Podcast Settings form, like your show’s title, description, categories, and more. The sections below describe all of the available fields, and what kind of information you should enter to make sure your show will appear in all of your publishing destinations the way you expect it to.
Title
Enter the title of your show. The show title appears everywhere that you publish, including your feed, in podcast directories, on your Libsyn blog page, on your media player, and more.
If you ever decide to change your show title, just update this field and the change will be reflected everywhere.
Description
Your show description is meant to explain what your show is about and get your audience excited to subscribe to it. The description should only be a few sentences long.
The description appears in podcast directories, as well as on your Libsyn blog page, the Libsyn Podcast Directory, and other places you publish your show. Note that it isn’t searchable in Apple Podcasts, and it should not include a list of keywords.
Category One and Two
Most podcast directories organize podcasts by category so that listeners can find podcasts by the topics they are interested in. You are required to enter at least one category. However, if your show falls into more than one, you can enter two.
Category One is the most important because it will be the main way your show is categorized. However, if you enter a second category, your show will appear under that one as well.
Owner Name
Enter the name of the person or entity who owns the show. The person or entity whose name you enter should be authorized to make or request changes on the show’s behalf.
Owner Email
Enter the email of the person who you entered in the Owner Name field. The person who receives emails at the address you enter should be able to answer questions about the show and be authorized to make decisions about it.
Usually, this email address is used by podcast directories in case they ever need to contact you about your show. For that reason, it’s important that you enter an email address that the owner checks somewhat regularly. However, this email will be publicly available in your RSS feed, so don’t enter an email that you prefer to keep private.
Author
Enter the name or names of the person or people who run the podcast and appear in each episode. Or, you can also enter the company that produces (and therefore “owns”) the podcast.
Authors are searchable in many podcast directories, including Apple Podcasts. Although it is a good idea to enter names that listeners will search for to increase your show’s visibility, you need to enter valid information in this field. If you enter names that are not actually associated with your podcast, or information that resembles spam, Apple Podcasts will pull your show from their store.
If you leave the field blank, some directories, including Apple Podcasts, will list the author as “unknown.”
This field is also sometimes referred to as “provider” or “artist” in certain directories.
Website URL
Your website URL is a place you manage where you can make all of your show’s episodes available to your audience, as well as other information about yourself and your show. The URL gets sent to your RSS feed, which some directories — like Apple Podcasts — pick up and make available to your listeners.
Libsyn automatically enters your Libsyn blog page into this field when your show is created. However, you can enter a different URL (or update it later) if you want to use a different site, like your own website or one that’s hosted elsewhere.
Release Frequency
This lets your listeners know how often you plan to update your show with new episodes. By default, this field will show No Set Schedule, but you can select a different option to indicate whether you expect to release an episode daily, weekly, etc. You can also select Serial Show (Complete) to indicate that all episodes of a serial show have been published and no additional episodes are expected. (If you select this option, your show page on Apple Podcasts will display “Complete Series” next to the category and the first season by default.)
Third Party Content
If your show includes content created by someone else, you must have all the necessary rights to use that content in your podcast under the laws of each country or region in which your show is available. Choose either No Third Party Content or Has Rights to Third Party Content.
No Third Party Content: Your show does not have any content that was created by someone else.
Has Rights to Third Party Content: Your show has content that was created by someone else and you have the rights to use it.
Type
Choose either Episodic or Serial.
Episodic: this term refers to a podcast that releases episodes over time, but the order in which your audience listens to those episodes doesn’t matter. Most podcasts are episodic.
Serial: this term refers to a podcast that releases podcasts in a certain order, and audiences must listen to them in that order. Usually, a serial podcast follows a storyline, like true-crime podcasts, which you must listen to in a certain order or you won’t be able to follow the story.
Explicit
Use the Explicit field to specify whether your show is clean or explicit.
Your show’s rating is important for establishing parental controls. Also, keep in mind that some countries do not permit explicit content, so marking your show explicit might result in your show becoming unavailable to listeners in those countries.
Language
Select the language that is used in most of the episodes of your show.
Copyright
Enter a copyright notice and the current year with the copyright symbol (such as © 2022) to indicate that your content is under copyright protection. If you include the year, remember to update it when necessary.
Include in Directory
When this checkbox selected, your show is added to the Libsyn Directory for listeners to find. Deselect this checkbox if you do not want your show to be added to the Libsyn Directory.
Episode Display Limit
Enter the limit for the number of episodes you want to make available on podcast directories. For example, if you enter 100, but you have 150 episodes, podcast apps will only list the 100 most recent episodes for your show. If you want to list all of your episodes with no limit, enter 0.
Feed Unlocked/Feed Locked
Click the Feed Unlocked toggle to lock your RSS feed. When you click the Feed Unlocked toggle, it changes to Feed Locked.
When you lock your feed, a “feed locked” tag appears on your RSS feed. When other hosts see that tag, they will block attempts to import your feed from its current location. This feature is useful to prevent someone from taking your RSS feed (which is publicly available) and importing it to another host to try to make money on your show without you knowing about it.
When you lock your feed, other hosts won’t allow anyone to import it, including you. If you lock your feed and ever want to import it to another host, remember to unlock it first by clicking the toggle again.
Now that your show is set up, you can connect to podcast directories, websites, and social media accounts. Then you’ll be ready to publish your episodes.
Submit Your Show to Apple Podcasts
Publishing your episodes to Apple Podcasts exposes your show to a large global audience, with potential listeners in countries all over the world. For your episodes to appear in Apple Podcasts, you must submit your show to Apple Podcasts for approval.
Plan the Timing of Your Submission
Libsyn recommends that you begin the submission process a full month before the date you want to launch your show on Apple Podcasts. The reason is that, after you submit, Apple can take up to 24 hours to approve your show. Then, it can take another week after that before your show becomes fully searchable in their store. Also, if you are publishing to any apps that pull your information from Apple Podcasts, it could take a full month for those apps to get access to your show from Apple.
It’s also important to consider that, if your show gets rejected by Apple for any reason, submitting a month ahead of your launch date gives you enough time to address issues and resubmit.
Prepare for Submission
Before you submit, set up your show in Libsyn so that your RSS feed works properly. Apple uses the RSS feed generated by Libsyn to make your episodes available to your audience on the app.
Submit Your Show
To submit your show to Apple:
- Click the icon in the top of your Libsyn account to display the Settings page.
- Click Destinations.
- In the Destinations table, click Edit in the row for Apple Podcasts / Libsyn Classic Feed to display its settings page.
- Leave the Title, Author, and Description blank unless you want them to be different in the Apple Podcasts / Libsyn Classic Feed than what you entered when you set up your show. See Customize Your Apple Podcasts / Libsyn Classic Feed for more details.
- Click Next to advance to the next page.
- In the Apple Distribution Type field, select one of the following options:
I want Libsyn to submit my show for me | Select this option to submit your show to Apple Podcasts without using your own Apple ID.
To proceed:
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I’ll submit my show manually (Apple ID required) | Select this option to submit your show to Apple Podcasts using your own Apple ID.
To proceed:
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Once your show has been approved, Apple Podcasts will publish your episodes from your Libsyn feed when you publish your episodes. See Publish a Subscriber Episode to Apple Podcasts.
Submit Your Show to Spotify
You can submit your Libsyn hosted podcast to Spotify from inside the Libsyn dashboard. Podcasts listed in Spotify are now available in 60 territories, across both their mobile snd web applications.
Preparing Your Show for Spotify
Select Destinations – Edit or View Existing:
Select to edit Spotify:
If you have not yet configured your show in Show Settings, you will get an alert that you need to fill in those missing fields.
Once those settings are configured, the submission form will become available.
Feed Extension: The Feed Extension generates the last part of the Spotify feed URL. In most cases, this should be left as its default setting.
Country of Origin: Select the country your show originates from the dropdown list provided. This is a required field for Spotify submission.
Approving Show Submission into Spotify
Once you are ready, check the box for Approve. This checkbox, upon saving the destination, will approve the destination for submission to the Spotify directory.
Lastly, hit the Save button to save your changes and push through the submission. Your show will be live in Spotify within a day or two.
Overrides & Advanced Options
Most of your configuration gets set under Settings — Show Settings and is set for Spotify automatically. However, overrides specific for Spotify, as well as other advanced configurations are available should you choose to use them.
Show Title (Override): Entering a title here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Author (Override): Entering an Author here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Description (Override): Entering a Description here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Episode/Post Limit: This setting limits the number of episodes in your RSS feed. By default, the RSS feed will show the newest 100 episodes. Setting the limit to No Limit will allow all episodes to be available in your Spotify feed.
Disable Dynamic Advertising: If your show has dynamic advertising enabled, checking this option would turn it off for Spotify.
Submit Your Show to Amazon Music/Audible
Preparing Your Show for Amazon Music/Audible
Select Destinations –> Add New:
Select to Add Amazon Music/Audible:
If you have not yet configured your show in Show Settings, you will get an alert that you need to fill in any missing fields.
Once those settings are configured, the submission form will become available.
Feed Extension: The Feed Extension generates the last part of the Amazon Music/Audible feed URL. In most cases, this should be left as its default setting.
Country of Origin: Select the country your show originates from the dropdown list provided. This is a required field for a submission.
Approving Show Submission into Amazon Music/Audible
Once you are ready, check the box for Approve. This checkbox, upon saving the destination, will approve the destination for submission to the Amazon Music/Audible directory.
Lastly, hit the Save button to save your changes and push through the submission. Your show will be submitted to Amazon Music/Audible for approval.
Overrides & Advanced Options
Most of your configuration gets set under Settings — Show Settings and is set for Amazon Music/Audible automatically. However, overrides specific for Amazon Music/Audible, as well as other advanced configurations are available should you choose to use them.
Show Title (Override): Entering a title here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Author (Override): Entering an Author here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Description (Override): Entering a Description here will override the show title in this destination, compared to what is entered in Show Settings.
Use Show Image for Episodes: If you have uploaded episode artwork that doesn’t meet requirements or for other reasons, you want to quickly override episode artwork and use your show artwork instead, check this checkbox.
Episode/Post Limit: This setting limits the number of episodes in your Amazon Music/Audible RSS feed. By default, the Amazon Music/Audible RSS feed will show the newest 100 episodes. Setting the limit to No Limit will allow all episodes to be available in your Spotify feed.
Use Plain Text Description: If you are including additional formatting in your show notes that is causing any sort of validation issue with your Amazon Music/Audible RSS feed, check this box to quickly clean any formatting from your notes to ensure your RSS feed is fully valid. This is typically only used if you are encountering specific issues and errors with your feed that need a quick remedy.
Disable Dynamic Advertising: If your show has dynamic advertising enabled, checking this option would turn it off for Amazon Music/Audible.
Extra RSS Tags: If there is an extra RSS tag you want added to your Amazon Music/Audible RSS feed, you can include it here.
Note: This is a power user only feature that has the potential to break your feed. Only enter valid RSS tags as directed and only as needed.
Publishing a Podcast Episode
To publish an episode to your show, hover over Content in your main menu and click on Add New Episode.
Uploading Media
The top of the episode creation form will ask you to upload a media file. Hit Add Media File.
You can choose multiple different ways to upload the file into your Libsyn show.
Populate Form with ID3 Data
If you are generating an ID3 tag for your media file prior to uploading the file to your Libsyn show, checking this box will allow Libsyn to pre-populate your episode title, description, and thumbnail based on the data in your ID3 tag. The information can still be modified once populated.
Upload From Hard Drive
Selecting the Upload from Hard Drive button will allow you to browse your local computer and select the media file from your local computer.
Select From FTP/Unreleased
If you have uploaded your media file to your dropbox folder using FTP, you can select this option to choose that file for publishing.
Copy From URL
If your media file already exists on a third party server, you can select this option and enter the URL to that media file. The Libsyn system will then make a copy of that media file to host at Libsyn.
Note: The file, in this case, will not be served from the third party server. The file is copied and served from the Libsyn server.
Dropbox.com
If you utilize the Dropbox service to store files, you can browse your Dropbox account and have the file uploaded from Dropbox to Libsyn.
Note: The file, in this case, will not be served from Dropbox. The file is copied and served from the Libsyn server.
Configuring Episode Details
While your media file uploads, you can begin to enter your episode details which include your title, description, imagery, and other important details.
Title
The episode title will display as the title in Apple Podcasts for that episode, as well as for other podcast directories. It will also appear as the blog post title for your Libsyn blog page, as well as for WordPress or Blogger (if you are using WordPress or Blogger OnPublish). This is a required field.
Episode Subtitle
The subtitle is rarely displayed in podcast directories. Previously, the subtitle was displayed in the iTunes desktop app when looking at a show in the store.
This is not a required field. If this is not filled out, our system will automatically enter a truncated portion of your episode description for you.
Episode Description
The episode description will appear as the blog post in your Libsyn blog page as well as WordPress or Blogger (if you are using WordPress or Blogger OnPublish). It will also appear as the full or long description for the episode in your RSS feed. Anytime the subtitle is not used by a certain podcast directory OR if you choose not to enter a subtitle, the first portion of your description will be truncated and used as the subtitle.
Your description can include URLs, images, and other details. Many podcatching applications will display those links, images, and other formatting, some will not, or some will only display some formatting.
You will notice a bar along the bottom of your episode description editor that will show if your feed will validate or not.
Your episode description can populate your blog posts. However, its primary purpose is to provide show notes in your RSS Feed (which is what podcast directories such as Apple Podcasts pulls from). The same code that is typically used on a website is not the same that works on a podcast RSS feed. This can cause your RSS feed to become invalid. An invalid RSS feed won’t work properly in Apple Podcasts and other directories.
Our system, therefore, will try to determine if there is anything in the episode description that might break your feed, the system will see that and give you a warning as shown above.
Category:
Setting a category for an episode will allow organization of content on the Libsyn Podcast Page, or embedding a media player specific to that category (this does not affect your RSS feed). Details on managing categories are outlined here.
Tags/Keywords:
Keywords are words (not multi-word phrases) that are used to help provide search benefits to your show. Note, Apple Podcasts (and therefore most other directories) no longer utilize the keywords fields. However, keywords are utilized in YouTube so if you are pushing your show to YouTube, you are encouraged to enter words to aid in your ranking inside the YouTube search engine.
Note: Up to 20 keywords can be added.
Permalink Points to:
A permalink is a URL to a blog post that is suppose to never change – it is a permanent link. Generally, your permalink will point to your Libsyn blog post. However, if you are not using our blog page, you may wish to change your permalink to point elsewhere so you have a few options:
- The Shows Blog Page – Will link to the episode on your Libsyn generated Podcast Page
- The episode media file – Will link directly to the media file for the episode
- A Custom URL – if you are using an outside blogging platform, you can generate your blog post and get your permalink, then enter your permalink here.
Enable Comments:
Checking this box will enable comments (or disable comments) on your Libsyn generated Podcast Page for this specific episode.
Apple Podcasts Optimization
Apple Podcasts Title
The Apple Podcasts Title is the title of your episode, without including any extraneous information such as episode numbers, season numbers, or show titles. Apple Podcasts offers additional fields (shown below) for identifying season and episode numbers which they will use to order and label your episodes automatically.
Apple Podcasts Summary
The Apple Podcasts Summary is a short, one or two sentence elevator pitch regarding what this episode is all about. No text formatting or HTML is permitted in this field.
Important Note: Apple Podcasts is depreciating the Summary field. We recommend not using the summary, it will be removed when Apple Podcasts officially pulls it from their specifications.
Episode Type
Specify if your episode is a full episode, a trailer, or a bonus episode.
- Full – A full, traditional podcast episode
- Trailer – A shortened trailer or promo for your show (usually between 30-60 seconds in duration)
- Bonus – A bonus episode which is included for your listeners, but does not necessarily fall in the realm of your regular episode releases
Season Number
If your episode runs on seasons, enter your season number here. If you do not run seasons, leave this blank.
Episode Number
Enter the episode number for your episode in this field. This will be displayed in the iOS Podcast App, and is used along with your season number and your show type setting (under Settings — Show Settings specifying your episode as serial or episodic) to determine how your episodes are ordered and listened to.
Rating
There are two places you can set your rating, at the RSS feed level and at the episode level. Episodes should be set as clean or explicit. The RSS feed should also be set as clean or explicit. A show can be clean, but have one or two episodes that might be explicit, so those individual episodes get marked explicit (or the other way around).
This is important not only for parental controls, but also in that some countries do not permit explicit content. Properly setting your show and your episodes will ensure your show is available where it should be, and not available where it should not be.
Apple Podcasts Author
Just as you can at the RSS feed level, you can set an Apple Podcasts Author at the episode level. The author tag is a searchable field in Apple Podcasts, and being able to customize this at both levels can allow you to set an overall author, as well as different authors at the episode level where applicable.
Episode Artwork
There are up to three separate images you can work with in regards to an episode. Your episode thumbnail, your widescreen image, and your ID3 image.
Episode thumbnail
Appears in Apple Podcasts, supporting podcast directories, the Libsyn HTML5 media player, and other possible places your show is distributed to.
Size Requirement:
–1400×1400 (minimum) –3000x3000px (maximum, anything in between is fine as long as it’s square) –Under 500kb in file size –JPG, JPEG, or a PNG file
Widescreen image
If you choose to automatically publish your episodes to YouTube or Facebook, you can upload a widescreen image to be used in the video Libsyn generates for you.
Size Recommendation:
–1920x1080px
ID3 tag image
An image should be attached to the ID3 tag of any MP3 file. Some podcast apps pull the image from the RSS feed, some pull it from the ID3 tag. The tag will also affect any MP3 file downloaded outside of an RSS feed, allowing your image to follow the file anywhere it goes.
Size Recommendation:
–1400×1400 (minimum, recommended) –3000x3000px (maximum) –Under 500kb in file size –JPG, JPEG, or a PNG file
Scheduling an Episode
After episode details have been added, the episode can be scheduled for when it is released or expired. Click on Scheduling Release/Expiration to open up the scheduling options.
There are two tabs, Basic Release/Expiration and Advanced. For Basic, you can schedule the episode to release or expire from all destinations at the same time.
Release Date:
Release date allows you to set the episode to release now, immediately on publish, or by setting a new release date.
Set Release Date:
The date and time at which the episode will release can be set here. In the above example, this episode would become available at all destinations (your RSS feed, media player, Podcast Page, social destinations, and so on) on April 8th, 2017 at 12:00pm.
Expiration Date:
An episode can be set to be pulled from public availability at the date and time set.
Download Availability:
By default, even if an episode is scheduled to release at a future date, the media file URL will still operate properly. This is the “Media files are always available” setting. This allows you to utilize the file URL in third party locations as you publish not only inside Libsyn, but also outside of Libsyn depending on your workflow.
If, however, you prefer the media file to not be available until the episode is first released to any of your other destinations, then you can select the option for “Media files are available based on release schedule”.
The above view is Advanced scheduling. This allows you to set a specific release and/or expiration date for each individual destination.
Using these settings allows you to specify exactly which destination the episode is released to, and when. For example, you could release your episode to your RSS feed immediately, but use a more optimized time to post to Facebook, or a more optimized time to post to Twitter, depending on your audience behavior.
Update ID3 Tags
If you do not generate your own ID3 tags, Libsyn can create them for you based on your show and episode details.
Checking this box will allow Libsyn to generate an ID3 tag for your media file and attach it to that file.
Publishing Your Episode
At this point, you are ready to publish your episode.
Publish:
Hit Publish to save your settings. If you have not scheduled your episode, this will push your episode out to your destinations immediately. If you have scheduled your episode, hitting Publish will initiate that schedule.
Save As Draft:
Saving as a draft allows the settings to be saved without actually publishing the episode yet. This will allow you to come back, make more changes, and publish when you are ready.