0:00

these directories are

0:00

really acting like a phone book

0:03

phone, but they did your

0:03

cell phone

0:06

service is not in the book

0:16

Welcome to How To Start A

0:16

Podcast podcast about starting

0:19

your podcast. I'm Gilon

0:21

I'm Alban. In this

0:21

episode, we're talking about how

0:24

to get your podcasts listed in

0:24

Apple podcasts, Spotify, and

0:28

Google podcasts.

0:29

So first things first,

0:29

there's a lot of lingo in the

0:31

podcasting world. What is a

0:31

directory? Why are you laughing?

0:35

I'm laughing because our

0:35

first mock to my best idea, but

0:40

this is this is all we have. So

0:40

what is a podcast directory?

0:43

Well, the misconception is that

0:43

all these directories host your

0:47

files, so a lot of people say

0:47

things like, how do I upload my

0:50

podcast to Apple, and that won't

0:50

work. Apple doesn't accept

0:54

podcasts just being uploaded.

0:54

Instead, what's happening is

0:57

you're uploading your podcast

0:57

somewhere like Buzzsprout. And

1:00

then we're helping get your

1:00

podcasts listed. And Apple

1:03

podcasts is just a listing. And

1:03

it's similar to a phonebook.

1:09

This is something that happened

1:09

a long time ago. Every time I

1:13

say phonebook July just laughs

1:15

just dating so deeply.

1:15

It's you have to explain what it

1:18

is because there are people that

1:18

have no, they have no idea they

1:20

were not alive. I think

1:21

most people know what a

1:21

phonebook is, but phonebook is

1:24

just a listing of phone numbers

1:24

and names. So you could find

1:28

businesses and people and you

1:28

could search for them in this

1:31

book, and then call them on your

1:31

phone, Apple podcasts is really

1:34

just providing a listing of all

1:34

the podcasts. And so they're a

1:37

centralized place for you to

1:37

search for podcasts and find

1:40

them and subscribe. And there's

1:40

really four major podcast

1:46

directories. So there's four

1:46

that are super important. And

1:49

there's always new ones popping up. So we're going to kind of talk through all the top ones

1:51

today,

1:53

the big four, right, like

1:53

a Football Conference of

1:57

directory for the big four. So

1:57

who would you say are the big

2:02

players in the directory world,

2:05

head over to

2:05

buzzsprout.com/global stats, and

2:08

you can see the platform

2:08

statistics for all of

2:12

Buzzsprout. These are all the

2:12

apps that are downloading the

2:16

shows that are listed on

2:16

Buzzsprout. So we can figure out

2:19

which are the biggest in the

2:19

world. And by a good margin is

2:22

Apple podcast with 37.2% of all

2:22

downloads are coming through

2:27

Apple podcasts, just that single

2:27

app. Next up is Spotify at 28%.

2:33

So it's really strong. And then

2:33

we go way, way, way, way down.

2:38

You got those two really big

2:38

ones. And then people are

2:41

playing in web browsers most

2:41

likely that next and that's 2.8%

2:45

Oh, wow. And the next app is

2:45

Google podcasts. 2.3. And then

2:51

there's tons of other ones that

2:51

are around like the one 2.7%. So

2:57

really, you have a third lot

2:57

bigger than a third Apple,

3:01

trying to get to a third

3:01

Spotify. And then about a third

3:06

left for everything else. So the

3:06

big four in my mind are Apple

3:11

podcast, Google podcasts,

3:11

Spotify, and podcast index. So

3:16

those are the four we will talk through today, because they're all slightly different. And if

3:18

you're getting your podcast

3:20

listed in each of those, your

3:20

podcasts will probably show up

3:24

almost everywhere.

3:25

Yeah. And so we're talking about directories. We've already sort of told you what

3:27

they are, who the big ones are.

3:29

So then why would you want to be

3:29

in a directory, there are a lot

3:32

of different reasons that people

3:32

list with directories. But the

3:35

big thing is exposure, right?

3:35

You want your content available

3:39

to as many people as possible.

3:39

And for most people, this is

3:41

kind of the way that they want

3:41

to go, we want growth of the

3:44

podcast, audience growth, that's

3:44

a central metric of successful

3:48

podcast. And other people may

3:48

just, you know, want to stick to

3:51

one or two, which is completely

3:51

fine. There's not a right or

3:54

wrong answer. But for the most

3:54

part, making your content as

3:57

available as possible, as widely

3:57

available as possible is a good

4:00

growth strategy.

4:01

So the default should be

4:01

putting it into all these

4:03

because there's no additional

4:03

work. Once you get listed. It's

4:07

just a one time submission

4:07

process. But sometimes people

4:10

decide not to place their

4:10

podcast everywhere. So

4:14

Buzzsprout, some of our shows

4:14

are not in Spotify, because

4:17

we're not big fans of how

4:17

they're trying to consolidate

4:19

the entire industry. There's

4:19

people who have exclusive shows

4:22

to one platform. So think of

4:22

some of the shows that have gone

4:25

exclusive to Spotify, then

4:25

there's some that only put out

4:29

episodes that are a little bit

4:29

older into certain platforms.

4:32

And then you have some people

4:32

who have actually not put their

4:36

podcasts and Spotify or taken it

4:36

out due to disagreeing with some

4:40

of the content on their

4:40

platform. So the default should

4:43

be put it everywhere. And then

4:43

if you have a reason maybe would

4:46

it put it into one or more of

4:46

these directories,

4:48

just like each platform

4:48

was a little bit different. This

4:50

submission process also can vary

4:50

pretty widely, depending on the

4:55

directory. So let's start with

4:55

the big name Apple podcasts.

4:58

Apple is probably You know where

4:58

most people go to listen.

5:02

Historically, even Apple podcast

5:02

has been like one of the leader

5:06

leaders when it comes to

5:06

providing podcasts to the

5:08

general public. But they can

5:08

also be a little bit finicky

5:11

when it comes to getting your podcast listed. So we're going to take you through that

5:13

process.

5:14

Apple has been around the

5:14

longest. So iTunes started

5:17

allowing podcasts into the

5:17

system almost 16 years ago now.

5:21

So back I think, like 2006 was

5:21

when they first did it. And it

5:25

really paved the way for lots of

5:25

podcasts to get discovered,

5:28

because people had iPods and

5:28

they were downloading podcast to

5:32

iTunes, and they would move

5:32

those podcasts over and listen

5:35

to them while they're out in the

5:35

world. So it's always been

5:38

really important. So the default

5:38

podcast app is podcasts on

5:44

iPhone that is pulling from

5:44

Apple podcasts, it also will

5:47

help you get listed in other

5:47

directories because Apple puts

5:51

their list of approved podcasts

5:51

that they've already vetted out

5:56

for any other podcast app to

5:56

use. So there's lots of apps

6:00

like overcast that they just

6:00

say, I'm just going to show

6:02

whatever Apple shows, that's

6:02

what I will show. So it's really

6:07

important and is the first one

6:07

to get into. Alright, so

6:09

let's talk through some of the pieces that you need to get listed into Apple podcasts.

6:11

So first things first, you need

6:15

a lot of the basic things we

6:15

talked about, like having a

6:17

title, having your author

6:17

figured out the description,

6:20

those should be done. If you've

6:20

been following along and doing

6:23

your homework from the previous episodes,

6:25

then you're going to want

6:25

to upload your podcast artwork.

6:28

So we talked to all those

6:28

parameters, and you probably

6:32

created in the last episode. So

6:32

now that you've got that ready,

6:35

upload that into Buzzsprout. And

6:35

pick your podcast category, you

6:39

can pick three, but you really

6:39

want to pick one, make sure that

6:43

first one, that's the one that

6:43

Apple is going to focus on. So

6:46

that's the one you want to make

6:46

sure is the most reflective of

6:49

your podcast,

6:50

I will say that cover art

6:50

is one of those things that

6:53

tends to cause delays when

6:53

people are submitting to Apple.

6:56

So it's really important that

6:56

you get this right. So artwork,

6:59

all the other stuff, we need

6:59

that, then you absolutely have

7:02

to have a first episode, you

7:02

actually cannot submit your

7:06

podcast to a directory without

7:06

an episode. And it has to be a

7:09

published episode. So make sure

7:09

you've uploaded that episode,

7:12

like we talked about before.

7:13

All these are really

7:13

important because without these

7:16

things being done, I think

7:16

actually in Buzzsprout, we will

7:18

not allow you to submit your

7:18

podcast because we know it won't

7:21

work that is correct. But if

7:21

some of these are a little bit

7:24

off, so it's hard for us to know

7:24

exactly the your artwork is like

7:27

two pixels off. But when Apple

7:27

gets it and they see those

7:31

artworks off, they aren't going

7:31

to approve it. And sometimes

7:35

those back and forth delays,

7:35

they can cause a lot of hiccups.

7:38

So it's best just to make sure

7:38

we have this done right on the

7:41

front end for so when we submit

7:41

it's all smooth sailing. So now

7:45

that we've met these

7:45

requirements, we're ready to

7:49

actually submit our podcast, you

7:49

would go into Buzzsprout. And

7:53

then you go into that

7:53

directories tab, and under Apple

7:56

podcasts, you click get listed.

7:56

And there we will let you copy

8:01

your RSS feed. So this is just a

8:01

URL that has all the info about

8:06

your podcast. And if you

8:06

actually look at the page, it

8:09

just looks like a bunch of

8:09

computer code. But it's got all

8:13

the information, the title, the

8:13

description, the where you can

8:15

get the links to the episodes,

8:15

all that is included, then you

8:20

will go to Apple podcasts and

8:20

create an apple id. If you own

8:24

an iPhone, or a Mac, or iPad, or

8:24

any Apple device, you have an

8:30

Apple ID already. And you can

8:30

use that one for this as well.

8:34

And it's preferable if you're

8:34

using the same Apple ID you

8:36

already have. Now, let's head

8:36

over to Apple podcast connect.

8:42

So this is a special website

8:42

where you can log in to submit a

8:46

podcast. So we log in, and you

8:46

just kind of walk through pretty

8:50

basic steps. So you can follow

8:50

these along inside of

8:53

Buzzsprout. But you click the

8:53

plus icon and you say I want to

8:56

add a new show and then you drop

8:56

in the RSS feed from Buzzsprout.

9:01

And then what Apple is going to

9:01

do is say, alright, we're

9:04

looking at this and we're seeing

9:04

there's an episode or saying

9:06

there's a category we'll see

9:06

there's a title, and they kind

9:09

of let you review it. And you

9:09

click Submit. And then there

9:12

will be a human review. So this

9:12

is the big difference with Apple

9:17

and pretty much every other

9:17

directory. All the other

9:20

directories are just letting

9:20

people submit, where Apple is

9:23

really actually checking these

9:23

with a person. So it's a really

9:26

wonderful service. They're kind

9:26

of providing for free for the

9:29

podcasting community. And make

9:29

sure this stuff isn't just

9:32

complete spam that's getting

9:32

into Apple podcasts. So it's

9:36

really nice. In about on

9:36

average, I'd say it's like every

9:39

four days, but it can take up to

9:39

two weeks, you will get an email

9:43

that says your podcast has been

9:43

approved. And you can go ahead

9:47

and celebrate because now your

9:47

podcast is in Apple podcasts.

9:50

Yeah, if you got through

9:50

that everything else will be a

9:52

breeze except for maybe Pandora.

9:54

Pandora will definitely

9:54

be harder but it's not one of

9:56

our top apps and most important

9:56

ones so maybe not as critical.

10:00

So those are the steps for Apple

10:00

podcasts. If you have any

10:03

questions, you should have step

10:03

by step instructions inside of

10:06

Buzzsprout. We have videos, we

10:06

have a guide out on the web. But

10:10

you can also reach out to Jalon.

10:10

And everybody else on the

10:14

support team at support at

10:14

Buzzsprout COMM And they'll get

10:17

back to you really, really quickly.

10:19

It's true, we will next

10:19

have our Big Four, Spotify.

10:23

What's the process for getting into Spotify,

10:25

Spotify is quite a bit

10:25

easier. The main thing you need

10:28

to be worried about with Spotify

10:28

is the do not have copyrighted

10:31

music. So the thing that they

10:31

have that's a little bit

10:34

different is when you submit to

10:34

Spotify, inside Buzzsprout,

10:39

you're just going to go and say

10:39

there's directories, Spotify get

10:42

listed. And then if you have

10:42

already gone through the apple

10:46

process, you must have already

10:46

done the things we need to do.

10:50

Like I have a title, I have a

10:50

description, I have my category

10:54

picked out my episode. All

10:54

that's done. Now you just click

10:58

a button that says Submit to

10:58

Spotify. And we submit for you

11:00

right then, and mostly within

11:00

like two to three minutes you

11:04

are listed. So it's a really,

11:04

really fast turnaround. And if

11:08

you've gone through the apple

11:08

process, you know that

11:10

everything's already been

11:10

accomplished. That is just a one

11:13

click entry. The big difference,

11:13

though, with Spotify is they are

11:16

going to check for copyrighted

11:16

music. And if there's

11:19

copyrighted music, it may take a

11:19

day before they find it. But

11:23

when they find it, they're just

11:23

going to kick you out. So don't

11:26

put copyrighted music in your

11:26

podcast, just go ahead and pony

11:30

up a little bit of money on

11:30

audio jungle or one of these

11:32

websites and get some good

11:32

music. Don't try to take an

11:36

Ariana Grande song, it's not

11:36

going to be your podcast jingle.

11:39

I mean, we recommend

11:39

owning the copyright or the

11:41

license to anything you upload.

11:41

But Spotify is definitely very,

11:45

very specific. So we've seen

11:45

some people that have like,

11:49

they're like a DJ, and they have

11:49

a podcast about music mixes and

11:52

things like that. And they'll

11:52

suddenly not see their podcasts

11:55

on Spotify and like what

11:55

happened and Spotify is quick to

11:58

pull music podcast out without

11:58

really giving. I mean, they give

12:01

a warning, but you'll kind of

12:01

notice your podcast is gone

12:04

before you see that email.

12:05

It makes sense because

12:05

mostly these DJ podcasts and DJ

12:09

shows they are actually

12:09

licensing the music. And so if

12:13

you think like, oh, it's more

12:13

like radio where I don't

12:16

actually have to own the

12:16

licenses, different rules for

12:18

radio different rules for

12:18

podcasts. So if you're putting

12:22

together a Dj Mix, that's not

12:22

going to work on Buzzsprout. And

12:24

it's just a matter of time until

12:24

Spotify then Buzzsprout end up

12:28

having to pull your show. So if

12:28

it's not licensed music, don't

12:32

put it on Buzzsprout.

12:33

Alright, Google podcasts.

12:33

What's the process for Google

12:37

podcasts?

12:37

I can answer this one

12:37

Gilon. So Google podcasts

12:40

operate a little bit

12:40

differently, because it's a part

12:42

of the larger Google platform.

12:42

And so Google, the search

12:45

engine, normally goes through

12:45

and looks over the internet and

12:48

tries to find new websites that

12:48

hasn't discovered before. And if

12:51

it finds websites or pages that

12:51

have podcast material on it, it

12:55

says, Oh, that you go and google

12:55

podcasts. And so when they first

12:58

launched Google podcasts, that

12:58

was the only way you could get

13:01

in, you had to wait for Google

13:01

to find your show. But then not

13:04

too long ago, they rolled out

13:04

Google podcasts Manager, which

13:07

is a platform that you can go to

13:07

to see how your podcast is

13:10

showing up and being consumed in

13:10

Google podcasts. And you'd

13:13

actually add shows inside of

13:13

there. And so rather than

13:16

waiting for Google to discover

13:16

you, you can say, hey, Google,

13:19

I'm right over here, you should

13:19

list my show in Google podcasts.

13:22

So if you go to the directories

13:22

tab, instead of Buzzsprout, like

13:25

you have for Apple podcasts and

13:25

Spotify, and click on Google

13:28

podcasts, there's a link there

13:28

to go to Google podcasts. And

13:31

you can manually submit your

13:31

show to be included. They'll

13:34

send a verification email to the

13:34

email that you've put in the

13:37

podcast info for your show. And

13:37

it doesn't take too long after

13:40

you go through that submission

13:40

process for your podcast to show

13:43

up.

13:44

So the last is the

13:44

podcast index. And we talked a

13:46

little bit how Apple has

13:46

provided a service to the

13:49

podcasting industry by

13:49

maintaining the apple podcast

13:53

directory. And the reason that's

13:53

a service is because not only

13:57

did they approve it for Apple

13:57

podcasts, they made it so

14:00

anybody could download the list

14:00

of all of the apple podcast

14:04

approved shows. And so there's

14:04

lots of apps like overcast and

14:09

Pocket Cast and castbox. And any

14:09

third party app that wanted was

14:14

able to say, hey, just let me

14:14

see the full list of the 2

14:18

million shows that you've

14:18

already approved. So for a long

14:20

time, Apple podcast was the only

14:20

group maintaining a central

14:24

directory that everybody else

14:24

could use. And I think a few

14:28

years ago, as Spotify entered

14:28

the game and Google more

14:31

podcasters were getting

14:31

concerned like, oh, maybe apple

14:35

won't provide this service for

14:35

free forever. And so that's

14:39

where the podcast index came

14:39

from. The podcast index is just

14:42

a place for anybody to submit

14:42

their show. And it's a

14:45

centralized hub for any app to

14:45

be able to download a list of

14:49

all the shows. So it's kind of a

14:49

backup for what Apple podcasts

14:53

is providing. They're both doing

14:53

similar things. Podcast index

14:57

just has a little bit easier

14:57

submission form. process. So,

15:01

inside of Buzzsprout, you just

15:01

click to submit to the podcast

15:05

index. And all of your data has

15:05

been sent over there. And any

15:08

app that uses that for search

15:08

will now be able to find your

15:13

podcast.

15:13

So we've talked about a

15:13

number of podcast directories,

15:17

our top four, but there's a

15:17

thing about more companies

15:21

getting into the podcasting

15:21

game. So we're actually seeing a

15:23

lot of new directories as time

15:23

goes on. So what are some of

15:26

those new directories that we've

15:26

seen over the past couple years,

15:29

there's a lot that kind

15:29

of come and go, you mentioned

15:32

Pandora, there was a moment when

15:32

Pandora seemed really interested

15:35

in podcasting. That's kind of a

15:35

cumbersome process to submit.

15:39

And then it may be months and

15:39

months before you get approved.

15:43

But it's not a super important

15:43

one yet, Amazon music now has

15:48

podcasts. And you could submit

15:48

to Amazon music that's

15:51

relatively easy. Facebook has

15:51

launched some podcasting

15:54

features, they're almost a year

15:54

old, but they're really only US

15:57

centric right now. And for a few

15:57

podcasters, they've actually

16:02

seen a decent amount of plays

16:02

through Facebook. So there's

16:06

just lots of new options coming

16:06

up all the time, whenever one

16:09

gets big enough, and needs a

16:09

different submission process.

16:15

Buzzsprout will always go and

16:15

update our directories page. So

16:19

if you spend an afternoon you go

16:19

through and you submit all the

16:22

ones that we have available, you

16:22

can just rest assured, you've

16:25

got all your bases covered. If

16:25

there's anything that comes up

16:28

that needs its own unique

16:28

submission process, and is

16:32

actually has like point oh 1% of

16:32

the market, then you can be

16:37

confident that it will be inside of Buzzsprout.

16:38

And I do want to make this distinction. Because I know we've gotten a lot of emails and

16:40

support where people upload

16:43

their content and be like, alright, so you put it on Apple for me, didn't you? And it's

16:45

like, no, you do have to go

16:47

through the process. So we

16:47

facilitate the submission

16:49

process. But we do want you to

16:49

be able to go through that and

16:52

submit yourself so that you

16:52

maintain ownership of your

16:54

listing. So if you, God forbid,

16:54

were to leave Buzzsprout, you

16:58

would be able to just move that

16:58

a lot more seamlessly than if we

17:00

owned the listing as a company.

17:02

Yeah, a long time ago. So

17:02

back when I was the only person

17:06

working in support for

17:06

Buzzsprout, people would write

17:09

in and say, I'm so confused. And

17:09

I would just go and submit their

17:13

URL for them. Because you didn't

17:13

actually put in any information

17:16

about yourself, you just put in

17:16

the RSS feed and click Submit.

17:20

Then when they rolled out Apple

17:20

podcast, connect all the

17:23

podcasts that were associated

17:23

with your Apple ID showed up.

17:26

And there are a lot of things

17:26

you could do. You could change

17:29

things about the show, you could

17:29

remove it from Apple, you could

17:32

redirect the feed. And then what

17:32

I saw was there were actually

17:36

like 12 shows that had been tied

17:36

to my Apple ID. And some of them

17:41

were still active. And so over

17:41

time, some of them asked, say,

17:44

Hey, can I get this shift over

17:44

to me, I think there's still one

17:48

or two that are active, that are

17:48

you know, for five plus years,

17:52

they didn't have that listing

17:52

connected to them. So it's just

17:56

a benefit for you to submit

17:56

yourself because then you have

17:59

more control, more analytics,

17:59

because a lot of these podcast

18:02

directories are going to provide

18:02

really cool analytics on top of

18:07

your Buzzsprout stats. So inside

18:07

of Buzzsprout, you could see,

18:10

oh, I had my podcast, downloaded

18:10

200 times by Apple podcasts,

18:15

then you can actually click in

18:15

to Apple podcast dashboard

18:18

there. And you could see, well,

18:18

that was actually by this many

18:23

people and they played it this

18:23

many times. And here's they

18:27

mostly listened through to the

18:27

18 minute mark, and then they

18:30

dropped off. So you get more

18:30

data. When you have access to

18:34

all these platforms, unique

18:34

stats yourself. So Apple,

18:38

Spotify, Stitcher and Google

18:38

podcast each have some

18:42

additional statistics that they

18:42

provide inside their independent

18:46

dashboards.

18:47

Alright, so we have

18:47

talked about the benefits of

18:50

podcast directories, how to get

18:50

into some of them, and all that

18:53

good stuff. Travis, is there

18:53

anything else any other

18:56

resources you would recommend

18:56

for them to just broaden their

18:59

knowledge base.

18:59

So I would say if you

18:59

plan on using Buzzsprout to host

19:02

your podcast and distributed to

19:02

all these apps, the number one

19:05

thing you should do is just go

19:05

ahead and knock out all the

19:08

things you got to do to get your

19:08

podcast ready to submit episode

19:11

titles, show title, show

19:11

description, podcast, artwork,

19:14

categories, all the stuff you

19:14

got to do, and then just go step

19:17

by step through the instructions

19:17

in our directories tab. Now, if

19:20

you're planning on using a

19:20

different podcast host, I will

19:22

link resources in the

19:22

description of this episode to

19:26

help you walk through that

19:26

process manually. So no matter

19:29

where you host, your podcast,

19:29

you know how to get your show

19:32

listed in all the main

19:32

directories but just go ahead

19:35

and set aside some time to knock

19:35

all these directory submissions

19:38

out. Like we said, it's a one

19:38

time thing you do it once at the

19:41

very beginning, then you never

19:41

have to worry about it again.

19:43

And your podcast is available

19:43

everywhere. The last thing you

19:46

want is to say hey, you should

19:46

go listen to my new awesome

19:48

podcast. And then your friend

19:48

comes back and says, I can't

19:51

find it in the app that I

19:51

listened to. Are you sure that

19:53

you actually have a podcast

19:53

that's available to listen to?

19:56

You don't want that to happen to

19:56

you. So just go ahead and make

19:59

your point. podcasts are

19:59

available everywhere that you

20:02

feel comfortable with. And then

20:02

that's really going to help set

20:04

up your podcast for

20:05

success. In the next

20:05

episode, we are going to be

20:08

launching your podcast. So we're

20:08

at the end. If you've been

20:11

following along with your

20:11

homework as John puts it, you

20:14

will be ready to launch your

20:14

podcast as well go ahead and

20:17

submit your podcast to those

20:17

directories. And in the next

20:20

episode, we're on the

20:20

homestretch so looking forward

20:23

to seeing you there. As

20:24

always keep podcasting