How To Add Your Podcast To Directories - Transcription Today is the continuation of our series on getting your audio on all podcast platforms. This is a tool both active podcasters to make sure that you're on every platform and for new podcasters to be sure that you have an available resource to get you there and get as much distribution and focus on your podcasts as possible. Make it as easy as possible for new people to listen by distributing your show to as many podcast directories as possible. Here are the steps to get approved on the leading directories. And we include platforms like Spotify, Google, iHeart, Stitcher, YouTube, Pandora. So you'll have a PDF to reference back as well as the webinar. So first you want to check and see if you can submit through your hosting platform. 24 of the most popular hosting platforms are already aggregators for Spotify, but there are a lot of podcast platforms that use that aren't integrated. You can submit your podcast through Libsyn as your hosting platform and get approved directly there. There are some podcast platforms that you have to manually go and grab your RSS Feed Link and submit it that way. And that's what we wanted to talk about because, with 271 million active users, Spotify is a valuable platform for content. If your podcast platform does not enable you to submit directly, then you want to log in to Spotify for podcasters, with your Spotify acount. Spotify Or if you don't have a Spotify account, you can choose to sign up to create one. 1. Click Get "Started" 2. paste in the link of your podcasts RSS feed, which can be found in your platform. 3. Look for the verification email to the address in your RSS feed and copy the eight-digit code paste it in. 4. Then, of course, you always want to customize your podcast info category, language, and country. 5. And once you submit, then you will get, ultimately would get approved, and you'll get acknowledgment from Spotify in that way. Google Podcasts Honestly, with Google podcasts, they have been a very confusing distribution platform in space for a long time, but they have taken major strides in the last six months to improve as a discovery tool for podcasters. So you're likely already on Google podcasts based on the fact that they have likely. Um, through the way that their algorithms work has discovered your RSS feed, but to be certain, you had to log into the Google account. You want your podcasts linked to. So for example, if you have an email specific to your podcast, like [email protected], then you want to, we use the Google account that you have your podcasts link to you. If you did. If you want to separate a podcast specific email, you can always create something like [email protected]. So you want to go to the podcastmanager.google.com and start ​ ​ ​ ​ there submit your RSS feed. They're going to share with you a preview of the feeds. And then at that point, you're going to click next. They will send you a verification code to the email that's linked to your RSS feed. And enter the code. If the email linked with your RSS feed and your Google email, you're using to smatter the same, Google won't require a code, but if it is a different email address, that's not directly linked to your RSS feed, then you will need the code. And once you insert that it will say that you are verified in Google. Podcasts has become a lot stronger in search. And so you want to make sure that you are showing up on Google podcasts with the right show content settings, cover art. iHeart Radio iHeart Radio is a little bit different from the other platforms because they typically require you to have 13 or more episodes or be live for two months. Submit through your hosting platform (Ex: Libsyn), or submit at https://www.iheart.com/content/submit-your-podcast/. ​ ​ However, all of these approvals can be contingent on whether or not you use licensed music, and that's a super big deal. And you, in some cases with, especially your podcast can get rejected. If you do not have licensed music in your podcast to hear using unlicensed music, you shouldn't do it anyway. Stitcher Stitcher, it's still a top-rated Android platform. So you've, you know, we did a whole webinar last week on getting submission to Apple and getting Apple approval, but that is the iOS operating system. So you want to be sure with Android users that you're also showing up where they live and they find their content. Now Spotify and Google podcasts have now made it much easier for Android users to discover podcasts. But Stitcher is still a very viable platform. So you want to go to https://partners.stitcher.com/. Enter your RSS, verify the email, and it can take up to 24 to 48 ​ hours to show up on Stitcher. You Tube YouTube is getting to be more and more popular, mainly because many audio podcasters are also using video in creating and producing their shows. But you do not have to have a video of your podcast to utilize YouTube as a distribution platform. It's not a traditional podcast directory. However, you can get your audio files on YouTube. You'll just be using a static image instead of an actual video. First, you want to check and see if you can submit it to you through your hosting platform. If not, you'll need to syndicate your show by converting audio files into an MP four file to upload to YouTube. This is very important and there are several free programs on the internet that you can. Get the convert from MP3 to MP4 and before to MP3, you can save as it MP4, uh, when you are, uh, uh, producing. So, uh, just be sure that you don't try to avoid an MP3 cause it's not gonna work. It's a popular platform for listening to video podcasts, actually. You can record a video of yourself while you're hosting the podcast. If you can't record a video, you can use the static graphic of your practice artwork or single images, and for more detailed instructions, you want to refer back to the PDF that goes with this webinar. Pandora In August of 2019, Pandora launched the podcast project. Uh, it was designed in beta and it stayed in beta for a really long time, but now it is open and accessible. Say you want to log in and create a Pandora account. Most platforms that I'm familiar with do not have an automatic submission between the back end of your platform and Pandora. So you will want to do this manually. Use the email that you've been using for your podcast. There are seven questions you'll need to answer regarding your podcast. And Pandora's team reviews each new show manually. So you're going to want to allow four to six weeks at least for approval. If it takes much longer than that, don't get disappointed. In that four to a six-week window, keep checking on it. They will send you an email once your show is approved and you can also view the status of your submission in your Pandora account. And again, for more detailed instructions, you can refer to the PDF. MORE DIRECTORIES You want to be sure that your podcast is on as many directories as possible. See the PDF with links for how to get your podcast on these directories: ● Radio Public ● Pocketcasts ● Castbox ● Listen Notes ● Castro ● Bullhorn ● Deezer ● TuneIn ● Anypod ● Podcast Addict ● PlayerFM ● Learning Out Loud ● iPodder ● Laughable ● Acast Directories that automatically add your podcast And there's also the convenience factor of the fact that Apple provides a lot of podcast directories to just grab your RSS feed from Apple. That way you don't have to go through a submission process or an approval process after you have submitted your podcast to Apple podcasts. The podcast will show up a few days later on ● Overcast ● Downcast ● PodCruncher ● iCatcher ● Castaway 2 ● Podcast Republic ● BeyondPod ● AntennaPod ● DoubleTwist So you do have that opportunity to just automatically listed on the podcast directories through Apple. Worker Bee Challenge: If you're a new launcher, my recommendation is to take the PDF and create a spreadsheet of all the platforms and directories along with the link. So when it is time to launch your podcast, you have all of those submission resources, all in one place. So you would take the spreadsheet with iHeart, Spotify, the directories that were mentioned, and the links and how to submit. So go ahead and get organized as a new launcher and make sure that you have a spreadsheet so that yourself or an intern or a VA can help you with that submission process. Suppose you are launched and already active as a podcaster: you want to review the list of directories that have been featured in this webinar and confirm that you have submitted them. There are so many new ones popping up all the time. The ones that we showcased in this webinar are the ones that you want to go back through. And make sure that you have submitted to all of them.