How to Start a Podcast on Spotify

Why your podcast should be on Spotify

Spotify recently surpassed Apple Podcasts to take over as the number one podcast platform for listeners everywhere. About a quarter of all podcast listeners (24%) use Spotify as their listening platform of choice, compared to 21% of listeners who opt for Apple Podcasts. 

Plus, the platform boasts over 300 million listeners worldwide. With these stats in mind, any podcaster would be missing a massive opportunity to increase their listenership if they didn’t make their podcast available on Spotify.

So, how can you ensure your podcast is showing up on the world’s most popular listening platform?

First, check out Spotify’s resources for podcasters at podcasters.spotify.com. Here, you’ll find tips for starting, editing and distributing a podcast. 

You can also get to know your audience through this resource, claim your podcast if it’s already on Spotify, and gain an understanding of Spotify’s requirements for submitting a podcast.

According to this resource, here are the steps you need to follow to add or claim a podcast on Spotify to ensure you’re maximizing your listening base:

Add a podcast:

1. Click Get Started.
2. Paste in the link to your podcast's RSS feed.
3. Add podcast info like the category, language, and country.
4. Review the details and submit.

Claim a podcast:

1. Click Get Started.
2. Paste and submit a link to your podcast's RSS feed.
3. Check the email that’s linked to your RSS feed. You’ll receive an automatic verification email with an 8-digit code.
4. Paste your 8-digit code into the box provided and submit.

Submitting your podcast to Spotify is easy as 1, 2, 3. Now, it’s time to increase your visibility to get more eyes (or, ears?) on your podcast through Spotify. 

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Tips for creating exceptional content on Spotify 

The guidelines for creating exceptional content on Spotify are essentially the same as the podcasting tips you might follow for other platforms. Of course, there’s a fine art and science to podcasting, and you’ll get better with practice. But in general, here are a few tips that will help you optimize your content and gain listeners:

1. Invest in high-quality equipment. Depending on your budget, it’s always worth it to invest in high-quality microphones, software editing and headphones to ensure your sound quality is top-notch. Poor sound quality is a major influencer of drop-off rates, so if you’re hoping to retain audience members, you’ll want to make this a focus.
2. Stay on-topic but infuse your episodes with as much personality as possible. While it’s important to stay consistent and firm with the subject matter area you’re hoping to cover with your podcast, you’ll also want to balance that out with a little fun and humor. Bring your sparkling personality to the table if you’re the host of your podcast and remember to stay authentic to build trust with listeners.
3. Add value. Last but not least, with every podcast episode you launch, ask yourself how it’s adding value to the Spotify podcast community. For example, are you making listeners laugh? Teaching them something new? Or piquing their interest through a compelling story? Whatever it is, be sure to leave your listener feeling a little more inspired, educated or de-stressed after each one of your podcast episodes.

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Tips for promoting your podcast on Spotify 

Be sure to promote your podcast on social media and through your website to gain listeners. If you have the budget, you may also want to check out advertising options for your podcast to grow your audience.

Here are a few tips for promoting your podcast once it’s available on Spotify:

1. Follow Spotify’s branding guidelines so you can be sure you’re optimizing all branded materials.  
2. Embed a Spotify player on your website so potential new audience members can check out your podcast straight from your site.
3. Join Spotify for Podcasters. If you’re hoping to consistently improve your podcast marketing strategy over time, you’ll definitely want to analyze your back-end data and key metrics like consumption rate, engagement and more. Joining Spotify for Podcasters, Spotify’s platform designed to help podcasters build and grow their audience, will help you out with this.

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Using a hosting platform

Last but certainly not least, selecting the right hosting platform for your podcast is an essential piece of the podcasting puzzle. A good hosting platform will make it easy to publish new episodes in the future and distribute them to all the best directories in the game so you can grow your audience and find podcast success.

Once you sign up for a hosting platform and set up your spotify account, it's simply one-click publishing for all future episodes. 

So, what are some tips for setting yourself up for success from the get go in terms of using the right hosting platform? Below are a few simple tips to keep in mind during this part of the process.

1. Consider the hosting platform’s storage limits. This is one of the most important considerations to take into account when choosing a hosting platform. After all, the last thing you’d want is to run out of storage just in time for a new episode launch. In the beginning of your podcast journey, it’s probably okay to sign up with a free hosting plan with limited storage. However, you’ll want to make sure that you have the option to upgrade to a paid plan to gain access to more storage and bandwidth later on down the road when your podcast grows.
2. Choose a hosting site that’s user-friendly. If you’re new to podcasting or you don’t consider yourself someone who is highly fluent in tech, then it might be best to choose a hosting platform that’s intuitive and easy to navigate. That way, you won’t be wasting time trying to learn the language of that particular hosting site and you’ll be less likely to make mistakes during the upload process.

Think about your budget. Of course, budget is always an important consideration during every step of the podcasting process. Unless you have unlimited funds for your project, then it will be important to consider whether the price point of a hosting platform will fit your budget. However, while keeping price in mind will keep you from going overboard, you also wouldn’t necessarily want to skimp on something as important as a hosting site. Consider spending a little extra upfront to be an investment that will be well worth it in the end.