A podcast is a series of audio (or video) episodes that people can listen to and follow. In this guide, you will learn how to host your podcast on your WordPress.com site and submit it to major podcasting platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Pocket Casts.
In this guide
Have a question?
Ask our AI assistantThis feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites, upgrade your plan to access this feature.
Before you can publish podcast episodes, you need to enable podcasting and configure your settings.
To set up podcasting on your site:
- From your site’s dashboard, go to Settings → Podcasting orJetpack → Podcasting.
- Toggle “Enable podcasting on this site” to ON.
When you enable podcasting, three settings sections appear:
- Podcast category
- Podcast details
- Feed settings
When you select a podcast category, posts you publish in this category are included in your podcast feed.
- In the “Podcast category” section, select (or create) a category for your podcast episodes.
- Click the “Save settings” button.
Once saved, your podcast feed URL appears in this section. You’ll need this URL to submit your podcast to platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
You can also click “Create Episode” to start writing your first podcast post.
Note: If you change your podcast category after submitting to platforms, you’ll need to resubmit your feed.
The information in the podcast details section appears in podcast apps like Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
- Cover image: Upload artwork between 1400×1400 and 3000×3000 pixels (JPG or PNG).
- Title: Your podcast name (defaults to your site title).
- Summary/Description: A short description of your podcast.
- Hosts/Artist/Producer: The people behind your podcast.
- Copyright: Copyright information for your podcast.
Click the “Save settings” button to confirm these details.
The feed settings control how your podcast appears in podcast directories and podcasting apps. You can adjust the following details:
- Podcast topics: Choose how your podcast should be categorized within Apple Podcasts and other podcasting services.
- Explicit content: Many platforms require you to disclose if your podcast contains explicit content.
- Email address: This email address will be displayed in the feed and is required for some services, such as Google Play.
Before submitting to platforms, you will need to publish at least one episode. To create and publish the first episode of your podcast, take the following steps:
- From your site’s dashboard, navigate to Posts → Add Post.
- Type a post title, which will be used for the episode title in Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast apps.
- In the Post Settings menu on the right, assign the post to the podcast category you created.
- Optional: In the same settings menu, add an excerpt (a brief summary) to describe the episode. When there is no excerpt, one will be auto-generated from the post’s main content.
- Add an Audio block and upload or link to your episode’s audio file here.
- Once you’re ready for your episode to go live, click the Publish button on your new post.
WordPress.com supports .mp3, .m4a, .ogg, and .wav audio files. However, different podcasting platforms accept different formats:
- .mp3: Works with all platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and others)
- .m4a: Works with most platforms except Spotify
- .ogg and .wav: Not accepted by Apple Podcasts or Spotify
💡
For best compatibility across all platforms, use the .mp3 format for your audio files.
Note: Upload audio files directly to your WordPress.com site using the Audio block. Do not embed audio from SoundCloud or Audiomack, as Apple Podcasts cannot download files from external hosting services.
If you need to convert your audio files to .mp3 format, you can use free software like Audacity.
This section of the guide applies to sites with our WordPress.com Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites and sites on the Personal plan, upgrade your plan to access this feature.
You can create video podcasts using the VideoPress block instead of the Audio block. For best results, upload videos directly to your WordPress.com site rather than using YouTube or Vimeo links, as these may not work properly in podcast apps.
You only need to submit your podcast URL to platforms once. When you submit your feed, any future episode published with your designated podcast category will be distributed automatically to your subscribers.
To submit a podcast to Apple, you must have at least one published episode and will need to sign up for an Apple Podcasts Connect account.
- Copy the podcast feed URL you created earlier.
- Within Podcasts, click the Add (+) button and select “New Show”.
- Select “Add existing show (RSS feed)” and enter your podcast feed URL.
- Select Add.
- Review your show information. Pay attention to the artwork and your show details, such as title, author name, description, language, and category.
- If ready, select “Submit For Review“
Apple will validate your podcast and then send it through a review process. Apple will notify you if there are any issues with your podcast.
After the podcast is accepted, you can use Apple’s Link Maker to create links to your podcast.
To submit your podcast to Pocket Casts, take the following steps:
- Copy the podcast feed URL you created earlier.
- Open the Pocket Casts submission page.
- Add the podcast’s feed URL to the URL field.
- Select whether your podcast should be public or private.
- Click the “Submit” button.
To submit your podcast to Spotify, take the following steps:
- Copy the podcast feed URL you created earlier.
- Submit the feed URL on the Spotify for Podcasters website.
To submit your podcast to YouTube, you will need a YouTube channel and access to YouTube Studio. YouTube uses your podcast’s cover art to create a static-image video for each episode.
To submit your podcast to YouTube, follow these steps:
- Copy the podcast feed URL you created earlier.
- In YouTube Studio, click Create → New podcast → Submit RSS feed.
- Read and accept the RSS Ingestion Tool Terms of Service.
- Paste your podcast feed URL and click Next.
- YouTube sends a verification code to the email address in your RSS feed. Enter the code to verify ownership.
- Choose which episodes to upload and click Next.
- After your episodes finish uploading, click Publish next to your podcast feed.
New episodes added to your RSS feed will automatically upload to your YouTube channel.
Note: Podcast content uploaded to YouTube cannot contain advertisements, per YouTube’s Terms of Service.
To submit your podcast to Amazon’s Alexa, take the following steps:
- Copy the podcast feed URL you created earlier.
- Follow the instructions on this Amazon page to create and submit an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing Skill. Note: This will require an account on the Amazon Developer Console.
Episodes older than 7 days will be ignored by Amazon.
📌
For your podcast to be approved by major podcast networks, the language of your site must match the language you use on your podcast.
To stop publishing your podcast feed, toggle “Enable podcasting on this site” to OFF at the top of the Podcasting settings page.
