How Do I Start a Podcast? The Ultimate Directory Submission List

Congratulations, you’ve reached the stage where you have recorded your first podcast and (hopefully) found hosting online for it. If you haven’t found Podcast Hosting yet, take a step back for a moment and take a look at our Guide to Podcast Hosting.

Apple Podcast Connect - Submit Your Podcast

Podcast Directories are the rather antiquated name given to websites or platforms used to find and serve up your Podcast to users. Think Apple Podcast, Spotify and Amazon Music … as well as anywhere else you may want to be found.

What you may think is that you need to submit you podcast detail to 100’s of directories and platforms – I know that’s how I felt at the start of my journey. However, my ‘ultimate podcast directory’ is about making your journey to starting a podcast easy – Rather than submissions to 100’s, we want to use submissions to key directories which feed to small directories (and we will tell you who they are).

This means instead of spending 50 hours submitting your podcast, you can spend 5 or 6 – honestly it may not even be that long!

Reasons to Get Listed in a Podcast Directory

Podcast Directories are a great way, to not only spread the word about your podcast but increase search engine visibility of the podcast overall.

A podcast directory can introduce your podcast to a new audience, both at home and across the globe – The SEO Podcast has an audience today that is truly global for every podcast each week.

In essence, a directory lets you attract a new audience, get more ratings and reviews and ensure your subscribers get your latest podcasts (because they can subscribe on whatever platform they want).

How to Submit Your Show to a Podcast Directory

Submitting a podcast to a directory is simple, in most cases.

You find the sign up link/submission link (we’ve got a fairly big list below) and enter the RSS feed URL from your Podcast Host.

From there, depending on the platform it will generally ask you to verify the email address contained within the feed (usually the one you signed up with for the host / though it can vary as they may hide your personal email). Once this is done, you can sign in and edit the podcast details specific to this directory/platform.

Once you’ve signed up and the feed is verified, you can sit back and relax – that directory will receive updates from the feed each time you post/upload a new podcast to the host.

Top Podcast Directories for 2023

1 – Apple Podcasts

One of the biggest podcast directories and players globally with just under 30 Million ACTIVE users, Apple Podcasts is well worth signing up for. Not just for its audience size and your chance to pick up a fraction of this, but because by signing up to Apple Podcasts you will automatically feed into these directories:

Overcast

PocketCasts

Castro

Castbox

Downcast

PodCruncher

iCatcher

Castaway 2

Podcast Republic

AntennaPod

and more

To sign up to Apple Podcasts, you will need an Apple ID – if you’ve not got one head over here and sign up ( https://appleid.apple.com/ ). Following this you can sign up by heading to Apple Podcast Connect ( https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/ ) and sign up – it will take just a few minutes.

2 – Spotify

With only a few hundred thousand less podcast listeners than Apple, Spotify is certainly worth signing up for and ensuring you get found on this platform.

In recent years, Spotify have bought two big Podcasting brands showing how keen they are to invest in this area, and this has paid dividends with the growth in audience they have seen.

Signing up for Spotify Podcasts is simple (though we advise you don’t use you personal email for this!) – simply head over to Spotify for Podcasts ( https://podcasters.spotify.com/ ) and once signed with your RSS feed you can see the podcast as part of your catalog.

3 – Google Podcasts

Google Podcasts has a small share of the global podcast player market at just 2.4% (2021). You may think this means it’s not worth the hassle of signing up – but we need to remember that Google owns the search engine world and when it comes to finding your podcast through a ‘normal’ search engine and not a podcast directory directly it pays to have submitted your directory here.

A top tip here is to ensure that across directories and platforms you are not significantly changing the description of your podcast, and that if you are inserting links to your website these are consistent. This ensures that search engines like Google know your podcast is the same across these areas and as it see’s more people linking to them across the web you are becoming more popular as a podcast overall.

Signing up to Google Podcasts is easy, simply head over to the Google Podcast Manager ( https://podcastsmanager.google.com/ ) and hit sign up. Again submitting your RSS feed and verification is required of your email.

4 – Amazon Music & Audible

Amazon Music, a part of Amazon Prime (Music) – and Audible, primarily a Audio Book service now with a butt ton of Podcasts are a fast-growing Podcast Market globally. The pace of growth is driven by both sections being a part of Membership programs and giving for free as part of that – though this of course holds them back a little too from a larger audience.

To sign up for Amazon Music and Audible, visit https://podcasters.amazon.com/

As always enter your RSS feed and verify your email. A little like spotify and google your options are a little limited on editing.

5 – TuneIN

TuneIN is roughly double the size of Amazon Music (for podcasters) today, and well worth signing up for. The platform is setup primarily as an internet radio station functionality – which means its designed to function well with Alexa and other voice-controlled tech, including in-car tech hands free. This is a big deal for reaching a bigger audience as hand’s free isn’t always available for many apps (including amazong/audible) in cars.

To sign up for TuneIN you simply complete a submission form and wait for the OK – https://help.tunein.com/contact/add-podcast-S19TR3Sdf

6 – iHeart Radio

If you’ve had any new smart technology in the past few years, you will have seen iHeart on it, including smart watches! It has almost 150M users (though we’re not clear how many are active), and it’s worth signing up for as many smaller directories also use their feeds.

To sign up, hop over to https://www.iheart.com/content/submit-your-podcast/

Verify your email. Note it can take 24/48 hours to confirm.

7 – Stitcher

Another name you’ve probably heard of, Stitcher, is found on most android phones fresh out of the factory. With such a huge user base and a large base of directories using their feeds – this is a must for signing up to!

To sign up to Stitcher head over to http://stitcher.com/content-provider

NOTE: If you get on stitcher you get on Pandora too! It says this almost nowhere but it’s true… if you want the stats directly for the breakdown and to ensure you’re live on both head over to https://connect.simplecast.com/

8 – Samsung Podcasts

Our reasons for including Samsung Podcasts here is that Samsung include their podcast software with most android phones, whilst its not the most used piece of software in the UK or USA – it is popular elsewhere. It’s well worth including in your submissions.

Head over to https://developer.samsung.com/podcasts to sign up

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Other Podcast Directories to Sign Up to: