Podcast directories: Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts

Alban: 0:00

these directories are really acting like a phone book

Gilon: 0:03

phone, but they did your cell phone

Alban: 0:06

service is not in the book

Gilon: 0:16

Welcome to How To Start A Podcast podcast about starting your podcast. I'm Gilon

Alban: 0:21

I'm Alban. In this episode, we're talking about how to get your podcasts listed in Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Google podcasts.

Gilon: 0:29

So first things first, there's a lot of lingo in the podcasting world. What is a directory? Why are you laughing?

Alban: 0:35

I'm laughing because our first mock to my best idea, but this is this is all we have. So what is a podcast directory? Well, the misconception is that all these directories host your files, so a lot of people say things like, how do I upload my podcast to Apple, and that won't work. Apple doesn't accept podcasts just being uploaded. Instead, what's happening is you're uploading your podcast somewhere like Buzzsprout. And then we're helping get your podcasts listed. And Apple podcasts is just a listing. And it's similar to a phonebook. This is something that happened a long time ago. Every time I say phonebook July just laughs

Gilon: 1:15

just dating so deeply. It's you have to explain what it is because there are people that have no, they have no idea they were not alive. I think

Alban: 1:21

most people know what a phonebook is, but phonebook is just a listing of phone numbers and names. So you could find businesses and people and you could search for them in this book, and then call them on your phone, Apple podcasts is really just providing a listing of all the podcasts. And so they're a centralized place for you to search for podcasts and find them and subscribe. And there's really four major podcast directories. So there's four that are super important. And there's always new ones popping up. So we're going to kind of talk through all the top ones today,

Gilon: 1:53

the big four, right, like a Football Conference of directory for the big four. So who would you say are the big players in the directory world,

Alban: 2:05

head over to buzzsprout.com/global stats, and you can see the platform statistics for all of Buzzsprout. These are all the apps that are downloading the shows that are listed on Buzzsprout. So we can figure out which are the biggest in the world. And by a good margin is Apple podcast with 37.2% of all downloads are coming through Apple podcasts, just that single app. Next up is Spotify at 28%. So it's really strong. And then we go way, way, way, way down. You got those two really big ones. And then people are playing in web browsers most likely that next and that's 2.8% Oh, wow. And the next app is Google podcasts. 2.3. And then there's tons of other ones that are around like the one 2.7%. So really, you have a third lot bigger than a third Apple, trying to get to a third Spotify. And then about a third left for everything else. So the big four in my mind are Apple podcast, Google podcasts, Spotify, and podcast index. So those are the four we will talk through today, because they're all slightly different. And if you're getting your podcast listed in each of those, your podcasts will probably show up almost everywhere.

Gilon: 3:25

Yeah. And so we're talking about directories. We've already sort of told you what they are, who the big ones are. So then why would you want to be in a directory, there are a lot of different reasons that people list with directories. But the big thing is exposure, right? You want your content available to as many people as possible. And for most people, this is kind of the way that they want to go, we want growth of the podcast, audience growth, that's a central metric of successful podcast. And other people may just, you know, want to stick to one or two, which is completely fine. There's not a right or wrong answer. But for the most part, making your content as available as possible, as widely available as possible is a good growth strategy.

Alban: 4:01

So the default should be putting it into all these because there's no additional work. Once you get listed. It's just a one time submission process. But sometimes people decide not to place their podcast everywhere. So Buzzsprout, some of our shows are not in Spotify, because we're not big fans of how they're trying to consolidate the entire industry. There's people who have exclusive shows to one platform. So think of some of the shows that have gone exclusive to Spotify, then there's some that only put out episodes that are a little bit older into certain platforms. And then you have some people who have actually not put their podcasts and Spotify or taken it out due to disagreeing with some of the content on their platform. So the default should be put it everywhere. And then if you have a reason maybe would it put it into one or more of these directories,

Gilon: 4:48

just like each platform was a little bit different. This submission process also can vary pretty widely, depending on the directory. So let's start with the big name Apple podcasts. Apple is probably You know where most people go to listen. Historically, even Apple podcast has been like one of the leader leaders when it comes to providing podcasts to the general public. But they can also be a little bit finicky when it comes to getting your podcast listed. So we're going to take you through that process.

Alban: 5:14

Apple has been around the longest. So iTunes started allowing podcasts into the system almost 16 years ago now. So back I think, like 2006 was when they first did it. And it really paved the way for lots of podcasts to get discovered, because people had iPods and they were downloading podcast to iTunes, and they would move those podcasts over and listen to them while they're out in the world. So it's always been really important. So the default podcast app is podcasts on iPhone that is pulling from Apple podcasts, it also will help you get listed in other directories because Apple puts their list of approved podcasts that they've already vetted out for any other podcast app to use. So there's lots of apps like overcast that they just say, I'm just going to show whatever Apple shows, that's what I will show. So it's really important and is the first one to get into. Alright, so

Gilon: 6:09

let's talk through some of the pieces that you need to get listed into Apple podcasts. So first things first, you need a lot of the basic things we talked about, like having a title, having your author figured out the description, those should be done. If you've been following along and doing your homework from the previous episodes,

Alban: 6:25

then you're going to want to upload your podcast artwork. So we talked to all those parameters, and you probably created in the last episode. So now that you've got that ready, upload that into Buzzsprout. And pick your podcast category, you can pick three, but you really want to pick one, make sure that first one, that's the one that Apple is going to focus on. So that's the one you want to make sure is the most reflective of your podcast,

Gilon: 6:50

I will say that cover art is one of those things that tends to cause delays when people are submitting to Apple. So it's really important that you get this right. So artwork, all the other stuff, we need that, then you absolutely have to have a first episode, you actually cannot submit your podcast to a directory without an episode. And it has to be a published episode. So make sure you've uploaded that episode, like we talked about before.

Alban: 7:13

All these are really important because without these things being done, I think actually in Buzzsprout, we will not allow you to submit your podcast because we know it won't work that is correct. But if some of these are a little bit off, so it's hard for us to know exactly the your artwork is like two pixels off. But when Apple gets it and they see those artworks off, they aren't going to approve it. And sometimes those back and forth delays, they can cause a lot of hiccups. So it's best just to make sure we have this done right on the front end for so when we submit it's all smooth sailing. So now that we've met these requirements, we're ready to actually submit our podcast, you would go into Buzzsprout. And then you go into that directories tab, and under Apple podcasts, you click get listed. And there we will let you copy your RSS feed. So this is just a URL that has all the info about your podcast. And if you actually look at the page, it just looks like a bunch of computer code. But it's got all the information, the title, the description, the where you can get the links to the episodes, all that is included, then you will go to Apple podcasts and create an apple id. If you own an iPhone, or a Mac, or iPad, or any Apple device, you have an Apple ID already. And you can use that one for this as well. And it's preferable if you're using the same Apple ID you already have. Now, let's head over to Apple podcast connect. So this is a special website where you can log in to submit a podcast. So we log in, and you just kind of walk through pretty basic steps. So you can follow these along inside of Buzzsprout. But you click the plus icon and you say I want to add a new show and then you drop in the RSS feed from Buzzsprout. And then what Apple is going to do is say, alright, we're looking at this and we're seeing there's an episode or saying there's a category we'll see there's a title, and they kind of let you review it. And you click Submit. And then there will be a human review. So this is the big difference with Apple and pretty much every other directory. All the other directories are just letting people submit, where Apple is really actually checking these with a person. So it's a really wonderful service. They're kind of providing for free for the podcasting community. And make sure this stuff isn't just complete spam that's getting into Apple podcasts. So it's really nice. In about on average, I'd say it's like every four days, but it can take up to two weeks, you will get an email that says your podcast has been approved. And you can go ahead and celebrate because now your podcast is in Apple podcasts.

Gilon: 9:50

Yeah, if you got through that everything else will be a breeze except for maybe Pandora.

Alban: 9:54

Pandora will definitely be harder but it's not one of our top apps and most important ones so maybe not as critical. So those are the steps for Apple podcasts. If you have any questions, you should have step by step instructions inside of Buzzsprout. We have videos, we have a guide out on the web. But you can also reach out to Jalon. And everybody else on the support team at support at Buzzsprout COMM And they'll get back to you really, really quickly.

Gilon: 10:19

It's true, we will next have our Big Four, Spotify. What's the process for getting into Spotify,

Alban: 10:25

Spotify is quite a bit easier. The main thing you need to be worried about with Spotify is the do not have copyrighted music. So the thing that they have that's a little bit different is when you submit to Spotify, inside Buzzsprout, you're just going to go and say there's directories, Spotify get listed. And then if you have already gone through the apple process, you must have already done the things we need to do. Like I have a title, I have a description, I have my category picked out my episode. All that's done. Now you just click a button that says Submit to Spotify. And we submit for you right then, and mostly within like two to three minutes you are listed. So it's a really, really fast turnaround. And if you've gone through the apple process, you know that everything's already been accomplished. That is just a one click entry. The big difference, though, with Spotify is they are going to check for copyrighted music. And if there's copyrighted music, it may take a day before they find it. But when they find it, they're just going to kick you out. So don't put copyrighted music in your podcast, just go ahead and pony up a little bit of money on audio jungle or one of these websites and get some good music. Don't try to take an Ariana Grande song, it's not going to be your podcast jingle.

Gilon: 11:39

I mean, we recommend owning the copyright or the license to anything you upload. But Spotify is definitely very, very specific. So we've seen some people that have like, they're like a DJ, and they have a podcast about music mixes and things like that. And they'll suddenly not see their podcasts on Spotify and like what happened and Spotify is quick to pull music podcast out without really giving. I mean, they give a warning, but you'll kind of notice your podcast is gone before you see that email.

Alban: 12:05

It makes sense because mostly these DJ podcasts and DJ shows they are actually licensing the music. And so if you think like, oh, it's more like radio where I don't actually have to own the licenses, different rules for radio different rules for podcasts. So if you're putting together a Dj Mix, that's not going to work on Buzzsprout. And it's just a matter of time until Spotify then Buzzsprout end up having to pull your show. So if it's not licensed music, don't put it on Buzzsprout.

Gilon: 12:33

Alright, Google podcasts. What's the process for Google podcasts?

Travis: 12:37

I can answer this one Gilon. So Google podcasts operate a little bit differently, because it's a part of the larger Google platform. And so Google, the search engine, normally goes through and looks over the internet and tries to find new websites that hasn't discovered before. And if it finds websites or pages that have podcast material on it, it says, Oh, that you go and google podcasts. And so when they first launched Google podcasts, that was the only way you could get in, you had to wait for Google to find your show. But then not too long ago, they rolled out Google podcasts Manager, which is a platform that you can go to to see how your podcast is showing up and being consumed in Google podcasts. And you'd actually add shows inside of there. And so rather than waiting for Google to discover you, you can say, hey, Google, I'm right over here, you should list my show in Google podcasts. So if you go to the directories tab, instead of Buzzsprout, like you have for Apple podcasts and Spotify, and click on Google podcasts, there's a link there to go to Google podcasts. And you can manually submit your show to be included. They'll send a verification email to the email that you've put in the podcast info for your show. And it doesn't take too long after you go through that submission process for your podcast to show up.

Alban: 13:44

So the last is the podcast index. And we talked a little bit how Apple has provided a service to the podcasting industry by maintaining the apple podcast directory. And the reason that's a service is because not only did they approve it for Apple podcasts, they made it so anybody could download the list of all of the apple podcast approved shows. And so there's lots of apps like overcast and Pocket Cast and castbox. And any third party app that wanted was able to say, hey, just let me see the full list of the 2 million shows that you've already approved. So for a long time, Apple podcast was the only group maintaining a central directory that everybody else could use. And I think a few years ago, as Spotify entered the game and Google more podcasters were getting concerned like, oh, maybe apple won't provide this service for free forever. And so that's where the podcast index came from. The podcast index is just a place for anybody to submit their show. And it's a centralized hub for any app to be able to download a list of all the shows. So it's kind of a backup for what Apple podcasts is providing. They're both doing similar things. Podcast index just has a little bit easier submission form. process. So, inside of Buzzsprout, you just click to submit to the podcast index. And all of your data has been sent over there. And any app that uses that for search will now be able to find your podcast.

Gilon: 15:13

So we've talked about a number of podcast directories, our top four, but there's a thing about more companies getting into the podcasting game. So we're actually seeing a lot of new directories as time goes on. So what are some of those new directories that we've seen over the past couple years,

Alban: 15:29

there's a lot that kind of come and go, you mentioned Pandora, there was a moment when Pandora seemed really interested in podcasting. That's kind of a cumbersome process to submit. And then it may be months and months before you get approved. But it's not a super important one yet, Amazon music now has podcasts. And you could submit to Amazon music that's relatively easy. Facebook has launched some podcasting features, they're almost a year old, but they're really only US centric right now. And for a few podcasters, they've actually seen a decent amount of plays through Facebook. So there's just lots of new options coming up all the time, whenever one gets big enough, and needs a different submission process. Buzzsprout will always go and update our directories page. So if you spend an afternoon you go through and you submit all the ones that we have available, you can just rest assured, you've got all your bases covered. If there's anything that comes up that needs its own unique submission process, and is actually has like point oh 1% of the market, then you can be confident that it will be inside of Buzzsprout.

Gilon: 16:38

And I do want to make this distinction. Because I know we've gotten a lot of emails and support where people upload their content and be like, alright, so you put it on Apple for me, didn't you? And it's like, no, you do have to go through the process. So we facilitate the submission process. But we do want you to be able to go through that and submit yourself so that you maintain ownership of your listing. So if you, God forbid, were to leave Buzzsprout, you would be able to just move that a lot more seamlessly than if we owned the listing as a company.

Alban: 17:02

Yeah, a long time ago. So back when I was the only person working in support for Buzzsprout, people would write in and say, I'm so confused. And I would just go and submit their URL for them. Because you didn't actually put in any information about yourself, you just put in the RSS feed and click Submit. Then when they rolled out Apple podcast, connect all the podcasts that were associated with your Apple ID showed up. And there are a lot of things you could do. You could change things about the show, you could remove it from Apple, you could redirect the feed. And then what I saw was there were actually like 12 shows that had been tied to my Apple ID. And some of them were still active. And so over time, some of them asked, say, Hey, can I get this shift over to me, I think there's still one or two that are active, that are you know, for five plus years, they didn't have that listing connected to them. So it's just a benefit for you to submit yourself because then you have more control, more analytics, because a lot of these podcast directories are going to provide really cool analytics on top of your Buzzsprout stats. So inside of Buzzsprout, you could see, oh, I had my podcast, downloaded 200 times by Apple podcasts, then you can actually click in to Apple podcast dashboard there. And you could see, well, that was actually by this many people and they played it this many times. And here's they mostly listened through to the 18 minute mark, and then they dropped off. So you get more data. When you have access to all these platforms, unique stats yourself. So Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google podcast each have some additional statistics that they provide inside their independent dashboards.

Gilon: 18:47

Alright, so we have talked about the benefits of podcast directories, how to get into some of them, and all that good stuff. Travis, is there anything else any other resources you would recommend for them to just broaden their knowledge base.

Travis: 18:59

So I would say if you plan on using Buzzsprout to host your podcast and distributed to all these apps, the number one thing you should do is just go ahead and knock out all the things you got to do to get your podcast ready to submit episode titles, show title, show description, podcast, artwork, categories, all the stuff you got to do, and then just go step by step through the instructions in our directories tab. Now, if you're planning on using a different podcast host, I will link resources in the description of this episode to help you walk through that process manually. So no matter where you host, your podcast, you know how to get your show listed in all the main directories but just go ahead and set aside some time to knock all these directory submissions out. Like we said, it's a one time thing you do it once at the very beginning, then you never have to worry about it again. And your podcast is available everywhere. The last thing you want is to say hey, you should go listen to my new awesome podcast. And then your friend comes back and says, I can't find it in the app that I listened to. Are you sure that you actually have a podcast that's available to listen to? You don't want that to happen to you. So just go ahead and make your point. podcasts are available everywhere that you feel comfortable with. And then that's really going to help set up your podcast for

Alban: 20:05

success. In the next episode, we are going to be launching your podcast. So we're at the end. If you've been following along with your homework as John puts it, you will be ready to launch your podcast as well go ahead and submit your podcast to those directories. And in the next episode, we're on the homestretch so looking forward to seeing you there. As

Gilon: 20:24

always keep podcasting