Submitting to Apple Podcasts and Spotify the first time

Apple Podcasts Connect will not take a show with no episode. The feed has to be public, not password-protected, with the required tags, artwork, and at least one episode in it. A trailer counts.

Publish that first file on your host, wait until the feed URL loads in a browser, then submit. Do not send Apple an empty shell.

Spotify is the same idea from a different door. If you already host somewhere else, you claim the show in Spotify for Creators by pasting the RSS feed. Their claim page does not spell out the one-episode rule the way Apple does. Still do not submit an empty feed.

Create an Apple Podcasts Connect account and submit the RSS feed there. Your host may have a Get Listed button that opens this. Buzzsprout will not submit you by itself. You still own the listing if you leave, which is the point.

Show cover has to be JPEG or PNG, 1400 by 1400 pixels at minimum, 3000 by 3000 at most, with no transparent background, on a server that answers HTTP HEAD requests. Apple's own RSS guide is the source. They do not currently list a file-size cap. Episode art is optional. If you skip it, Apple uses the show cover.

The feed itself has to be RSS 2.0. Each episode needs a unique audio file and a GUID that never changes. Duplicate file URLs get ignored. Dates in the feed need to look like email dates, not 7/6/2014 1:00 PM. Apple no longer uses the old owner-email tag in the feed, and the email in the feed does not have to match your Apple ID.

After you click Add, Apple says the show can appear in the catalog. Search and recommendations can take up to 24 hours. Content review still happens, and they do not publish a business-day wait. Then check Podcasts Connect for the show page and the feed URL they stored. That URL is the identity of the listing. Change hosts later with a 301, not a second submit that creates a second show.

Go to creators.spotify.com, not the old podcasters.spotify.com address, and log in with a Spotify account. Choose Find an existing show, then Somewhere else, and paste the RSS feed URL.

They send an 8-digit code to the email address in your RSS feed, from noreply@hello.creators.spotify.com. Paste it in the form. That inbox does not have to match the Spotify login. A show can only be claimed once. If someone else already claimed it, you need that admin.

Hosts often hide the email in the feed to cut spam. Spotify then cannot mail you the code. Show the real email long enough to claim, then hide it again if you want. Custom domain inboxes sometimes swallow the message. Gmail or Outlook in the feed for the claim is the boring fix.

If you hosted on Spotify for Creators from day one, you are not claiming an external feed. You already are the host. Do not submit a second copy.

A YouTube channel is not an RSS feed. Apple will not take a youtube.com/channel URL as the show. YouTube Music is not a separate Music-only form either. It comes from YouTube Studio: Create, New podcast, Submit RSS. The video-first guide is that job.

Amazon Music: add or claim the show at Amazon Music for Podcasters. They also mail the email address in the RSS feed.

Pocket Casts and the rest are directories. Most of them ingest from Apple or from the same RSS. Get Apple and Spotify right first. Do not spend a week on every directory while the feed is still empty.

Do not create a brand new Apple listing when you move hosts. That is how you zero the reviews. Redirect instead.

Submit after the first episode is actually in the feed. Keep publishing on a normal schedule. A gap right after submit looks like a dead show.

Apple recrawl after a later host move is days to about two weeks. That is not the keep-alive window. Keep the old host 60 to 90 days. Different guide.