Every podcast must have a few things in order before they launch - here’s a quick guide on what you need before submitting your show to Apple Podcasts.
Artwork
Must be 1400x1400 pixels (a perfect square) JPG format
Less than 500kb in total size
No transparent backgrounds
For best results in most podcast directories, create artwork that is bold, simple, and easy to read on a mobile device.
Podcast Metadata
Title.
Author. Your name (or the name of your company, brand, or network).
Description. Must not include the word "podcast," title of the show, or name of the author. Keep in mind that keywords in your show description for iTunes do not rank in search, so keep it brief, and don’t keyword-stuff.
Categories. Choose up to 3. As of summer 2019, Apple has updated categories and sub-categories - see the full list here.
Explicit or Clean. There aren’t restrictions on explicit podcasts, but they must be labeled as such. Podcasts that include explicit content but are labeled ‘clean’ may be removed from the Apple Podcasts library.
Episode
MP3 file format. wav, aif, m4a, or any other audio formats are not allowed
128kbps stereo.
To launch, you need to publish at least one finished episode. For most shows, we recommend recording a trailer and using that to launch with.
Titles, Numbers, and Show notes
Each episode you publish will need to be labeled with a title, description, and episode number.
Title. There is no character limit on titles, but try to avoid keyword-stuffing.
Numbering Style. Episode numbers appear as such in Apple Podcasts: 1. Episode Title. For consistency, we recommend numbering all your episodes in the same format. However, you are free to label your show whichever way you choose. For example:
1. This is the episode title
Ep. 1 - Talking All Things Keyword, Keyword, and Keyword - with Guest Name
#001 - Guest Name Shares Their Top Tips for Keyword, Keyword, and Keyword
01: Guest Name
Descriptions. aka Show Notes. There is no standard format for show notes, and they can be as short or as comprehensive as you prefer. Each episode needs at least something in the description however, so at least one sentence is required. We recommend including information about the guest (if applicable), their company, product, service, etc., as well as any resources or links that were mentioned throughout the episode.
The show notes themselves do not rank for keywords on Apple Podcasts, but can (and should) be used as a blog post on your website correlating to that episode.
Podcast Hosting
We recommend Captivate for all of our production clients. Captivate is an industry leader in podcast hosting. They provide the entire structure of your podcast's RSS feed. This is where your podcast metadata, information, art, files, and all episodes of your podcast are stored. From there, we then publish the RSS feed to all podcast platforms.
