Podcast Publishing, RSS Hosting & Platform Distribution
Your digital neighborhood.
Hosting providers are the backbone of your show. Some can leave podcasters on their own to figure out all the rules and best practices required by Apple and Spotify, and others try to lock down your settings to prevent any errors in your feed.
Through our partners at Captivate, we’re able to provide an RSS Feed that is fully compliant with all podcast platforms, and make ongoing improvements relative to changes in the industry, all while giving you 24/7 access to your show on your terms. You’re always in control.
All of our podcasts receive worldwide distribution, including emerging podcast platforms like Amazon, Audible, and Podcast Index, as well as all new platforms that may become available in the future.
Publishing & Distribution At A Glance
RSS Hosting: Your show lives on one industry-leading platform for podcast hosting, which translates raw show data and media to your listeners.
Worldwide Distribution: The amount of podcast platforms and listening services are nearly endless. Unified hosting ensures that shows are distributed to every platform, and future-proofed more any emerging platforms that may develop.
IAB Compliant Analytics: Receive the most up-to-date industry compliant analytics in the industry, with specific platform insights and historical download data.
Private RSS Feeds: Create private shows for a paid subscriber base or an internal company podcast team, hosted right alongside your public show.
User Dashboard Access: Team-wide availability to our hosting platform at any level, including detailed user access controls managed by the master account.
Dynamic Ad Insertion: Robust and industry-leading dynamic ad insertion technology for full control of advertising and sponsor campaigns.
Own your website. Own your show.
It’s essential to own and control the hub of your content, while also providing ease of use and accessibility to your audience. Podcasting is an openly accessible and yet private content medium, largely controlled by the platforms that listeners subscribe to. We leverage both the podcast app ecosystem and your show’s domain to secure the geo-presence of your podcast. With the support and partnership of your web team, we handle the publishing of all your episodes onto your website.
Show Strategy, Consulting, & Refinement
In podcasting, analytics can be anything from a top priority to an afterthought, depending on a show’s goals. Based on those unique success metrics, Crate is capable of both combing through listener data and/or surveying sentiment and style to suggest areas of improvement or refinement of messaging.
Channels on Apple Podcasts.
Group content together thematically and create a 24/7 channel for your audience. Art and branding, management, pseudo-network status.
In Apple Podcasts Connect, you can create a single destination, called a channel, to list multiple podcasts in one place. You can group your shows together however you like — create a single channel to highlight your brand or create multiple channels to group shows with similar themes. When creating multiple channels, keep in mind that shows can only be linked to one channel.
If you’re participating in the Apple Podcasters Program and want to offer a paid subscription, you’ll set up your subscription metadata at the channel level. Channels can only contain one subscription and can include exclusively paid content, free content, or a mix of both.
FAQs on Branded Podcast Publishing
What are the pitfalls of trying to handle your brand’s podcast publishing and distribution on your own?
Unlike YouTube's walled garden, publishing in the podcast ecosystem is splintered and can be confusing. Some platforms, like Podcast Addict, mirror what Apple Podcasts does and will scrape their library to find new shows. Others, like Spotify, carve out their own space in the industry and create their own hosting, publishing, and listening platform. Having a producer with expertise across different eras of podcasting and in managing these old, current, and new platforms, helps to ensure your podcast is available everywhere.
What sets Crate Media apart when it comes to podcast publishing and distribution for brands?
We view podcasting as a method rather than just a medium, and aim to make sure all of our shows are distributed across these different spans of platforms. Some networks or producers argue about the definition of podcasting - claiming that video podcasts on YouTube "aren't a podcast" because they don't have an RSS feed - but our viewpoint has always been to meet the listener (or viewer) where they are and ensure your show is available to them. Regardless of what you call your show, the listener may consider it a podcast and go looking for it on podcast platforms. There's no reason to make it more difficult for your audience to find you.
What are the 3-5 absolute most important things to know when comes to working with a podcast distributor like Crate Media?
Publishing and distribution is something you should confirm is done, and done correctly, but as a creator it should not be the focus of your work when managing your show. The content and your performance should be your main focus, and we aim to keep that balance by ensuring that these more technical aspects of hosting an ongoing podcast are handled and continually maintained, whether you're starting a show from scratch or migrating a podcast from a previous network or platform.