Podcast Distribution Checklist: RSS, Apple, Spotify, YouTube

One feed, every platform.

Step 1: Build a proper RSS feed

A podcast is just an RSS feed with audio enclosures and metadata. Your feed needs a title, description, artwork, and every episode with its own title, description, and audio file. Get this right once and everything downstream works.

Step 2: Submit once, not per episode

You submit your feed to each directory one time. After approval, every new episode flows out automatically. Submit to:

• Apple Podcasts — the biggest discovery surface; approval takes a few days.
• Spotify — instant, and increasingly where people listen.
• Google Podcasts / YouTube Music — one RSS submission covers both.
• Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, iHeart, TuneIn — the long tail adds up.

Step 3: Don't skip YouTube

YouTube is now a top podcast platform, and it's the one place with a built-in search engine. Upload each episode — at minimum an audio-plus-artwork video, ideally a real video. It's the single highest-leverage distribution channel for new shows, because search can find you there before anyone knows your name.

Step 4: Cut vertical clips for social

Every episode has a handful of moments worth sharing: the hot take, the story, the quotable line. Cut them into 30–60 second vertical clips and post them to X, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Clips are how new listeners discover you — a good clip out-reaches a good episode.

Step 5: Monitor and iterate

Watch downloads per episode and per platform. The episodes that spike tell you what your audience actually wants — make more of those. Distribution is not the end of the loop; it's the feedback loop.