You do not upload your podcast to Spotify or Apple. You give them the address of your RSS feed, they verify you own it, and from then on they check that feed for new episodes on their own.

Understanding that one fact removes most of the confusion around getting listed — including why “I published an episode but it is not on Spotify” is almost never a submission problem.

One feed, every app

You publish to your feed. The directories come and read it — you never upload an episode more than once.

Your RSS feed

A single XML file at one URL, listing the show and every episode.

https://feeds.turbocast.io/your-show

  • Spotify

    Submit the feed URL once. Spotify re-checks it and pulls new episodes on its own.

  • Apple Podcasts

    Submitted through Apple Podcasts Connect; the listing is built from the feed, not from an upload.

  • YouTube

    Accepts the same RSS feed to create a podcast on YouTube Music alongside your channel.

  • Overcast

    Indexes from Apple's directory, so getting into Apple usually gets you in here too.

  • Pocket Casts

    Takes a feed URL directly, and also picks shows up from the major directories.

  • Google Podcasts Retired

    Retired in 2024. Its listeners were moved to YouTube Music, which reads the very same feed.

  • …and any other app that reads RSS

    Castbox, Podcast Addict, Podverse, Amazon Music and the rest all consume the same file. Nothing about your feed is app-specific.

This is why a broken feed breaks everywhere at once, and why fixing the feed fixes everywhere at once. There is only ever one source of truth.

Before you submit anything

Every directory runs roughly the same checks. Failing one of them is the single most common reason a submission bounces, and fixing them first saves days of waiting on a review that was never going to pass.

Artwork. Apple requires cover art between 1400 × 1400 and 3000 × 3000 pixels, perfectly square, in JPEG or PNG format and RGB colour space. Aim for 3000 × 3000 so it stays sharp everywhere, and keep the file reasonably small so it loads quickly. The image must be reachable at a public URL that the directory can fetch.

A category. It must be one of Apple’s defined categories, spelled exactly as Apple spells it. An invented or misspelled category fails validation.

An explicit tag. Every show must declare whether it contains explicit content. Missing this blocks acceptance.

At least one published episode, with a real audio file that downloads over a public URL. Directories will not review an empty feed. A short trailer counts.

A monitored email address in the feed. Spotify, Amazon and YouTube verify an externally hosted show by emailing the address published in your feed, so mail to it has to arrive. Apple works differently — it verifies through the Apple Account you use in Apple Podcasts Connect, and since 2023 it no longer relies on the <itunes:owner> contact tag. Note that anything in a public feed is public: use a monitored role address such as [email protected], not a personal inbox.

Apple Podcasts

Submit here first. Apple’s directory is the one many smaller apps build their catalogues from, so getting listed on Apple often gets you listed in a dozen other places without further effort.

  1. Go to Apple Podcasts Connect and sign in with an Apple Account. Use one that belongs to the show or business rather than a personal account you might lose access to — moving a show between Apple Accounts later is tedious.
  2. Add a new show and paste your RSS feed URL.
  3. Apple validates the feed immediately and reports any problems. This is a genuine technical check, so errors here are precise and worth reading carefully.
  4. Verify ownership. Apple ties the show to the Apple Account you signed in with. It does not email the <itunes:owner> address — Apple dropped that requirement in 2023. If you are claiming a show that was submitted by someone else, Apple’s transfer flow uses a verification tag placed in the feed rather than an email.
  5. Submit for review. New shows go through an Apple review before listing. Apple says a new show or episode can take up to 24 hours to appear in search and recommendations; content review and busy periods can stretch that.

Once approved, you never submit again. Apple polls the feed and new episodes appear on their own.

Spotify

Spotify’s flow is faster and there is no editorial review for a standard show.

  1. Go to Spotify for Creators (creators.spotify.com) and sign in.
  2. Choose to add a new show and paste your RSS feed URL. Spotify validates it and confirms the feed looks good.
  3. Verify ownership. Spotify emails a code to the address in your feed — this is the step that fails if that mailbox is not monitored.
  4. Confirm your show’s category and language, and submit.

Shows typically appear within hours rather than days.

YouTube

YouTube’s podcast support is RSS-driven, which surprises people who assume it means uploading videos. It is also the destination that behaves least like an ordinary podcast app, so it is worth understanding before you connect it.

You associate your RSS feed with a YouTube channel. YouTube then takes the audio from selected episodes and creates a static-image video for each one on your channel, using your show artwork. It is not streaming your audio file the way Apple or Overcast do — it is producing and hosting its own video derived from your feed.

What that means in practice:

  • It is tied to a channel. Decide which channel should own the podcast before connecting, because moving it later is awkward.
  • RSS ingestion is region-limited. It is only available in supported countries. If the option is missing, that may be why.
  • Show details do not sync automatically. Changing your title, description or artwork in the feed does not necessarily update what is already on YouTube; those follow separate YouTube workflows.
  • Replacing audio needs re-ingestion. Swapping an episode’s audio file in your feed does not automatically replace the video YouTube already published.
  • Sponsorships need disclosure. If an episode contains paid promotion, YouTube requires you to declare it under its paid-promotion rules — a requirement the other directories do not impose.
  • It is separate from uploading video versions. If you also publish a filmed version as a normal YouTube video, that is a different workflow and will exist alongside the RSS-derived podcast.

YouTube’s setup lives in the podcast settings for your channel, and the exact placement moves periodically — follow YouTube’s current help documentation rather than a screenshot from a blog post.

The rest, briefly

  • Amazon Music / Audible — submit the feed through Amazon’s podcast portal. Straightforward, and worth doing.
  • Pocket Casts — has a submission form, but also picks up most shows automatically once they are in Apple’s directory.
  • Overcast — indexes from Apple’s directory. Usually nothing to do.
  • iHeartRadio — has its own submission process; worth it if you are targeting a US mainstream audience.
  • Podcast Index — an open, free index that a growing number of independent apps read from. Quick to submit and increasingly worth having.

After you are listed

Check the listing rendered correctly. Look at your show on each platform. Artwork sharp? Description formatted properly? Episodes in the right order?

Save your feed URL somewhere permanent. It is the single most important string you own. Everything downstream depends on it continuing to resolve.

Never change the feed URL casually. If you move hosts, set up a proper redirect at the old address so directories follow you. Changing it without a redirect orphans every listing you just created — covered in what is a podcast RSS feed.

If something does not appear, work through podcast not showing up on Spotify or Apple before resubmitting. Resubmitting a broken feed produces the same result more slowly.