How to create an episode

You must have at least one episode for your show to be available on Apple Podcasts.

• If your show is hosted on an RSS feed, episodes can be an audio recording, video recording, or text documents in M4A, MP3, MOV, MP4, M4V, or PDF file formats. While we accept both audio and video file types, long-form audio is significantly more popular than video. Streaming is an increasingly popular way to listen to podcasts and these smaller-sized audio files won’t drain your listeners’ mobile data plans. Even if the primary source recording is video, it may be worth the effort to convert it to audio.
• If you’re offering subscription benefits and your hosting provider doesn’t support subscriptions, you’ll create an episode in Apple Podcasts Connect. MP3, WAV, and FLAC file formats are accepted.

Learn more about audio file requirements for RSS feeds and Apple Podcasts Connect.

Episode types

Apple Podcasts supports three different episode types:

• Full: The complete content of your show.
• Bonus: Extra content for your show (for example, behind-the-scenes information or interviews with the cast) or cross-promotional content for another show. Bonus episodes can be available to anyone or only to paid subscribers.
• Trailer: A short, promotional piece of content that represents a preview of your current show.

Tip: Consider creating a one- to two-minute trailer episode for your new podcast to pique interest by introducing the themes of your show and sample interviews.

Create an episode via RSS feed

If a third-party hosting provider manages your RSS feed, you’ll add your episode content on their platform directly. If they support Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, you can publish subscriber audio through your hosting provider as well.

Important: Episodes created from an RSS feed cannot be updated on Apple Podcasts Connect. Please work with your third-party hosting provider when making updates to your episodes.

Episodes must include title and enclosure tags. We recommend adding additional tags that further define your podcast’s episodes, such as the episode type, episode number, and release date.

Learn more about recommended tags for podcast episodes

Create an episode in Apple Podcasts Connect

If you participate in the Apple Podcasters Program, and your hosting provider doesn’t support Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, you will submit subscriber audio through Apple Podcasts Connect. You can save your episode at any time and come back later to finish adding show details or audio content.

1. From Apple Podcasts Connect, select the show you’re adding an episode to.
2. Select Episodes.
3. Click the Add (+) button.
4. Enter a name for your episode.
5. Add all relevant metadata:
   • Name: An episode title. You can enter up to 150 characters.
   • Art: You can upload a 3000 x 3000 pixel image for your episode.
   • Description: One or more sentences describing your episode to potential listeners. You can enter up to 4000 characters.
   • Episode Type: Indicates whether it’s a full, bonus, or trailer episode.
   • Original Release Date: The date and time when an episode was originally released. This field doesn’t manage the availability of the episode, only the sort order of your episodes on Apple Podcasts.
   • Explicit Content: Indicate the presence of explicit content. Apple Podcasts will display an explicit content warning for your episode. Learn more about content restrictions.
   • Season Number: The episode season number.
   • Episode Number: Episode numbers are optional and encouraged for episodic shows but mandatory for serial shows. Decimals are not supported.
   • Episode Website: A website for your episode.
6. In Audio and Transcripts, select Add Subscriber Audio.
7. Select when you want to make the episode available on Apple Podcasts. Episodes become available at midnight in the time zone of the user who sets up the episode availability.
8. Choose whether the episode should be restricted to paid subscribers for a range of time or always restricted, or if it should be available to everyone.
9. Choose an audio file to upload and click Upload. Your audio file must meet our requirements and pass our validations.
10. Based on the settings you entered when you set up your show, Apple will generate a transcript or process one that was provided through your RSS feed. For subscriber episodes, you may be required to upload a VTT or SRT transcript file. You can also update the setting for this specific episode. Learn more about transcripts.
11. Click Save.
12. Click Publish after audio processing has completed.

Important: The episode will display a Published status, however, the content is not available on Apple Podcasts until your show has been published and reviewed.