How to submit a podcast to Apple Podcasts

To submit a podcast to Apple Podcasts, open Apple Podcasts Connect, click the Add button, select New Show, then choose Add a show with an RSS feed. Paste the feed URL from your host, click Add, and work through the Show Information, Content Rights, contact and Availability settings before you save and publish. Apple validates the feed first, then reviews the content separately.

Apple's submit a show documentation sets out both routes: adding a show with an RSS feed hosted elsewhere, or creating one directly in Apple Podcasts Connect without a feed. If your audio already lives with Buzzsprout, Transistor, Megaphone, Captivate, Castos or any other host, the RSS route is the one you want.

How to submit a podcast to Apple Podcasts

1. Sign in to Apple Podcasts Connect and click the Add (+) button, then select New Show.
2. Select Add a show with an RSS feed.
3. Enter the RSS feed URL, choose whether to restrict access to the show for other users on your account, then click Add.
4. Review your show details on the Show Information page.
5. Set the Content Rights and confirm your show has rights to any third-party content it contains.
6. Provide contact information so Apple can reach someone if there is an issue.
7. Open Availability on the left. Choose the countries or regions, whether the feed is publicly available, your transcript preference, whether the show releases right away, and the show claiming permissions.
8. Add subscription details if you are running Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.
9. Click Save, then publish the show.

Apple states that the feed "will be validated before it's sent to Apple," and that shows must pass both technical validations and a review process.

Fix the feed before you submit, not the form

Apple documents that the show metadata in your RSS feed overrides any show metadata you entered in Apple Podcasts Connect. Typing a better description into Apple's form and leaving the feed untouched achieves nothing once the feed is read again.

So the sequence is: correct everything at your host, confirm the live feed carries the change, then submit. That includes the title, the author, the description, the category and the artwork.

What Apple's validation actually checks

Apple's validation documentation describes a technical evaluation that confirms your feed meets the technical requirements, contains the required tags, and includes show cover art and episode media files.

The requirements it names include:

Most hosts produce all of this without you touching anything, which is the main argument for using a host rather than hand-building a feed. If you do maintain your own feed, the byte-range requirement is the one people miss, because a server that refuses range requests will break seeking as well as validation.

Apple is explicit that the two checks are separate: "Passing validation doesn't necessarily mean your podcast will be approved. All content must comply with our content guidelines."

Track the status instead of guessing

Apple does not publish a review time, so watch the status rather than a calendar. Its status documentation lists what each state means, including Draft ("Your show hasn't been published"), Ready for Release ("Your show is approved and ready but not yet available on Apple Podcasts"), Show Published ("Your show was approved"), and Removed (Issue Found) ("There is an issue with your show and it's not available on Apple Podcasts").

Ready for Release means the approval already went through and the show is waiting on a release setting you control. If you see that state and assume you are still in review, you can sit on an approved show for days. Check the Availability panel instead.

After the show is published

Apple Podcasts Connect gives you Apple's own reporting: plays, listeners, engaged listeners and consumption, each with its own definition. Our Apple podcast analytics explained walkthrough covers what each one counts and which should change a decision.

Those figures will not match your host's downloads, because Apple measures playback inside its own app while your host measures requests for the audio file. Read podcast downloads vs listens and what is a podcast download? for the distinction, then keep each source on its own line in your reporting.

For one view of delivery across Apple Podcasts, Spotify and everywhere else, add a tracking prefix at your host. Our how to track podcast analytics guide covers how platform reporting and prefix reporting fit together.

Start tracking your show with Podder and see your Apple Podcasts audience alongside every other app in one place.