When setting up your show, you must enter key information in the Podcast Settings form, like your show's title, description, categories, and more. The sections below describe all of the available fields, and what kind of information you should enter to make sure your show will appear in all of your publishing destinations the way you expect it to.
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Note The information you enter in the fields below will form part of your RSS feed and will also be used as the starting point for publications to podcast directories, websites, or social media sites. However, when you set up your publication destinations, you can customize some information to be different. For example, if you want the description for your show to be different on Spotify than in other directories, you can update that field when you set up your connection to Spotify. |
Title
Enter the title of your show. The show title appears everywhere that you publish, including your feed, in podcast directories, on your Libsyn blog page, on your media player, and more.
If you ever decide to change your show title, just update this field and the change will be reflected everywhere.
Description
Your show description is meant to explain what your show is about and get your audience excited to subscribe to it. The description should only be a few sentences long.
The description appears in podcast directories, as well as on your Libsyn blog page, the Libsyn Podcast Directory, and other places you publish your show. Note that it isn't searchable in Apple Podcasts, and it should not include a list of keywords.
Category One and Two
Most podcast directories organize podcasts by category so that listeners can find podcasts by the topics they are interested in. You are required to enter at least one category. However, if your show falls into more than one, you can enter two.
Category One is the most important because it will be the main way your show is categorized. However, if you enter a second category, your show will appear under that one as well.
Owner Name
Enter the name of the person or entity who owns the show. The person or entity whose name you enter should be authorized to make or request changes on the show's behalf.
Owner Email
Enter the email of the person who you entered in the Owner Name field. The person who receives emails at the address you enter should be able to answer questions about the show and be authorized to make decisions about it.
Usually, this email address is used by podcast directories in case they ever need to contact you about your show. For that reason, it's important that you enter an email address that the owner checks somewhat regularly. However, this email will be publicly available in your RSS feed, so don't enter an email that you prefer to keep private.
Author
Enter the name or names of the person or people who run the podcast and appear in each episode. Or, you can also enter the company that produces (and therefore "owns") the podcast.
Authors are searchable in many podcast directories, including Apple Podcasts. Although it is a good idea to enter names that listeners will search for to increase your show's visibility, you need to enter valid information in this field. If you enter names that are not actually associated with your podcast, or information that resembles spam, Apple Podcasts will pull your show from their store.
If you leave the field blank, some directories, including Apple Podcasts, will list the author as "unknown."
This field is also sometimes referred to as "provider" or "artist" in certain directories.
Website URL
Your website URL is a place you manage where you can make all of your show's episodes available to your audience, as well as other information about yourself and your show. The URL gets sent to your RSS feed, which some directories — like Apple Podcasts — pick up and make available to your listeners.
Libsyn automatically enters your Libsyn blog page into this field when your show is created. However, you can enter a different URL (or update it later) if you want to use a different site, like your own website or one that's hosted elsewhere.
Release Frequency
This lets your listeners know how often you plan to update your show with new episodes. By default, this field will show No Set Schedule, but you can select a different option to indicate whether you expect to release an episode daily, weekly, etc.
You can also select Serial Show (Complete) to indicate that all episodes of a serial show have been published and no additional episodes are expected. (If you select this option, your show page on Apple Podcasts will display "Complete Series" next to the category and the first season by default.)
Third Party Content
If your show includes content created by someone else, you must have all the necessary rights to use that content in your podcast under the laws of each country or region in which your show is available.
Choose either No Third Party Content or Has Rights to Third Party Content.
No Third Party Content: Your show does not have any content that was created by someone else.
Has Rights to Third Party Content: Your show has content that was created by someone else and you have the rights to use it.
Type
Choose either Episodic or Serial.
Episodic: this term refers to a podcast that releases episodes over time, but the order in which your audience listens to those episodes doesn't matter. Most podcasts are episodic.
Serial: this term refers to a podcast that releases podcasts in a certain order, and audiences must listen to them in that order. Usually, a serial podcast follows a storyline, like true-crime podcasts, which you must listen to in a certain order or you won't be able to follow the story.
Explicit
Use the Explicit field to specify whether your show is clean or explicit.
Your show's rating is important for establishing parental controls. Also, keep in mind that some countries do not permit explicit content, so marking your show explicit might result in your show becoming unavailable to listeners in those countries.
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Note Not sure whether your show is clean or explicit? Explicit can mean a show uses language that is inappropriate for young listeners (such as some famous “four-letter words”), but it can also mean that the subject matter is inappropriate even if the language is “clean.” If you’re not sure whether your subject matter qualifies as explicit, conduct the following thought experiment: “If I were a parent of young children, would I be comfortable with them listening to this episode?” |
Language
Select the language that is used in most of the episodes of your show.
Episode Display Limit
This field displays the number of episodes available on podcast directories for your show. By default, the limit is 300, but you can change it. For example, if you enter 100, but you have 150 episodes, podcast apps will only list the 100 most recent episodes for your show. If you want to list all of your episodes with no limit, enter 0.
Copyright
Enter a copyright notice and the current year with the copyright symbol (such as © 2022) to indicate that your content is under copyright protection. If you include the year, remember to update it when necessary.
Apple Ownership Token
If you already have a show on Apple Podcasts but it's not in your Apple Podcasts Connect account, you can claim your existing show by generating a token in your Apple Podcasts Connect account and then entering the token in this field.
Feed Unlocked/Feed Locked
Click the Feed Unlocked toggle to lock your RSS feed. When you click the Feed Unlocked toggle, it changes to Feed Locked.
When you lock your feed, a "feed locked" tag appears on your RSS feed. When other hosts see that tag, they will block attempts to import your feed from its current location. This feature is useful to prevent someone from taking your RSS feed (which is publicly available) and importing it to another host to try to make money on your show without you knowing about it.
When you lock your feed, other hosts won't allow anyone to import it, including you. If you lock your feed and ever want to import it to another host, remember to unlock it first by clicking the toggle again.
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Important Locking your feed prevents it from being imported to many podcast hosts, but there are some hosts that don't use the feed lock feature. This feature gives you some protection, but it won't work with hosts that don't read the "feed locked" tag. |
Include in Directory
When this checkbox selected, your show is added to the Libsyn Directory for listeners to find. Deselect this checkbox if you do not want your show to be added to the Libsyn Directory.