Similar to website hosting, a podcast hosting platform is a software company that hosts the audio files of your podcast on a server, generates an RSS feed that points directories to those files, and allows you to easily publish your show across all podcast directories like Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, and many others.

An RSS feed is an XML file that is stored on a server, which podcast listening apps use to automatically update their directory with new episodes. The RSS feed includes the titles, episodes, links to the audio files which are hosted on a server that the podcast hosting platform owns, and additional metadata like categories and show email, in a machine-readable format.

Here are a few example of RSS feeds from popular shows:

• The Daily (hosted by Simplecast)
• Resonate Podcast (hosted by us, Resonate Recordings)

There are dozens of podcast hosting platforms to choose from. To learn more, read Resonate’s in-depth blog on the best podcast hosting platforms.

Want to do all your podcast production and hosting in one place? Start a free 14-day trial of Resonate hosting by clicking the link above on this page!

A podcast microsite is exactly what it sounds like: A mini website for your podcast that is automatically generated by your podcast hosting platform. Resonate’s microsites automatically update whenever you post new episodes, are customized to show your cover art and description, and include links to help listeners find your podcast on all the major listening apps. For example, here’s the podcast microsite for the podcast Be You with BU.

Resonate hosting offers a beautiful, high-level perspective on your podcast’s performance. With Resonate, you can see analytics in the same app you use to manage your podcast production.

You’ll see:

• Daily Downloads
• Total downloads
• Top Episodes (by Total Downloads)
• Podcast player (where your audience is listening)
• % played in embed player
• Detailed embed player engagement

To learn more, read this in-depth guide to Resonate hosting analytics.

Here’s an example of Resonate’s podcast embed player below:

A podcast embed player is, like it sounds, and audio player that you can embed onto your podcast website. There are two main types of embed players: Episodes embeds and Podcast embeds. Episode embeds only display and play back the audio for a single episode. Podcast embeds show all your episodes, and let listeners choose any of them to play back.

The Resonate player lets you embed audio directly into your podcast’s blog episode page on your website, along with your show notes, transcriptions, and any other custom content you create. Then, as listeners read about the episode they can play the audio as well. The benefit for you is that you’ll get highly detailed analytics within the Resonate app like how much they listened to, where they skipped back or forward, and more!

Short answer: as many apps as you want!

Resonate hosting gives you an RSS feed that stores all the data for your podcast. You can submit that RSS feed to as many podcast directories as you like. You just have to submit it once, and after it’s approved any future episodes will go live from Resonate to all platforms that have your RSS feed in their system.

We recommend submitting your podcast to:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Amazon Music & Audible
• iHeart Radio

If you want to go even further, you could submit it to all the apps listed in the complete podcast directory list on our blog.