1-4 weeks. That’s how long we recommend if you are launching a podcast with Resonate and you purchased all the launch assets from us (e.g., music, cover art, audio, and video trailer).

That said, it’s possible to launch a podcast as fast as 5-10 days if you act quickly and already have your concept, cover art, title, show description, and at least 1 episode of audio.

Platforms like Apple Podcasts manually verify each podcast that’s uploaded, so it can take 5-7 business days for your show to go live. Once it’s live, you can post episodes within a few hours.

Learn more and watch a quick video answer here.

Launching a podcast doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are some best practices to do it well. For the majority of new podcasts, we recommend a few critical steps.

First, create your podcast cover art, title, show description, and a 1-3 minute trailer episode. You’ll need all of these items before you can submit your podcast to directories like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and others.

Second, launch your trailer episode 1-2 weeks before the rest of your show goes live. This allows you to get setup in directories, get the official links to your podcast to share with your audience on social media, in emails, and on your website. It also builds anticipation for the upcoming show.

Third, launch with 3 full episodes 1-2 weeks after your trailer goes live. This gives new listeners something to binge when they find your show, and gives you the opportunity to get more downloads and streams to show platforms like Apple and Spotify how popular your show is. Make sure you push traffic to the show in those first few days from social media, email, and any pre-existing channels that you already have an audience (if you do).

Fourth, start publishing new episodes on a consistent cadence. We typically recommend bi-weekly or weekly, but monthly releases are okay too. For a more narrative-style show, you might want to create 8-12 episodes and break your show into distinct seasons.

This is one of the most common questions we get every day.

A podcast host is the person on the microphone, right? In one context, yes. In another context, a podcast hosting site or podcast hosting platform is a service that stores the audio files, cover art, and all metadata (episode names, descriptions, categories, etc) on a server.

The hosting platform generates an RSS feed that is unique to your show. An RSS feed is an XML file stored on a server that allows podcast directories to scrape your episodes and display them in their listening apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pocketcasts, and many others. Here’s an example of the RSS feed for The Resonate Podcast.

To set up your podcast, you have to submit your RSS feed to each directory (Apple, Spotify, etc) one time, then it will automatically update anytime you upload new episodes in the future. That means you can upload your episodes in one place, and they will get automatically updates in 5, 10, or potentially dozens of listening apps!

If you purchase a launch package from Resonate, we’ll set up your RSS feed and submit it to up to 5 directories, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Audible, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and YouTube!

Because of the way podcasts and RSS feeds work, each podcast platform has a review process which takes a different amount of time to accept and index your show.

• Apple podcasts takes 3-10 days to review and accept your podcast
• Spotify takes a few minutes to 24 hours
• Amazon Music takes 24 hours to 3 days
• Audible takes takes 24 hours to 3 days
• YouTube takes 1-3 days
• iHeart Radio takes up to 14 days

Great podcast cover art follows a few key best practices:

1. Keep it simple: Your artwork should contain the name of your show and any relevant images or logos. Avoid the temptation to add extra words or flashy images that may not be needed.

2. Keep it relevant: Your artwork should reflect the theme or ethos of your show. Use contrasting colors that will help your show stick out and that reflect the emotion you hope your show will communicate.

3. Make it big: Be creative to make the title text fit but make it as large as possible. This American Life is an example of creatively making the title fit on their cover. Many of your potential listeners will be viewing your cover art on the small screen of their mobile device in iTunes, so you want your artwork to be legible and stand out at this small size.

Resonate offers two different music licenses so you can follow copyright law and use engaging music to brand your podcast.

1. Basic Music Rights: Our standard service gives you full right to use music that you license from Resonate as long as you are actively working with us.

2. Custom Music Rights: Our custom music service gives you full rights to use the music forever, even if you no longer actively work with us.

We recommend making your podcast trailer 1-3 minutes long. Much like a movie trailer, your goal should be to get people excited, explain what your show is about and why it exists, and to prepare people for when the show is coming out.