What is a podcast host, first of all?
The intermediary between you and your listeners is a podcast host.
You will keep all of your podcast episodes here, and when you upload your first MP3, it will create your “RSS feed,” which is the link that notifies podcast directories when you have published a new episode.
Please continue reading as I explain the specific information.
Table of Contents
A Platform For Hosting Podcasts Is What?
To store content like images, text, forms, etc., you similarly need a website host., you need a podcast hosting platform to host and store the media files for your show. The servers used by podcast hosting sites are made specifically to store and make large media files available for download and distribution.
The majority of platforms for hosting podcasts include extra tools to expand your audience. Knowing what to look for in a podcast host will make it simple to choose a platform that will satisfy all of your requirements and simplify, rather than complicate, your podcasting experience.
Benefits Of Podcast Hosting Platforms
Robust Analytics
Analytics give you important information about your program that you can use to connect with listeners more effectively and produce content that they will enjoy. If you choose to monetize your show through ad placement, they provide you with useful information about your listeners to help you maximize your profits.
Faster Speed
Any podcast listener will quickly lose interest if it takes too long to download or stream it. (nobody likes buffering!) Podcast hosts make sure that your audience is given the best possible access to your content.
Smoother Data Transfers
Companies that host podcasts have websites made just for storing and transferring podcast data. When you use a podcast host, the latency for transferring your show will be reduced, resulting in a smoother experience for your listeners and less difficulty with downloading or streaming your audio.
No Compromise in Quality
If you decide to use a podcast host instead of hosting your content on your own website, you won’t have to worry about compressing your audio and lowering its quality. Just be sure to select a hosting plan based on the size of your audio and video files to meet your needs.
Repurpose Your Content
You can repost your content for wider online use if a podcast host provides transcription services. Transcripts can be used in advertising campaigns, blog posts, and social media posts on websites like Facebook and Twitter to promote your podcast.
Why Do You Need Hosting For Podcasts?
A lot of media files are produced when you record a podcast, and you’ll need to share them online with your listeners. If you’re tech savvy, you could build a website to host and distribute those media files. However, the majority of web hosts lack the storage and bandwidth resources required for large audio and video files. Using your own website might result in a poor user experience with problems like slow load times or even page crashes.
Use a podcast hosting service to publish your podcast online for the best results. A podcast hosting website offers plenty of storage space so you can keep your files there for however long you like. For people to find your show and tune in, many platforms will even help with distribution.
What Other Products And Services Does Podcast Media Hosting Offer?
A podcast host can help you out in a lot of different ways. Since the development and upkeep of each functionality is obviously expensive, each podcast hosting site offers a slightly different set of services.
Generally speaking, podcast hosting aims to give you:
- Analytics – good analytics functionality is crucial for you to understand your audience better. Use analytics and develop your own dashboard to track your show’s performance – here is a list of 55 podcast performance metrics,
- CDN – already mentioned content distribution network serves its purpose. It is a physical copy of your files stored in a different place. Additionally, it reduces the physical distance between the listeners’ location and the data center where your files are stored. Downloads can proceed more quickly the closer the distance. For global audiences, it is especially crucial.
- Support – eventually, everything breaks, so it is important for your podcast hosting to provide quality and accessible tech support.
- Monetization – if you are unsure how to monetize your show podcast hostings work to provide you different solutions, you can start making money podcasting. The most common solutions include automatic ad insertion, sponsor access, donation functionality, and affiliate offer access.
- Player – most podcast hostings work to deliver you a good player. A player is essential so you can embed it on your website for simple and quick access to your content.
You can get the following secondary features from podcast hosting services:
- Hosting of video files – if you choose to have also podcast in video format,
- Private feeds – each user can get a dedicated feed so you can build a private show for an exclusive audience,
- Free website – I recommend you to have your own podcasting website, but you can host a website to promote your show with your podcast hosting,
- Alexa integration – as more and more people listen to podcasts using smart speakers this functionality may become more important and valuable in the future,
- Transcripts – transcripts are a great way for Google will locate your show and list it in the search results. Transcripts are a powerful way to monetize your content.
How Do Podcast Hosting Services Send Your Files To Apple Podcasts And Spotify?
The content of your RSS feed is read by directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, which then display information about each of your episodes. As I’ve already mentioned.
You must however instruct your hosting where to send an updated RSS feed in order for this communication between a directory and podcast hosting to function.
There are only a few simple steps involved in this:
- Register – You need to register your show at directories that require verification,
- Add show details – Fill in all of your show details, including description,
- Add the first audio file to your hosting – in many cases, accounts will be verified manually, and this audio file will be listened to. A trailer can be submitted. It is not required to be a finished item. After approval, this audio file won’t immediately go live.
- Update RSS – add the RSS details in your directory,
- Update account details – add the account info in your hosting panel so your podcast hosting will know where to send the updates.
Pro Tip 1:
When launching your show, keep in mind that directories may require a few weeks to approve a new show (they typically do it within days, but there is no guarantee). Send in your show early so it can be approved before its scheduled debut.
Pro Tip 2:
Always start with Apple Podcasts. Many directories, such as Overcast or Pocket Casts, merely extract the information from Apple Podcasts’ backend. The entire web is searched for new podcasts by other major directories like Listen Notes.
Is there any way I can run my own podcast?
Of course, there are ways to do it on your own technically.
You could do it yourself, but:
Setting up your own Podcast Hosting might be very expensive
Large podcast hosting services benefit from scale because they can purchase data center services (storage and bandwidth) in bulk and bargain for lower prices. On Amazon AWS (or any other cloud provider), for instance, you could set up and configure your own hosting. But in the end, you would pay much more than you could with what major providers offer for under $25 per month.
It may require a lot of technical skills
A lot of technical knowledge is needed to configure your own podcast hosting. I do not advise you to follow this path unless you are an experienced developer and IT administrator.
This setup could be time-consuming
In addition to the setup time, you will be responsible for all of the troubleshooting. Both time and a lot of skills will be needed to complete this. You should use this time to create engaging content for your listeners. See more about Where Is Facebook Timeline?
How Do Hosts Of Podcasts Make Money?
There are only a few ways for podcast hosts to generate income:
- To use the main service of storing and serving your file, you must pay a monthly subscription fee. Usually, there are tiers of this core service, starting for as low as $5 up to hundreds of dollars,
- Some providers of podcast hosting that offer an unlimited plan charge you extra for extras:
- Private podcast,
- Advanced analytics,
- Removing the file size restriction.
- Shared revenue from your monetization:
- Splitting revenue from ads (industry standard is 70/30 in podcasters favor),
- commission on gifts, etc.
Which Podcast Hosts Are The Biggest?
The top 5 sites for hosting podcasts are:
- Anchor – over 410 thousand podcasts,
- SoundCloud – over 105 thousand podcasts,
- libsyn – over 68 thousand podcasts,
- Podbean – over 57 thousand podcasts
- Spreaker – over 47 thousand podcasts
The largest podcast hosting site right now is Anchor.fm.
Anchor’s business model is to provide limitless free hosting in exchange for ad sharing, which is how they hope to generate income. There is a chance that this model will work for Spotify since they purchased them.
Unfortunately, a lot of free podcast hosts have shut down their operations in the past (Opinion Podcasting, Zcat, and Podango, to name a few).
When using free podcast hosting exclusively, I suggest exercising caution. Many times in the past, this model has fallen short. For a really good price, you can find a great managed service.
What Are The Top Hosts For Podcasts?
The top podcast hosting platform is Buzzsprout.
If you’re looking for specifics, I went into great detail in this review and analysis of more than 25 podcast hosting services. To determine their dependability and the caliber of their services, I evaluated them based on 14 different criteria.
How Do Podcast Directories Find Your Show?
There are three things you need for a podcast to make its way to your audience…
- An MP3 file – this is the format you’ll save each episode in so you can upload it to…
- A podcast host – where you upload all your episodes as well as your show description, artwork and any other information that’s displayed in podcast apps.
- RSS Feed – this is what you submit to directories (As soon as a new episode of your podcast is published, it is automatically downloaded to your subscribers’ podcast apps (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify). The term “RSS Feed” sounds like a very technical line of code but it’s really just a URL that looks something like this…
Choose The Host That’s Right For You
If you’re just getting started, you can’t do it alone without a podcast host, so do your research and choose the one you like best. You will be in good hands if you follow any of the aforementioned advice because you will be using platforms that thousands of podcasters have tried and tested.
Whichever one you select should have support pages and setup guides that walk you through every step of the process.
You can find your analytics on the dashboard of your podcast host, where you can also see how many people are listening to your show and where they are coming from.
This data is crucial because you’ll need it if you ever want to bring advertisers into your podcast in addition to the fact that it’s nice to know how many people are listening to your show.
The Bottom Line
Although choosing a host is ultimately up to you, one thing I’d advise with regard to free podcast hosts is to make sure you read the T&Cs in full because, if you’re not paying with cash, you want to make sure you’re not paying with something else, such as. your content.
In the past, there have been issues with free podcast hosts refusing to allow users to move older episodes of their show to another host or changing show notes without their consent.
No matter where you host your podcast, you must have total control over the content because it is your intellectual property and shouldn’t be tampered with.
Share this article if you liked it and let us know what you think in the comments section below!